Tier 1 Backlinks for SEO (Tier 1 Link Building Guide)

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In this article, you’ll learn all about tier 1 backlinks for SEO.

Not only will you understand the definition of tier 1 backlinks, but you’ll also get a set of examples for first-tier backlinks, an explanation of why they’re important for SEO, and a list of tier 1 link building resources you can use to acquire more of these high authority backlinks for your website.

The ultimate goal here is to help you understand what tier 1 backlinks are and how they fit into a link pyramid system for off-page search engine optimization to help your website rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPS).

Tier 1 backlinks

What Are Tier 1 Backlinks?

Tier 1 backlinks are links you earn or build directly to your website. First-tier backlinks are considered the most authoritative links for your site because they pass the highest link equity for SEO.

Tier 1 Backlink Examples

  • Editorial links on high domain authority sites.
  • Guest post contextual backlinks on high page authority blog posts.
  • .EDU backlinks from colleges and universities.
  • .GOV backlinks from local, state, and federal government sites.
  • Resource page links.
  • High quality web 2.0 backlinks.
  • Citation links.

Why Are Tier 1 Backlinks Important?

Tier 1 backlinks are important because they have a direct effect on your website’s search engine rankings by increasing your PageRank scores for SEO. Search engine algorithms use tier 1 backlinks to measure the importance and quality of your content for indexing and ranking in the SERPs.

Tier 1 link building example

Overview of Tier 1 Link Building

In a tiered link building strategy, there are three tiers in the link pyramid:

Tier 1 backlinks point directly to the main website. Tier 2 backlinks point to the tier 1 links. And tier 3 backlinks point to the tier 2 links. Hence the idea of a link pyramid.

The main goal of tier 1 link building is to increase the overall domain authority of your website by pointing links to the homepage or to boost the page authority score for individual URLs to help them rank higher in the SERPs.

First-tier backlinks are the most important links in a tiered link building system because they point directly to your website. Second-tier links, for example, do not have a direct connection to the main website but rather point to the tier 1 backlink pages to help increase their PageRank values for SEO.

Therefore, tier 1 backlinks should be the highest quality links you get for your website so you can pass the most link equity through these backlinks to increase the PageRank value for the target URL or main domain.

When you’re building first-tier backlinks, you should focus on quality, relevance, and context for each link you acquire for your website. Tier 1 backlinks should also be dofollow backlinks because they transfer the most link equity for SEO.

In a link pyramid that uses tiered backlinks, it’s better to have fewer high-quality tier 1 links pointing to your main website than it is to have numerous lower-quality backlinks at the first-tier level. Again, the quality, relevance, and context of those tier 1 backlinks are very important in the first stage of the link building pyramid.

Tier 1 Backlinks Summary

I hope you enjoyed this guide on tier 1 backlinks.

As you discovered, tier 1 link building is the most important stage of a link pyramid because it contains links that point directly to your main website. These first-tier backlinks also have the most authority because they pass the highest link equity for SEO. Therefore, you should do everything you can to acquire the best tier 1 backlinks you can to improve the PageRank scores for your entire domain.