Powering Up Guest Posts With Tier 2 Links

You spent two weeks pitching, another week writing, and the guest post finally went live on a decent marketing blog. Three months later it has no backlinks, no social shares and Google has only just indexed it. That is how most guest posts end up, and it is the situation Tier 2 was designed for.

Why guest posts often underperform

A guest post usually lands in a blog archive alongside hundreds of other articles. Unless the host promotes it, it gets linked from a category page or two and maybe the homepage for a few days. After that it drifts deeper into the site and becomes harder for crawlers to reach.

The result is a link that exists but carries less weight than it could. A modest set of links pointing at the post can change that by making it easier to crawl and by giving the page its own small backlink profile.

Choose which guest posts to support

Not every guest post deserves Tier 2. Rank your posts by these factors:

1. Relevance of the host site to your business. A post on a fintech blog linking to your accounting software is worth more than one on a general "business tips" site.
2. Where the post links to. Posts linking to your important pages get priority.
3. Indexing status. Unindexed posts gain the most from support.
4. Host site health. If the site's traffic has dropped sharply since publication, think twice before investing more in it.

Pick your top three to five and leave the rest alone for now.

Tier 2 link types that suit guest posts

Because a guest post is a real article on a real site, the links pointing at it should look like what a real article might attract:

• Mentions in your own content elsewhere. If you write on Medium, LinkedIn or a company newsletter archive, referencing your guest post is natural.
• Social shares. Posting the article on your social accounts and in relevant communities helps discovery, even if most of those links are nofollow.
• Contextual Tier 2 articles. Short, relevant posts on other blogs or web 2.0 properties that cite the guest post as a source.
• Q&A and forum answers. Where your guest post genuinely answers a question someone asked, linking to it is fair.
• Curated roundups. Some bloggers publish weekly link roundups and accept suggestions.

Avoid bulk bookmarks and comment spam aimed at someone else's article. It reflects badly on you and the host.

How much is enough

For a single guest post, a small number of good Tier 2 links often does the job, especially if the main goal is indexing. Somewhere between five and twenty is a common range for a post on a moderately strong site; fewer for a post on a large, well-crawled publication. These are practitioner rules of thumb, not tested thresholds.

Build them over two to four weeks, not in an afternoon.

Anchors pointing at a guest post

The anchors should describe the article, not your business. Good options:

• The article's headline or a shortened version
• "This guide on [host site name]"
• The host site's name alone
• The article URL
• A topical phrase related to the article's subject

Using your own money keyword as the anchor for links to someone else's article is a giveaway. More guidance is in anchor text explained.

Keep the host on side

The host site published your post on trust. If it suddenly attracts hundreds of junk backlinks, the editor may remove your link, delete the post or stop accepting your pitches. A few rules:

• Never aim spammy or automated links at a host's article
• Keep volumes modest and quality reasonable
• If the host asks you to stop, stop

A good relationship with an editor can lead to more posts later, which is worth far more than squeezing extra value out of one.

Check the guest post before and after

Record these before you start:

• Is the post indexed?
• What backlinks does it already have?
• Where does your target page rank for its main keywords?

Then check again after six to eight weeks. If the post is now indexed and your target page has improved, the effort was likely worth it. If nothing changed, look at whether the post or the target page has a deeper problem. Measuring tiered campaign results has a tracking setup you can copy.

A short example

A Delhi-based travel agency writes a guest post on a popular family travel blog about planning a Kerala trip with kids. The post links to the agency's Kerala packages page. Six weeks later it is still not indexed.

The agency shares the post on its social channels, references it in its own blog article on monsoon travel, answers two relevant questions on travel forums with a link to it, and adds five short contextual articles over three weeks that cite it as a source. The post is indexed within the month, and the Kerala page starts appearing for more long-tail queries. That is a realistic, modest outcome, and it cost very little.

For writing and placing guest posts in the first place, see our guest posting guide.

A practical starting point

List your live guest posts, check each with a site: search, and pick the one that is both unindexed and most relevant to your business. Plan five to ten Tier 2 links for it over the next three weeks, and note today's date so you can measure the change.