What Is Link Pyramid and How to Use It?

When you search Google for what a link pyramid is and whether it’s worth using, it’s not hard to find statements like “I wouldn’t invest in a link pyramid without a time machine” or “it’s time to stop thinking in 2D – Google already thinks in 3D!”. Despite this, the internet abounds in offers that assure you of the pyramid’s extraordinary effectiveness, encourage you to place orders, and promise up to 3,000 blog comments with a link, 210 posts on bookmarking sites, 600 articles on Wikipedia, and 10 articles on 10 WordPress sites. All these for $20. Sounds like an abstract idea? Quite rightly! So,what is a link pyramid in white hat SEO in 2022, and what makes it different from traditional schemes that were popular more than a decade ago?

What Is a Link Pyramid?

Link pyramid SEO is a strategy based on building a multi-level link chain. The most important rule in this link building strategy is proper prioritization of links. You should focus on dividing the backlinks into groups. From the most valuable and difficult to acquire, through medium ones, to the least demanding, but the most numerous. The lower the level of the pyramid, the lower the quality of links and the greater their quantity. This can be the biggest problem for those who want to conduct their link building according to the latest trends and good SEO practices. However, we can assure you that it’s possible to combine all this! (You’ll learn how to do that in a moment.)

What Is a Link Pyramid Today?

Remember that this is a link-building strategy, not a one-off action. This means that you can have a number of links at each level of the link pyramid, rather than one, two, or three backlinks. There is no clear-cut answer to the question “how many pyramids of links should you have?”. We don’t recommend buying ultra attractive packages “link pyramids – 1000 links for 10 USD” as this solution is quite far from modern, white hat SEO practices focused on the natural growth of links and high quality of created content. The link pyramid structure itself is useful and you can combine this method with other strategies! See the effects of similar activities performed for one of our clients – below you can see data from Notino case study!

What Does a Link Pyramid Look Like?

• It has several levels of links, usually about 3;
• Its design helps to transfer maximum power to the page you do SEO for;
• The lower the level, the more links;
• The most valuable links (leading directly to the page you do SEO for) are at the top of the pyramid, lower quality links are at its base;

Levels of the Link Pyramid

Level 1 – links leading to the page These are the most important links that directly affect the position of a website you do SEO for. The purpose of the link pyramid is to boost these links. You should make sure that obtained backlinks are particularly valuable and safe for the page. In the beginning, the pyramid may include only a few links but they should be of high quality for Google.

Level 2 – High and medium-quality links leading to links from the first level These are the links that will help you boost the power of the most valuable links in the pyramid. At this stage, it’s worth taking care of social media which can naturally improve the performance of the first group of links. Use all domains with average DA, and complement the links with both long and short forms of content. There should be about 5-10 times more links in this section than in the previous one.

Level 3 – lower quality links leading to links from the second level What is the third level of a link pyramid? This is where more links come into play. You should transfer their power to links from the second level. There should be about 5 times more of them than in the previous group of links. You don’t need to pay so much attention to the content here. It’s important to create and maintain the links, even if these are profiles with 1-2 sentences.

Tip: If you’re having a hard time trying to find websites where you can acquire backlinks, remember about the competitive analysis and possibilities offered by SEO tools such as Ahrefs which makes link building easier!

Pyramid Link Building Step-By-Step

1. Start at the top – the most important links in the whole process are those leading to the page which positions you want to improve. Their quality is absolutely crucial. Ideally, these should be links placed on the most reputable portals with high Domain Authority. They should be thematically related to your industry. These can be valuable sponsored links.
2. Ready and indexed links from the first level of the pyramid can be used for further link building. Make sure that valuable content is willingly shared and attracts traffic, e.g. through social media shares. The second level of the pyramid can be filled with backlinks from pages with an average Domain Authority.
3. On the third level, benefit from the power of blog comments, valuable and relevant (very important!) forums or profiles.
4. Remember to index all links! You can read more about this in the article describing website indexing in Google.

What Not to Do When Building a Link Pyramid?

• Don’t buy cheap, spammy links, even if you’re looking for links for the third level of the pyramid – it simply doesn’t pay off, even in this scheme;
• Don’t invest in a link pyramid if you don’t know where the links will be placed;
• Don’t treat link pyramids as a recipe for success – it’s still a labor-intensive practice that works only if done correctly;
• Don’t keep adding low-quality links – it doesn’t make sense;
• Don’t follow guidelines created years ago! When searching for information, make sure that the entry wasn’t written in 2010 or 2013;
• Don’t invest too much time in creating third-level links;
• Don’t use automatic link generators, link farms, or Web 2.0 services – these are black hat SEO practices and we suggest you shouldn’t use them!

Is It Worth Creating a Link Pyramid?

Why shouldn’t you simply link to the homepage? Why is it more beneficial to invest in a link pyramid? Why is it a good idea to create links that aren’t of top-notch quality? There are a few reasons:

Pros of Pyramid Link Building

• Even weaker links (of course we’re not talking about spammy links, but simply not as good as those from leading industry portals) boost the power of the best backlinks. Without links from the third level, the ones from the first level won’t be so b.
• Link pyramid is often a safer option than traditional link building. If a link (e.g. a lower quality link) violates Google’s standards or doesn’t work, it won’t affect the position of the target page. Instead, it’ll have an impact on the links from the first or second level of the pyramid. Thus, in the worst-case scenario, your site will lose one link, not long-earned positions.
• Link pyramids help you build your own linking sites – remember that such pages support SEO only if they’ve high parameters. As you know, website quality is bly influenced by internal and external links – there must be more of the first ones. To be able to place links to other sites on your own site, you’ve to properly link them. A link pyramid works great here.
• This structure is relatively easy to implement. It doesn’t require more skills than classic link building – it’s clear and easy to follow;
• If constructed well, it allows for stable and natural growth of website positions. All this without overloading your page with excessive backlinks and risking Google penalties;
• It gives you the opportunity to boost traffic, improve your backlink profile, and strengthen it with affordable links.
• Linking to your own links speeds up their indexing – and as we all know, even the most valuable but unindexed link is worth nothing in Google’s eyes.

Cons of Pyramid Link Building

• A poorly implemented link pyramid can have a negative impact on your page positions – make sure the person you outsource this task to knows what to do.
• Building an advanced link pyramid is a labor-intensive process. Keep this in mind when considering whether to opt for classic linking (all links to a single page) or a pyramid (investing in various links that reinforce those from the first level of the pyramid).
• SEO-wise, it’s rather unprofitable, because you rarely get paid for all the links you create. Nevertheless, it actually improves positions and strengthens first-level links, gives satisfactory results, and improves customer satisfaction.
• Many people believe that building a link pyramid is a nonprofessional, spammy strategy. Although it shouldn’t harm your site (it’s the security aspect), it may burn your budget. As we always stress – sometimes less is better!

Is a Link Pyramid a Good Idea in 2022?

There are many reasons why the answer to the question evokes b feelings in the SEO world. Already in 2015, in one of the entries on Search Engine Land, we could read:

Link schemes aren’t as popular as they used to be, but somehow they’re still floating around. Participating in complex systems like link wheels or link pyramids is a violation of Google’s terms of service. If you’re caught deliberately participating in a link scheme, you won’t just drop a rank or two — you could earn a bona fide Google penalty.

It may seem that forums discussing black hat SEO practices recognize link pyramids as a risky strategy.

Black Hat World, 2013 and 2014

It’s worth mentioning that the entry was commented in a highly ironic way: “wheels and pyramids are out, in 2016 the Link Trapezoid is set to explode!” or “I’ve had great results with my octagon.” However, there is one fundamental question we should ask at this point: what is the link pyramid mentioned there? In fact, it has little in common with the structure we described earlier. Moreover, it doesn’t resemble the scheme used to improve the status of the most valuable links leading to the site you do SEO for. Those pyramids (as well as other black hat SEO strategies) are usually automatically created, and contain artificial links, with spammy content that could be easily detected even by simple Google algorithms.

Link Pyramids in Real-Life: Examples

Obtaining quality external links in the form of a link pyramid may seem not intuitive, however, it’s easier than you think:

1. Let’s imagine that your target website, whose positions and parameters you want to improve, is a zoological website. In the first stage, you’ll need to find a valuable portal about animals. Write to them and cooperate so that they’ll publish your article with a link to the site (in an ideal scenario – with the “dofollow” attribute). As a result, the link should be published on a reputable portal with high DA, trusted by Google.
2. Now, the link from the first level of the pyramid (meaning the link in the article) is your focus. Some things happen naturally. People attracted by the article share it with others. You can place the link to the article on different websites about animals with lower parameters. You can also share the article as a guest blog post on your social media.
3. Here the situation gets a bit more complex as creating the third level of the pyramid requires linking all the above links. This means you should use bookmarking sites, create profiles, use forums, and share them on websites with lower parameters. This way, even though there is only one link leading to your target site, you can transfer the power of many sites and portals to one place.

Link pyramid can bring you even better results than traditional link building. Moreover, it’ll also prevent situations when Google sees such activities as unnatural.

How to Build a Link Pyramid? The Takeaway

1. Start with the most important links, the ones that lead to your landing page. Make sure they’re very valuable, even if means high costs,
2. Create a few second-level links and make sure that they redirect to the backlink from the first level,
3. The third level of the pyramid should include comments, forums, profiles, or bookmarking sites with links to the backlinks from the second level of the pyramid,
4. Remember to index all links.

Sounds complex? Check out our link building offer! We’ll help you choose a link building strategy tailored to your needs.