Case from the Tier1.shop collection · 2026 · ← all cases
Result in brief: 📈 continuation of case 35: the client has been working with us for two years and has reached 344 links. Organic traffic — from ~2 to 6.5 thousand visits/month (×3.2; peaking in March 2026 at 10 thousand, ×5) according to Semrush; according to Ahrefs — from ~8.5 to 12.6 thousand visits/month (peak 23.4 thousand; weekly measurements). Keywords in top-3 — 2.5 times more.
📅 Placement period: 16.05.24 → 18.06.26 (batches in 22 out of 25 months)
⚙️ Nature: regular batches with acceleration from 5–11 to 60 links/month, to the home page and 82 internal sections, 248 unique anchor texts
💰 Costs*: 1 190 000 ₽ (251 permanent links from PBN home pages + 93 links from PBN home pages for 1 year)
Starting point
Catering company in Moscow: delivery of buffets, canapés, tartlets. They came to us in May 2024: the site was holding at ~1.8–2.3 thousand organic visits/month (Semrush, Russia) without pronounced growth. In December 2025, we already published case 35 about this client — there were 126 links then. The client continued, and now the full picture of two years can be shown.
What was done
Regular batches of links from PBN homepages with gradual acceleration: 5–11 links per month in 2024 → 20/month from spring 2025 → 30–60/month in autumn-winter 2025. Out of 344 anchor texts, 248 are unique. It is interesting how the anchor strategy changed over time — it went through three phases:
- 2024 — targeted intent (43 links). The first batches went almost entirely to key catalog sections with commercial intent anchor texts ("order canapés for the office", "catering on order"): ~20 sections, with single links to the homepage, and no naked URLs at all.
- First half of 2025 — homepage and profile naturalness (63 links). Along with the volume acceleration up to 20/month, the client on their own initiative strengthened the homepage: 33 links to it, most of which were naked URLs and branded ("here", "there", company name). His reasoning is clear: real sites are more often linked to the homepage in this way, without key phrases, making the profile look natural.
- Second half of 2025 — 2026 — broad catalog coverage (238 links). The largest batches were spread across the maximum number of sections: in December 2025, 60 links went to 49 different pages. Anchor texts were intent-based again, as the naked URL "cushion" for the homepage had already been built (result: 51 out of 66 homepage links are naked/branded).
Dynamics by Semrush (monthly data, Russia)
📈 From ~2 thousand visits/month before the start to a peak of 10 045 in March 2026 (×5) and 6 457 now (×3.2 — after the spring update, mentioned below). This is not seasonality: July to July traffic went 2 425 (2024) → 6 542 (2025) → 6 457 (2026) — growth is maintained year-over-year (Semrush data, Tier1.shop calculation).
📈 The number of keywords in the top-3 increased 2.5–3 times: 64 before the start → 210 at peak → 158 now. In top-4–10 — from ~200 to 458 at peak.
Dynamics by Ahrefs (weekly data)
Ahrefs shows the same story in weekly resolution (values are estimated visits per month, weekly measurements): ~8.5 thousand/month at start, wave-like growth to a peak of 23 450 in late December 2025 (×2.7) and a rollback to 12.6 thousand after the spring update of 2026 — this is still +48% from the start, and recovery is underway (+19% from the April bottom over three months).
Honestly about the update: the rollback is the March Google core update (officially confirmed, rolled out from March 27 to April 8, 2026), and it cut the peak nearly in half — this is visible on both services. That this is not a property of a specific site is evident by the synchronicity: on the same days, other our clients with completely different link profiles also dropped. Over two years, the site went through several updates: some waves strengthened the growth, this one rolled it back. The link foundation is still there — traffic is still manifold higher than the starting point, and the curve is looking up again.
Breakdown by target pages
Daily Ahrefs data for the largest acceptor sections (names are by topic, paths are hidden along with the domain):
It is telling that the sections responded differently:
- 📈 "Canapés" (25 links): for a year it held at ~850–1000 visits/month (Ahrefs estimate), and from summer 2025 — when monthly volumes grew to 20–30 links — it accelerated to a peak of 6 065 (×7 at the moment, ×3.3 sustainably).
- 📈 "Buffet sets" (22 links): sharp breakthrough in July 2025 — from 1.9 to 3.8 thousand visits/month in one month, then up to 4 949 at the peak.
- "Mini-burgers" (19 links): more modest — from ~100–150 to a peak of 325, currently ~160. There is a plus, but not a multiple increase.
- "Catering" hub section (28 links): NO pronounced effect — traffic fluctuates within the noise corridor for both years. Meanwhile, everything is fine with the page itself: it returns 200, is in the index, and has had positions for both years — but its own traffic remained low. Probable reason (assumption): the key intent "catering in Moscow" is assigned to the site's home page by search engines — it received the main link weight, while the eponymous section remained in its shadow. We show this honestly: even with the largest number of links, a page may not grow if its queries are already held by another page of the site.
The role of anchor text
Here the strategy differed from case 40: the home page and the sections have different roles. Naked links and anchor repetitions were definitely a conscious initiative of the client: 51 out of 66 links to the home page are "here", "there" and the company name, and repetitions are concentrated there. The calculation works: for a domain "business card", such a profile looks natural, anchor precision is not needed there. Commercial intent anchors with entity and geo were sent to internal sections — "order canapés to the office", "buffet on order", "catering in moscow", — and the sections that took off received exactly those (Tier1.shop observations).
Conclusions from the case: what is visible over a two-year horizon
Guidelines from this case, not guarantees — but a two-year horizon makes them more reliable than short-term observations.
About volume and regularity:
- Batches were sent 22 months out of 25. While the volume was 5–11 links/month (2024) — the site grew, but modestly: from 2 to ~3.6 thousand over six months. When the volume was increased to 20–60/month (summer-winter 2025) — the steepest section began: from 4.7 to 10 thousand. The correlation between volume and growth rate on this site is readable directly on the graph with the batches.
- This is cumulative work: every batch of permanent links remains in the foundation. We cannot compare it with a one-time large batch — such a scenario did not occur.
About pages and anchors:
- Active product sections of the catalog ("canapés", "buffet sets") with intent anchors gave multiple growth; the hub section did not respond despite the maximum number of links — not all pages react, therefore distribution across many sections reduces the risk of "investing everything into an unresponsive point".
- Role separation works: brand and non-anchor links for the homepage, intent+entity+geo for sections.
About the horizon and updates:
- Over a two-year distance, the site went through several Google updates. The spring 2026 update cut the peak nearly in half — and this is a normal part of the picture: even after the rollback, traffic is manifold higher than the starting point, and recovery began within a quarter.
- Long-term work is also a defense: a site with a built-up link foundation rolled back to a level of "×3 from start," not to zero.
Verifiability
The graphs above are built from service exports. Screenshots of the interfaces themselves as of 16.07.2026 — the client's domain is hidden per our privacy policy:
Numbers in the interfaces may differ slightly from the graphs: services continuously recalculate estimates, Ahrefs counts on a weekly grid and all locations, Semrush — on a monthly and Russian database. The direction and scale of changes coincide.
How we measured
Two independent sources: Semrush (monthly dynamics, "Russia" database) and Ahrefs (weekly domain dynamics and daily for sections, all locations). Placement window — from the first link (16.05.24) to the last batch (18.06.26). Seasonality was checked year-over-year for the same months. All figures are estimates from analytics services, not client counter data.
Honestly: in parallel, the client developed the site and the assortment — links from homepages are part of the overall result here, not the sole factor. Breaking down the contribution by percentages would be speculation.
Sources: dates and confirmation of March 2026 Core Update — Google Search Status Dashboard, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Roundtable.
Position and traffic dynamics are individual and not guaranteed; we guarantee indexing and link preservation. * Costs — at the time of orders, current prices in tariffs.
Want the same — place links from home pages: donor selection, tier-2, guarantees included in the price. Questions — @tier1shopsupport_bot.
