Let’s get something out in the open right off the bat: High-quality, relevant backlinks are great for organic rankings.
But, the problem is that link building can be overwhelming and take up a lot of your resources.
The good news is: You can put your website on the first page of Google without even creating a single backlink.
We’ve probably been made to believe that backlinks are the only path to first-page ranking.
In this post, we’ll tell you how to rank without backlinks, debunking that myth.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
How to Rank Without Backlinks?
Ranking Without Backlinks – Is it Really Possible?
Contrary to what many webmasters would tell you, getting organic traffic to your website isn’t all about backlinks.
Sure, high-quality, relevant backlinks help a lot, but your whole SEO strategy shouldn’t rely on them.
In fact, the quality of your content plays an even bigger role in your organic rankings.
Because you can’t expect to rank if your content is low-quality, even with high-quality backlinks.
Plus, in order to rank organically, your technical and on-page SEO should also be up to the mark.
We’ll be talking about the strategies you can implement right now to boost your organic rankings, without relying on backlinks.
When Should You Try to Rank Without Backlinks?
Nobody can deny that high-quality backlinks are powerful and that they help your organic rankings.
But, there should be a good reason why someone would want to rank without backlinks, right?
So, ask yourself, what is it that made you search the topic, “How to rank without backlinks?” and read this post?
For instance, reaching out to blog owners and asking for a backlink might be overwhelming for you.
Or, maybe you don’t have the time and resources to do guest posting, one of the most important link-building strategies.
But, while that might be the most common reasons, there are more, for instance:
- Your website is still new and you need to build some authority before asking for backlinks
- There’s a lack of high-quality backlinks in your niche
- Your website doesn’t support enough content (e.g., business listings and portfolio sites)
- And, more
Whatever the reason, you might want to work on SEO strategies that don’t require link building.
In the next sections, we’ll be talking about how to rank without backlinks; the questions many webmasters want a detailed answer to.
Let’s talk.
Create Valuable Content
First things first. You can’t afford to ignore the importance of valuable content.
Creating great content should be at the top of your checklist while implementing a ranking strategy.
As far as the hierarchy of importance is concerned, the content of your site will always be above its backlinks.
So, how do you produce valuable content?
The most important thing you want to do with your content is to provide a satisfactory answer to the searcher’s query.
The first step, of course, is to identify your target audience and what they want to know.
That’s why keyword research is so important; it gives you the exact phrases you can talk about.
Once you know the topic, give your visitors the answer they came for right off the bat.
The value of your content is directly proportional to how effectively you answer a visitor’s query.
For instance, let’s say you are trying to rank for the phrase “How to speed up your website?”.
In order to add real value, you’d need to talk about everything that affects a website’s loading speed.
The rule of thumb is: A visitor shouldn’t have to leave your web page to know more about the topic.
They shouldn’t leave your page unsatisfied and craving more content.
You don’t want to send your prospects to your competitors, right?
The best thing is valuable content tends to rank higher in SERPs, attracting more eyeballs to it.
Satisfy User Intent
By satisfying the user’s intent, you are essentially increasing the average time a user stays on your web page.
And, the longer someone stays on your web page, the lower would be your bounce rate.
Bounce rate is an important Google ranking factor, so satisfying user intent can eventually help you rank higher.
Work on Long-Tail Keywords
Finding the right keywords to target is one of the most important skills to have as a content creator.
That’s especially true when you are trying to rank without backlinks.
See, long-tail keywords are phrases that consist of three or more words.
Longer queries are generally less competitive than short-tail or short keywords.
That’s because they typically have a lower number of monthly searches, which tends to keep the big brands away.
Moreover, contrary to what it may look like, long-tail keywords have a much higher volume than short-tail ones when combined.
Here’s a quick supporting stat: 92% of all keywords are long-tail.
Plus, long-tail keywords are more targeted, too.
For instance, let’s compare the following two keywords:
- Apple
- Apple iPhone 12 price
Which one do you think is more targeted?
The second one, of course.
If someone is searching for “Apple”, they could be looking for general information about the company.
Your target audience in that case is broad but not high-quality.
But, if someone searches for “Apply iPhone 12 price”, you know what they are looking for.
The intent, in this case, is clear.
Therefore, you are better able to target that specific audience.
Anyway, the point is: You don’t need backlinks to rank for low-competition, long-tail keywords.
But, the question remains, how do you find profitable, long-tail keywords?
Let’s see.
Google’s “People Also Ask” Box
The “People Also Ask” box is a great way to find question-focused keywords.
Just type in your primary keyword or a phrase you want to rank for in Google and look out for the “People Also Ask” section.
When you click on any of these questions, Google shows you even more related questions.
Pro tip: Create an FAQ section at the end of your web page and answer these questions there.
This can help you rank for multiple featured snippets with one web page.
Google’s “Related Searches”
This is another easy way to find long-tail keywords.
You’ve probably noticed the “Related searches” box at the bottom of Google’s first page.
That’s a goldmine for long-tail keywords; you can collect a laundry list of them, too.
Just type in the keyword you want to rank for in Google search and hit enter.
Scroll down to the bottom and find the “Related searches” box.
Pro Tip: Take a keyword from this list and search it on Google. You’ll get a few more related keywords for your seed term.
Repeat and rinse until you have a long list of profitable keywords.
Answer The Public
Source: answerthepublic.com
Answer The Public is one of the best freemium keyword research tools in the market.
It spits out a laundry list of question-focused keywords for your seed term.
Here’s what it did for “How to rank without backlinks”.
Source: answerthepublic.com
Tip: The tool showcases the keywords in the “Visualization” mode by default, which can be confusing. So, you want to shift to the “Data” mode.
The good thing is that the keywords it gives you are question-based, which means they are already pretty long-tail.
You can even download the list of keywords in a CSV file.
The above methods are a few of the easiest ways to generate a long list of potentially profitable keywords.
But, that doesn’t mean you can easily rank for all of them.
Paid keyword research tools are expensive and not as accurate as one might think, so you can’t fully rely on them either.
To get the full picture, you’d need to dig deeper into every keyword and check its ranking potential manually.
Now, that can be a lot of work, especially when you don’t know what you are doing.
The good thing is there are experts on Legiit who can handle long-tail keyword research for you.
The best thing? Your marketing budget doesn’t have to take a hit working with them.
Plus, let’s face it: You don’t probably want to invest your time and energy in a technical aspect of your business.
If you think outsourcing your keyword research is the right thing to do (which it is), you might like this keyword research service on Legiit.
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