How To Rank Without Backlinks? A Guide In 2024!

Backlinks have long been considered the most important ranking factor. After all, what could be better than having authority websites link to your content?

It’s like having a group of popular kids invite you to sit at their lunch table.

But here’s the harsh reality: creating a strong backlink profile is a challenging task. It often requires difficult outreach, content marketing efforts, and a lot of groveling. For many website owners, particularly those just getting started, the backlink conflict may seem like a never-ending uphill climb.

But there’s a way to rank your website without backlinks? 

What! Ranking without backlinks? Is this possible?  Yes!

While Backlinks are certainly beneficial, they are not the be-all and end-all of search engine optimization. In reality, some other ways and techniques might help you climb the ranks without relying entirely on external links.

So, prepare to step up your SEO game and watch your website fly to new heights, backlinks or no backlinks!

What are Backlinks? Why They are Important?

Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your site and help it rank higher in SERPs. These links serve as recommendations from other websites, informing search engines that the content you provide is excellent and deserves to rank high. The more high-quality backlinks you can obtain, the higher your website’s ranks. They are  important because:

• They are an essential ranking factor for search engines, indicating authority and relevancy.
• They bring referral visitors to your website from various sources.
• They improve your website’s reputation and trustworthiness.
• They share “link equity,” which helps pages rank higher.
• They give a competitive edge over sites with fewer high-quality backlinks.

How to Rank Without Backlinks?

So, how to rank without backlinks? Here we go.

A. Start With a Skilled Writer

A professional writer may help you rank without requiring you to build backlinks. Why?

The letter E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

E-E-A-T is one of Google’s search quality rating guidelines. It’s the methodology used to assess the quality of search results. Quality Raters provide comments to Google, allowing the algorithm to provide better results.

Working with authors who have intimate knowledge of a topic increases reader trust. It can also result in more conversions on your website, indicating to Google that your site is reliable.

So, what should you look for while looking for a skilled writer?

Let’s use the E-E-A-T concept.

a. Experience

The writer has deep familiarity with the subject. This shows that their ideas are tried and true. A writer, for example, may speak from personal experience and use photographs to back it up.

b. Expertise

Quality Raters also consider a writer’s thematic expertise. Do they have the knowledge and qualifications to provide trustworthy information?

Expertise and experience are comparable but not the same. Take the issue of investment. People will seek legal counsel from a qualified professional. That is expertise. 

c. Authoritativeness

The author’s reputation in their field is referred to as authoritativeness. Quality Raters must consider the creator, the content, and the website when determining authority.

Authoritative writers are regarded as reliable sources of information. This can help you rank higher in search engines without requiring link development.

d. Trustworthiness

Being trustworthy is the most significant aspect of E-E-A-T. Quality Raters will consider both the writer and the website when determining trustworthiness.

Be transparent about who created and reviewed your information, edit for accuracy, credit your sources, and avoid hiding content behind ads. 

B. Find the Right Keywords

To rank in search engines without backlinks, you’ll need to carry out careful keyword research. Your target keyword should satisfy two conditions. It has to:

• Be long-term.
• Have a low difficulty level, which means you’ll be less competitive. 

Let us explain!

a. Low-difficulty Keywords

Keyword difficulty (KD) explains how tough it is to rank for a specific term, particularly in terms of backlinks.

• Keywords with a high difficulty level often demand more backlinks. For example, top-ranking pages for keywords with KDs of 90 or above typically have hundreds of backlinks. To compete, you’ll need to create as many as they do.

• Keywords with low difficulty often require fewer backlinks. These are the keywords you should target if you wish to avoid link-building.

Keyword difficulty is related to the amount of backlinks, their quality, and other variables like content quality or site authority. Still, it’s the most important metric for determining whether your content can rank with no backlinks. 

The drawback of low-difficulty keywords is that they get less search engine traffic since they receive fewer monthly queries (therefore they are less competitive).

When attempting to rank without backlinks, you may have to sacrifice organic search traffic. It comes down to whether you desire more organic traffic or avoid link building.

c. Long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are defined as those that include three or more words. These keywords often have lower difficulty ratings, and low-difficulty keywords are often long-tail.

Long-tail keywords might still be competitive, so always verify their KD score before targeting them.

C. Write Good Content

Well-researched, well-written, and optimized content is essential. Search engines aim to provide the best possible outcomes for users.

If the content contains helpful information, viewers are more likely to:

• Stay on your page longer.
• Share your content!
• Return to your website. 

This tells Google, “Yes, that website is of high quality and should be ranked higher!”

But how can you create good content? Here’s a checklist to ensure you’re just writing high-quality, interesting articles:

• Respond to readers’ queries regarding a topic: To identify questions regarding your issue, use Google’s People Also Ask box or AnswerThePublic. Then add well-researched responses to your post.

• Discover new facts and data points: Whether they are unique data, historical facts, or lesser-known facets of your topic, these nuances may give your material depth and richness.

• Investigate research studies: Citing research studies can help to establish credibility and depth in your work. Look for current studies from credible sources that are related to your subject. Summarise your results in a way that your audience can understand and use.

• Interview space experts: Experts can bring unique insights that are not available elsewhere. Contact industry leaders on LinkedIn or via email to request an interview or a quote. Their viewpoints can give credibility to your work while also providing readers with unique value.

• Twitter offers snippets: Twitter is an excellent source for up-to-date information and professional perspectives. Look for tweets from industry leaders or debates related to your topic. Including relevant tweets in your article can improve its timeliness and engagement. 

• Include content from industry newsletters: Industry newsletters can provide useful insights that are not seen in mainstream media. If you subscribe to these newsletters, you may share valuable information with your audience while always providing due attribution.

• Provide case studies: Case studies use real-world examples to make your content more accessible and convincing. Look for case studies that cover your topic and highlight the essential conclusions. They can assist in demonstrating arguments in a practical, concrete way.

• Find good instances: Examples can help you understand abstract topics. Examples can help you explain a method, illustrate a principle, or disprove a myth. Look for examples that are relevant, straightforward, and compelling.

D. Optimise Your Title Tags, Descriptions, and On-Page SEO

Once you’ve created your content, be sure to include the right Title Tag, Meta Description, Social Media Image, and on-page SEO.

• Title Tag suggestions:

What is the ideal length of a title tag?

Better to keep a maximum length of 65 characters. That being said, Google does not have a formal response for the length as a ranking component – but keep in mind that SERPs display a limited number of characters that would affect a user. 

• Meta Description Recommendations:

Include a brief description of your page’s content. Make sure it looks good and includes your major and secondary keywords. Google normally restricts snippets to between 155 and 160 characters. Ideally, keep your character count between 50 and 160. Provide a summary of your page content. Make sure it’s appealing and includes your primary and secondary keywords.

• On-Page SEO recommendations:

Make sure to use your keyword phrases throughout your text. Include the primary term in your headline and the first sentence of your page/article.

In addition, make sure to include alt tags in your photographs to explain them to search engines. Make sure to include title tags, internal links, external links, and images. mention your keyword phrases on other web pages/articles that are relevant to your content and link to the new page.

Make sure to include the appropriate keywords in the anchor text for that link. This will provide some link juice to notify search engines what this page is about. 

E. Create Internal Links

Internal links take you from one page to another on your website. That is why they’re internal.

They are an essential part of search engine optimization since they help search engines discover, understand, and effectively rank your content. Interlinking helps search engines crawl and index your site more effectively. This increases your website’s exposure on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Overall, if you create fantastic content but don’t notify Google via internal linking, it will be easier to rank with external backlinks. Make sure to:

1. Use descriptive anchor text: Anchor text refers to the clickable text within a hyperlink. Make sure it is descriptive and includes some information about the linked website. This will provide link juice while also informing search engines about the page’s content. Avoid over-optimization (using exact-match keywords excessively), which might appear spammy to search engines.

2. Link deep: Instead of merely interlinking your top-level sites (such as Home, About Us, and Contact Us), make sure you’re linking to specific blog entries, product pages, or service pages. These are often the pages that include unique and valuable content.

3. Use follow links: Make sure your internal links are “follow” links, which allows search engines to follow them and pass link equity.

4. Create consistent content: The more useful your content is, the more options you will have for internal linking.

F. Scholarship Link Building

Scholarship link building is a means of giving and promoting a scholarship on other websites so that they link back to yours. Internal links inform search engines about the source and target pages. In our  case:

• The source page indicates among other things, how to create scholarly links using ChatGPT.
• The target page provides a more basic summary of constructing scholarly links. 

Irrelevant internal links will have the exact opposite impact. They may mislead search engines, causing them to misunderstand your content and rank it unfairly. So be sure only to create relevant ones.

G. Create Research Reports

When it comes to ranking without the use of link building, research reports are a hidden SEO tactic. A research report is the collection, evaluation, and presentation of data on a certain subject. It’s an excellent resource for new websites since it’s unique and authoritative—two qualities that Google values. 

H. Distribute Fresh Content

When publishing on a new website with low domain authority, you must find a way to attract people to see your content. To reach a bigger audience, promote your content through many sources.

It helps SEO in attracting more people to your website. The more people interact with your content, the stronger the credibility signals you provide to Google Search. 

I. Boost Your CTR

CTR is a statistic that measures the percentage of individuals who click on your link after seeing it in search engine results. A high CTR indicates that people who visit think your link is useful and attractive, which informs Google that you deserve to be ranked higher.

Here are a few practical techniques to increase your CTR:

• Improve your title tags: Make sure your title tag is appealing, relevant, and contains your desired keyword. To make it more engaging, include numerals, special characters, and emotive adjectives.

• Create optimized meta descriptions: Your meta description should be a brief and fascinating overview of what people may expect when they click on your link. Including a clear value proposition may help to increase clicks.

• Use structured data: It helps to improve your search listings with “rich snippets,” which might include ratings, photos, or pricing. These can make your link more appealing and informative, hence increasing your CTR.

• Improve page speed: If your website takes too long to load, visitors may quit it before even seeing your content, lowering your CTR. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights checker to find issues with your page performance and receive recommendations for improvement.

J. Enhance User Experience

User experience (UX) is an important aspect of on-page SEO that influences user engagement, bounce rates, and conversions. All of these metrics have a greater impact on your search engine rankings:

• User engagement, low bounce rates, and high conversions all have a positive impact on your results.
• Low user engagement, high bounce rates, and low conversions all hurt your rankings.

A good UX allows the user to quickly achieve their goals, locate what they are searching for, and enjoy the experience of using your website.

However, providing a good user experience is a huge task with several components. Here are a few to consider:

• Navigation
• Multimedia
• Readability
• Page speed
• Mobile Optimization

Conclusion

Is it possible to rank without backlinks?

Of course, it is! 

Backlinks are still a key ranking element, and although you do need them to rank in search engine results pages, focusing too much on them can lead to over-optimization and other issues. Backlinks aren’t the only way to boost your site’s credibility, trustworthiness, and rating.

A website with helpful content will spread through online word-of-mouth. Being good at what you do allows you to outrank your competitors. Having a strong social presence and understanding your target audience might help your site rank higher than dozens of backlinks.

FAQs

1. Can a Website Rank without Backlinks?

Yes, a website may rank even without backlinks, especially if it has high-quality, relevant content that meets user intent. Search engines such as Google are now focusing more on user experience and content relevancy, hence it is possible to rank highly without having a large backlink profile.

2. How Does User Engagement Affect Rankings Without Backlinks?

Time on site, bounce rate, and click-through rate are examples of user engagement signs that can have an indirect impact on rankings. When people find your content useful and engage with it, search engines may take this as a sign of quality, thus improving your ranks.

3. Can backlinks harm my site?

They definitely can! poor backlinks, such as poor reviews and spammy backlinks, can cause your site’s rankings to fall if not handled properly or soon enough. This is why it is important to monitor backlinks and understand how they function.