Can You Rank In Google Without Backlinks?

Can You Rank In Google Without Backlinks?
Content Writing / Search Engine Optimization

Can You Rank In Google Without Backlinks?

“You cannot rank in Google without backlinks”- you must have heard this phrase often when talking about content creation. 

Most webmasters and SEO specialists believe that quality backlinks are essential to rank a website on Google. However, it is one of the major misconceptions of SEO. 

Yes, you can get traffic without backlinks. Though quality backlinks help to improve your rankings on Google, they are not essential for rankings. 

It is possible to rank on google and get traffic to a website without backlinks. 

However, it is important to focus on keyword research, content creation strategy, and creating valuable content to establish expertise, authority, and trust in the viewers to rank organically on google. 

Ranking on Google without backlinks is not an easy task. You have to invest time and effort to create content that offers value to the readers. 

Here are some strategies that can help you rank on Google without backlinks

  1. Create in-depth, unique, and authoritative content 
  2. Focus on the long-tail keywords
  3. Research your competitors and follow their winning strategies
  4. Take steps to  feature in Google’s local pack 
  5. Develop good internal links
  6. Reduce the bounce rate on your pages
  7. Take advantage of video carousels
  8. Link out to authority websites

1. Create In-depth, unique, and authoritative content:

The quality of content on a website is the most crucial factor that affects your rankings. 

Google hates pogo-sticking (visitors leaving the page too soon as they cannot find relevant information for their queries and moving back and forth on SERPs results as they cannot find accurate information for their query) and punishes websites by giving lower rankings. 

Visitors must be able to find accurate information about their queries that not only solves their questions but provides in-depth information on the topic. 

The content should be easy to read, simple to understand, and must be presented neatly. 

Creating authoritative content automatically makes people quote you in their blogs and articles, which will help you to create backlinks organically. Here are some tips to create engaging content – 

  • Perfecting keyword research to reduce the dependence on backlinks: The content should be focused on the query and provide a unique and new perspective to the readers. In order to create focused content, you must perform proper keyword research that focuses on the search intent of the users and their stage in the sales funnel. 
  • Content Updation and refreshment to increase content performance: Your content should be evergreen to ensure stable rankings on google and other search engines. Regular content updates to include recent developments in the industry play a critical role in ensuring that the content is fresh and relevant.
  • Using visual elements to create viral content – You can use visual elements such as graphics, images, and infographics to make the content interesting for the viewers and also improve engagement. Infographics are one of the most engaging content preferred by viewers. Viewers find it easier to look at an infographic than go through paragraphs of text. Moreover, they are easy to share with others and become viral quickly. 
  • Optimize content for Google’s rich snippets – Google’s rich snippets are a quick way to increase the visibility of your website. Rich snippets help viewers to find the exact content they are looking for, by providing a brief description under your headline on SERPs. Google creates rich snippets using structured data offered by schema.org. Adding structured data to your content helps search engines to understand the content easily and rank it on SERPs. 

Example of rich snippets for the recipe of banana bread on Google

2. Focus on long-tail Keywords:

What is the fastest way to rank for a keyword? Long-tail keywords are your go-to strategy if you want to rank without backlinks. This strategy works very well for new websites. 

 Long-tail keywords help you to create content that satisfies the search queries of the users. 

Lower search volume keywords have less competition in comparison to the popular keywords and hence you can rank easily if you can create relevant and exhaustive content for them. 

Moreover, these keywords aid in creating authoritative content that has the ability to make you a trusted source for information in your niche and help to rank the content for several other related queries as well. 

You can use Google’s autosuggest, Moz SEO toolbar, or Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest to research keywords. 

Related Read: How to check my website keyword ranking? Here are some options for you

3. Research your competitors and follow their on-page SEO strategies

Study your competitors closely and know what is working for them. Observe how your competitors are ranking for the chosen keywords. 

Research the content of the top 10 sites for a keyword and closely observe their content. Look for the number of words in each content piece, the type of content, keyword density, the number of images and videos in their content, and the number of internal links.

Once you have relevant information, don’t waste time and copy their winning strategies. 

4. Take steps to  feature in Google’s local pack 

Appearing in google’s local snack pack is the quickest way to rank your website without backlinks. 

Google’s local pack is shown on top of the SERPs page below the ads and above the organic results. So the user is likely to view your listing, even before they proceed to the organic ranking pages. 

Keywords with local intent have a good scope to feature in the local pack.

Google local pack for the search query ‘ dentists near me 

 In order to increase your chances of appearing in the local pack, it is important to claim your Google My Business account. Then optimize your listing by ensuring that you provide accurate information such as an address, telephone number, email, website, opening and closing hours, etc. 

The next step is to publish content regularly, refresh and update existing content from time to time to maintain its relevance, and most importantly get  Google reviews from your clients.

Related Read: Top Insights about local business landing pages | Must Know

Internal links play a critical role in letting search engines gauge the value of the content. Links on your homepage carry the most weight in comparison to other pages. Provide links to your most important content on the homepage. 

The general rule for internal links is any page on your website should be reachable within 3 clicks. Use keywords to optimize the internal links. Always be natural and use synonyms or related phrases, instead of repeating the same keyword every time. 

It is crucial to note that internal links also carry good weightage when Google ranks websites. 

6. Reduce the bounce rate on your pages

A higher bounce rate on your web pages means that your content is not up to the mark. Viewers are not finding the content relevant and are not spending enough time on your website. 

A higher bounce rate indicates a bad user experience, which results in low rankings. You can use Google Analytics to know the bounce rate of a page. 

If your bounce rate is high, investigate the factors such as the loading time, responsiveness, formatting of the page, and quality of content. 

7. Take advantage of video carousels:

Video carousels are another quick way to rank a keyword on google. Video carousels for certain keywords appear above the organic listings, which means that you get better visibility than the first-ranking website. 

If the keyword you are targeting displays videos, it is recommended to create a video clip. According to statistics from Hubspot, the length of the video does not matter in winning a video carousel. 

The average age of videos is 5 years, which means that older videos can be refreshed and optimized to win video snippets. 

Example of video carousel for the search query – how to rank video carousel on google

Linking out to authority websites is a smart strategy to improve your rankings and gain organic backlinks. You can link websites within or outside your industry, depending on the topic of your content. 

When you link out to other websites, they will share your content, which in turn, increases your visibility and increases traffic to your website. 

To rank for a keyword without backlinks, your content has to be exhaustive and match the search intent of the users. Moreover, the content should be presented in a neat and engaging manner to hold the interest of the viewers. 

Choose long-tail keywords that have low search volume and create great content that provides in-depth and relevant information to the reader.

This will help you to create authority and rank well. Good on-page SEO also plays a critical role in your website rankings. 

Related Read: Top 7 Content Creation based local SEO ranking factors that can impact your business

Backlinks are one of the factors considered by Google while ranking websites. 

Higher backlinks to a website signal authority and thought leadership, thereby improving your google rankings

However, it is to be noted that the recent google updates stress the quality of backlinks instead of the quantity. 

Related Read: Which Is More Important In SEO Backlinks Or Content?

100% without backlink strategy: where it works and where it doesn’t”

100% without backlinks strategy works for websites that have perfect on-page SEO and infrastructural optimizations. Since both these factors constitute up to 60 to 70% of your website’s ranking on Google. 

It is important to note that your strategy depends on your chosen keywords. 

While it is easy to rank well without backlinks for long-tail keywords with low search volumes, certain highly competitive keywords require backlinks for good rankings. 

However, you have to choose the right keywords that match with user search intent and create unique, and engaging content that builds your authority in the niche and helps you rank well.