How to rank a website without backlinks? Building links is annoying and time-consuming. It is also a practice that Google doesn’t like, and a site can be penalized for buying or exchanging links. It is natural to wonder if there is a way of concentrating on writing and ranking anyway quickly. We are going to find out in this article.
Ranking a website without backlinks means to use the content only as a source of traffic and as a method for ranking in Google. The best way to do this is to find long-tail keywords or underserved topics and write articles using them. The best is to find search queries in Google where you see that not many or no one else has written an article (underserved topics) and or locate long-tail keywords with very little competition.
Let’s see how to get this done.
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CAN I GET TRAFFIC WITHOUT BACKLINKS?
Backlinks are still a major ranking factor for Google. But it doesn’t mean that you can’t rank without it. Today more and more bloggers work in a way to create websites concentrating on content only.
Additionally, Google doesn’t allow creating unnatural backlinks or buying backlinks. Google can penalize even Guest Posting. If you have tried to build links via guest posting, blogger reaches out, or any other method, you know that it takes a lot of time, and many e-mails sent out.
You have to be able to write many posts if you want to guest post, but this also means that you will write less for your own blog unless you have a budget and outsource some of the writing. Let’s face it. If you want to build 100 backlinks with guest postings, you have to write 100 articles. In some niches, 100 backlinks are not even enough to outrank the competition.
And after you have spent time and money to build backlinks, Google comes in to penalize your site.
Do I see it all dark? Maybe. Some bloggers get by anyway guest posting, buying links without penalties. Therefore, it is still something that one should consider. But I do like it the other way—the way where you get to write for your blog a lot and ranking anyway.
It is possible to rank a website without doing backlinks building. How to do it? I suggest 3 methods.
They are similar. But have some differences in between. Let me explain how those 3 methods work and how they have generated tons of income for those methods’ creators and users.
I also want to mention that I am NOT an affiliate for any of the people or companies that use or create those methodologies. I have just been using them with results. Each one has a particular system that shows you how to rank a website without backlinks.
HOW TO RANK A WEBSITE WITHOUT BACKLINKS
If you want to rank a website without backlinks, you have to insist on writing an article with search intent, meaning people are looking for answers in Google; the search intent (or keyword) needs to have low competition an underserved topic. This means that not so many people have written about it. Best is if you are the first one to write that article.
In summary:
- LOW COMPETITION OR LONG TAIL KEYWORDS
- UNDERSERVED TOPICS
- IT HAS SEARCH INTENT, OR IT IS RESEARCHED IN GOOGLE
I know what you are thinking. How to write an article that no one else has already written? Do they even exist? And what about the low competition? Is it even possible?
I will show you how prominent bloggers did rank their sites without building links following those 3 rules and some other guidelines and then show you how I did apply it on one niche site.
INCOME SCHOOL METHOD
Jim and Ricky have created Income School. They have created numerous websites without building links, using an immaculate SEO strategy. They have been successful in many instances. The best part is that they are revealing their niche sites to see with your own eyes.
Their method is built around the creation of niche sites with content marketing. They have a 60 step checklist to follow that will allow you to create a site from 0 to a full-time income in 24 months. That is why Income School’s most prominent course for bloggers is called Project 24.
What is peculiar about Income School Project 24?
ALPHABET SOUP
They do not use any keyword research tool. They use a system called “alphabet soup” to find keywords or topics to write about. For example, if you want to start a niche site on cats, you would go on Google and use the search bar to find out what people are searching about, using Google auto-complete:
If you start typing” Do cats a…” and let Google show you the auto-complete function, meaning Google will auto-complete your search with what other people have been searching the most. They do it to make it faster for users to find what they search for, prompting already the most searched queries.
This is gold for a blogger since you know that search queries with “Search Intent” are behind them. They are also pretty long keywords or phrases.
Now the last thing they advise is to search for the competition. For this example, let’s take one of the first queries: “Do cats always land on their feet?”. We are going to search it in Google and see what shows up:
As you can see, you are up against the BBC and Animalplanet.com. If you are starting a new website, would you go about writing that article? Probably not.
With this method, you continue searching the next search query: “Do cats actually have 9 lives?” and so on. When you are done with “Do cats a…”, you can start searching “Do cats b…” and so on.
When you are done with “do cats,” you can search “Are cats a…” or “what cats a…” and so on, trying the start of a question with doing, what, are, will, etc. You will add an alphabet letter each time after the beginning of the question.
When should you write an article based on the alphabet soup search? You have to find a topic that is not well served, where the competition is not so high, and you have a chance to rank. It can be that there is an article on a specific topic, but the articles are of low quality and do not really answer the question.
For example, if you find forums, or user generated content, meaning it is not an article but it is a site that is basically a forum where people can answer and ask questions.
NO KEYWORDS TOOLS
Income School uses mainly Google to find topics. They do not use any keyword tool. They do not believe keyword tools really show the right search volumes and lead bloggers to write the wrong articles. This is considered controversial. However, they made it to sell 6 figures sites and are successful. Maybe there is some truth in it.
TIME LENGHT TO A FULL TIME INCOME
Another point of controversy is the 2 years time span that it takes to make it to a full-time income. They made a spreadsheet for their students to know what to expect and do not go into desperation after a few months into building their site.
Based on their timeline, you can expect the first $5 at month six! At month 10, you can expect $715. They built this timeline based on their experience and surveying site owners.
Therefore, when you choose the Income School method, you are in for a longer but solid journey to a full-time income. They are not teaching the become reach quick overnight. They are pretty real people and pretty transparent.
You can follow them on their YouTube Channel. They post a lot of free content to follow. You can start building your site based on their method using their free videos.
PASSIVE INCOME GEEK METHOD
Passive Income Geek is created by Morten Storgaard, who is situated in Denmark. He is an online marketer with over 13 years of experience. He is also building his sites with content only. He doesn’t do backlinks building.
He uses search intent and the Google autocomplete to research topics to write about. He pretty much uses a similar method then Income School, but he also developed his own methodology.
What is peculiar about Passive Income Geek?
THE FIRST BUNCH OF ARTICLES STRATEGY
He concentrates his first articles on underserved topics and low competition keywords. He can give big traction to his website and make them rank faster by searching the web for those topics no one has written about.
He has a few YouTube videos where he shows how to select a niche and find articles to write based on the fact that no one else has written an article before or low competition. He shows how it is possible to find such a topic since the web is quite crowded in any niche.
He suggests to start with 20-30 articles on any niche site that are about underserved topics, so you have a chance to get some traffic earlier on and give traction to your site. He has moved his sites out of the Google Sandbox already after 4 to 5 months.
NO KEYWORDS TOOLS
Morten doesn’t use any keyword tools. He is using Google to find what people are searching for. He is outstanding at keyword research and establishes if an article will rank or not.
He shows how the patient in doing topic and keyword research before starting a site can pay off later.
You can get started following his method and create a site using his free content on his YouTube Channel.
KEYWORDS GOLDEN RATIO
I have already spoken about it. It is a system created by Doug Cunnington from Niche Site Project. He also specializes in creating new niche sites and have them rank faster. He doesn’t deny using some link building, but his method allows ranking in Google fast and without backlinks.
He got keywords research to a mathematic formulas, following it, allows to rank in Google within 24-48 hours in best cases and some days in other cases. It is pretty fast anyway.
How does it work? The keyword golden ration is accomplished or found once you have the following result: KGR (short for keyword golden ratio) = (allintitle results) divided by (search volume)= <0.25
Basically, you look for keywords that have a search volume of less than 250 in a month. In other words, low search volume, which also means low competition. You must have a Keyword Research tool for this. Once you have the search volume, you have to search how many articles there are about it, and if the ratio between the 2 value is less than 0.25, you should write the article.
Here is the full article that explains this method: KEYWORD GOLDEN RATIO METHOD: HOW IT WORKS, TIPS, EXAMPLES
What is peculiar about the Keyword Golden Ratio?
MATHEMATIC SYSTEM
This system is based on math. You have to do calculations and find compliant keywords. It is a slow and manual method of keyword research. All one has to do is the calculations and once found a keyword that fits the parameters, write the article.
Doug provides spreadsheets to make the system easier to follow. It is pretty simple since you do not have to check the competition that much as it is assumed that if the keyword fits the parameters, you can rank for it, even with a new site.
This system is based on using keyword tools, even if not reliable, at 100%. There are free tools that allow you to check the monthly search volumes.
Doug has free videos that you can use to start a website using his method. On his site, you can find spreadsheets, templates, and more.
EXAMPLES OF LOW COMPETITION KEYWORDS RESEARCH
Here is an example of a long-tail keyword with little or no competition, the Google page has no featured snippet, and in the top results, there aren’t articles, but only forums.
The keyword is “do cats poop less on wet food?”:
Those are both form sites, which means that no one has really written an article that only answers the question. Still, the answer that Google found to this query is present in different articles that do not necessarily target this keyword or phrase.
In fact going down the Google search I can see that articles that are shown do not answer directly that question or if they do, are still forums.
If you look at the first two, they seem to be articles about food products. Eventually, they answer the question: “do cats poop less on wet food?”, the rest are forums.
Eventually, a new site can rank immediately for this term. Let’s see. I wrote the article:
This one of my niche sites; I wrote it the 17 December, I checked a few days later, and it was already there at number 11 (today is 28th December). Since my site is 4 months old, this is already a great result. The site still has 0 backlinks. Normally one could wait for weeks and sometimes months before seeing some of the articles on the Google first page.
I may have some better examples, let’ s see. Google first page:
I spotted this article on Google after 5 days after it was written. It may have been there already before. It is at the number two position on the first page.
Those are just examples of how a new site can get to the top for some keywords. They will not bring tons of traffic, but they are giving an instant boost to your site, telling Google that you already have organic visits and helping you to rank faster.
If you go for low competition keywords, you have to know that the traffic you will get will not be a lot. If you want to build a full site out of such keywords, you have to have a lot of content. Once your site gets some traction, you can start targeting much better and lucrative keywords after a while.
CONCLUSION
It is possible to start a blogging journey with a brand new site and rank already on Google’s first page. Starting from low competition keywords and moving all the way up once a site becomes older and more authoritative.
You have to learn to do topics research and understand competition. With practice, you can see if your article has chances to rank right off the bat or if you should wait. If you have any questions, leave in in the comments below.
