Backlinks are not indispensable for your blog’s ranking. You can also rank your blog without Backlinking; yes it is very much true and I will demonstrate to you through this the blog itself you are reading. It has no backlinks and all I have done here some on-page SEO techniques. These techniques I will share here with you and if you are also writing your blog with WordPress, then I bet, these techniques will help your blog to rank too.

Is it really possible to rank without backlinking?

In short, the answer is…yes definitely. Gone are the days when Google algorithm was no different than other search engines like Bing and Yahoo, only relying on factors like backlinks count, keyword density, spurious links created by software, etc. to rank any content. 

Nowadays, Google analyzes the content quality in a much more humane way applying far more complex algorithms. It not just accounts for some mechanical parameters but most importantly if the content is truly providing any value to its reader. And, in this process backlinks get less importance today and user experience is the topmost priority. 

What backlinks do to improve the visibility of a website

It is a fact that for any competitive keyword to rank in google, backlinking used to be one of the most helpful SEO techniques (no doubt, that’s why the requirement to write such a blog arises in the first place). Backlinks from an authority website enable your website to get fast recognition from your target audience. 

Though it is very much true that, if you have written a great blog which is really helpful to the readers, it is for sure that over time it will get backlinking naturally. But, it takes time and like opening a shop in a congested market area without telling anyone and just praying that customers will come to your shop by chance.

Backlinks are believed to not only improve the rank in Google, but it also helps to build domain authority. Domain authority is something that builds the trust of your website amongst your target audience and establishes your brand. 

But good content & on-page SEO done correctly can compensate for backlinks

Having said all the capabilities of backlinks, it is also true that Google is changing its search engine algorithms so fast that no one can predict what will be their ranking criteria tomorrow.

So, it may happen that backlinks become of lower priority in future algorithmic changes and your blog’s rank is solely in the hands of on-page SEO. In that case, you may stand a chance to rank without any backlinking if your other SEO techniques are sound.

This is also true that if you are a beginner, getting backlinks at the initial stage is not easy. Backlinking needs promotional and marketing skill, you have to pitch for your content. For an introvert and shy person marketing his product is one heck of a job. I know this very well as I am of this personality. So, I have to depend on on-page SEO to rank my page as backlinking is no option for me.

Also, if you have decided to write a blog with a long tail, low volume and less competitive keyword you can easily rank without any backlinking just following the SEO tips given here.

Tips to rank without backlinking

But, to rank without backlinking you have to follow and implement the following tips religiously. These tips are proven and believed as the factors Google takes into account to judge the user experience and content quality.

Tip#1: Choose low competition long-tail keywords

Always go for the long-tail keyword which is low competitive but also has low search volume. There are several tools to search long-tail keywords, Google autocomplete can also guide you to find out a long-tail keyword. For long-tail keywords, the competition becomes very low as these keywords target a very specific area and the audience is very targetted compare to any short tail keyword. Although these keywords have low search volume, the conversion rate is higher as the audience is very targeted. When a particular reader is visiting your page, it is very clear that he is already funneled down and very focused to make a decision. 

Tip#2: Optimize your content with the focus keyword 

Select a compelling focus keyword, for which you want to rank your article. You can see here the focus keyword for this post is “Rank your blog without backlinking”

The keyword should have its mention at the beginning of Title and Headings. But do remember placing the keyword in the content should not appear mechanical otherwise it will disturb the flow of your post lading to bounce of your readers.

Tip#3: Write long articles

The length of any article is often considered as an important parameter to judge its quality. A long article (more than 1,500 words usually) ie generally of standard length and assumed that to be containing all relevant information to satisfy the queries of its readers.

The thumb rule is to first study the top 10 articles on the same topic, note the word count of each article, calculate average and write an article with word count more than the average word count.

If your topic very unique or you are providing a very specific answer to a question, then the above word count rule needs not to be followed. You can write an article as you find suitable.

But if you have selected a popular topic and there are already blogs from established authority websites, then a small article stands no chance to rank.

Tip#4: Create helpful content

Your content should be useful to solve the problem of your readers. It is even true for creating backlinks too. No authority website is going to link to your website if it contains low-quality content.

In the blogging community, it is frequently said that “content is the king” and it is true in all respect. If your content is not useful, no SEO technique can help you. I admit that creating valuable content is a tough call but it has no short cut. 

You have to provide better content than at least 10 main competitors of yours for the same focus keyword. 

These days engaging people only using text-based content is not easy. You have to use a content mix strategy to keep people on your page for a longer time. This strategy was devised by Chad Zollinger of Best company. The strategy is to create your content with a balanced mix of text, videos and learning resources like e-books. 

Infographics are also a very good medium to deliver important information in a very attractive way. But again creating a good appealing infographic takes a long time and requires designing skills. 

Most importantly your content must comply with Google’s recent update called “Medic update” which ensures your content meets the standard set by Google in terms of Expertise, Authority, and Trust; in short, they are mentioned as E-A-T.

Tip#5: Page speed

Optimize your website in such a manner that it becomes enticing to the readers with multimedia content but also don’t make the page to load very slow.

Tip#6: Create a responsive website

Very very important. Always ensure that your website is compatible with all device platforms, be it desktop, tablet or mobile.

Tip#7: Include outbound links of trusted authority websites

Link your content with authority websites. As such outbound links establish the trustworthiness of your website, Google gets a signal to rank it higher. In this post also you can notice multiple links to other reputed websites are provided with relevant texts.

Tip#8: Interlink different related posts of your website

Providing interlinks is a powerful SEO trick that may appear very simple but plays an important role to boost your rank. Provide as many links as possible of your own posts related to any keyword. The words even not necessarily match the keywords. For example, this post can be linked to any other post of yours having a reference of on-page SEO related to backlinking. 

Interlinks as like outbound links send a powerful signal to Google to consider a post to be good enough to place it higher in rank.

Tip#9: Social media campaigning

Promote your website on different social media. Social media platforms are those where you can be quickly recognized by the like-minded audience and other players in your field. This is the most important and effective way to let people know about your content during the initial phase of your website.

Get involved in different question-answer sites like Quora, Reddit, etc. Actively participate in different discussions on your field going on in these platforms. Try to help people with their problems by providing useful solutions. Gradually you will build your own following and a known expert in your field and traffic will grow organically to your site.

Tip#10: Analyze your competitor websites

Always study those pages/posts with the same topis of yours and try to understand what they have done differently to secure the top position.

Take note of every component except text used in those posts like:

• Images used by the posts
• Infographics used by them
• Video links embedded in the post
• If any animations used

And, then try to incorporate some of these relevant components in your post too.

The best part of blogging is that it is an open knowledge system. Every player in this field is keen to share their knowledge and experience, as it is a win-win process. So, gather knowledge from your competitors too, as many of them are old players and have vast experience in the field. So, don’t miss to take advantage of this knowledge. 

Tip#11: Give an attractive title to increase the Click Through Rate(CTR)

This is also a short and easy trick that may be of help to improve ranking. Yoast SEO plugin comes here very useful to create an SEO title. An SEO title comprises two components title of the article and meta description.  As the title display only 70 characters and meta description up to 156 characters, try to limit them within the prescribed length. Besides a good title, a crisp meta description is also important to convince your reader in the first look that the post will serve his/her purpose. For example, the meta description of this post is as following:

To rank in Google, Backlinks are helpful but not indispensable. Use these easy but very effective SEO tips given here to rank your blog without Backlinking.

Also, don’t forget to mention your focus keyword in the SEO title. To check all these criteria Yoast SEO plugin can be your friend. See in the image above, the plugin provides a crisp snippet preview of the SEO title for this present article of mine. This snippet is all that your visitors going to see when they search for that focus keyword. So, it is of great importance and should be enticing enough to compel them to click through your page/post.

Tip#12: Get Feedback from your readers

It is the most effective way to improve your content. Keep your mind open to receive any kind of criticism and if it is constructive, incorporate them in your business model to make it more perfect. Feedbacks are also something that can create a bond between you and your customers; otherwise, people will come, visit your page and go away. In this busy world with so many competitive websites to be engaged with they will not remember you and your content any longer.

Asking for honest feedback from them can be a way to involve them further and create a feeling of a valued customer. Even Google also takes customers’ feedback as the number of stars and analyzes the sentiment of reviews to decide their local SEO strategies.

Tip#13: Study the backlinks used by your competitor websites

Some SEO tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, Ubbersuggest, etc. help you to spy (nothing unethical) on your competitor websites. This is a good way to have an idea about important and popular keywords you can also go for.

Tip#14: Optimize post images

Image optimization is a vital SEO strategy. Try to optimize your image with an appropriate size, don’t use a heavy image unnecessarily when a smaller size image can serve the purpose. Use your focus keywords in Alt and Title text of the image, Google’s crawlers decide if an image is SEO friendly by reading these texts.

Tip#15: Few more points to remember

• Keep navigation easy: Limit adds and affiliate links to an optimum number. So that they do not distract the reader from the main content. Strike a balance between your monetizing policy and good user experience.

• SSL certificate: This also determines the rank of any website to some extent as SSL certificate ensures users’ security
• How old the domain is and activity: An old domain (at least one-year-old) has more chance to rank better if it gets regularly updated
• Use Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords: Use related keywords also in your content along with the focus keyword

Conclusion

So, hopefully, you don’t have any doubt after reading this post about if your rank can rank without backlinking. All the tips discussed in this post are all tried, tested and proved to be super helpful to rank good content without any backlinks. 

The only thing you have to do is to write a really useful article and optimize your post with the methods mentioned here. And, if it is really good content, over time it will acquire backlinks automatically.

Though backlinks are very useful without any doubt. But Google is always changing their crawling algorithm and backlinks may be of not that useful in the coming days. So, your website ideally should sustain without any backlinks too.