Link building is a buzzword within professional SEO circles and for a good reason. Countless businesses successfully leverage this proven strategy to increase site credibility and SERP rankings. But it’s not the only tactic out there, and focusing too much on link building may end up being detrimental.
Hunting for quality backlinks from a range of relevant sources is hard work. Generating valuable content and connections takes time, potentially diverting focus from other important SEO areas. Using techniques such as tiered link building can also have devastating consequences if search engine algorithms deem them black hat practices.
Despite its success in some environments, many companies look to enhance SEO without link building. Using on-page strategies is the most significant way to do so. This can include extensive keyword research, technical site improvements to increase user satisfaction, and an optimised approach to on-site content.
This article will explain the ins and outs of SEO without link building. Keep reading to learn the best context to use it, how to increase rankings without links, and specific instances where link building is still essential.
When Should You Consider SEO Without Link Building?
Not all businesses can benefit from link building, as different niches and target audiences often require different solutions. Focusing too much on this strategy may also lead to neglect in other areas, such as website design, content value, and organic shareability. Depending on your situation, you may want to explore other alternatives to boost your SEO. For example:
- New websites seeking to build domain authority foundations should focus on internal SEO strategies before seeking external certification via backlinks.
- Businesses in niches with fewer opportunities to gain backlinks must concentrate on other ways to gain site value, authority, and higher rankings. For example, small localised businesses may struggle with link building.
- Websites with less emphasis on content, such as business listings or directories, will benefit far more from an SEO approach without link building.
If any of these situations apply to your business, it may be better to focus on other SEO areas instead of link building. As increasing on-site value is the main goal, you should prioritise creating compelling and comprehensively informative content, optimising your site with the user in mind, and seeking positive customer engagement at all costs.
The Essentials For SEO Without Backlinks
Focusing exclusively on link building is a common mistake. A holistic SEO approach is fundamental to long-term success. You must concentrate on the entire spectrum of optimisation tactics to have the most success. Core elements include:
- Keyword targeting: ensuring your website is rich in relevant keywords is one of the most important factors in an SEO-enhanced website. Do comprehensive keyword analysis on primary, secondary, and tertiary words or phrases associated with your business, prioritising terms with high search frequency and low competition. Afterwards, construct a high-quality plan to hit these keywords with valuable, informative, and varied content.
- Technical SEO: modern search engine algorithms don’t just consider a website’s content. You must have a technically flawless platform to rank high on Google and other SERPs. This type of local SEO, without content marketing or link building, includes fast loading speeds, seamless mobile integration, and user-friendly functionality. The better your website’s user experience, the higher the reward.
- Content: your on-site content is the key vessel for keywords. Written copy, infographics, and informative videos are all great forms of content to utilise to your advantage. Creating valuable content also generates higher domain authority through the added worth to your website. Techniques such as content cocktails (where you blend long-form articles with smaller blog posts and videos) are ideal keyword-targeting methods.
- External content: businesses need to get first-rate external content in place before even thinking about link building. You’ll need to find a consistent and reliable way to generate top-quality, off-site copy that can be published on partner websites. Without these essential foundations, link building at future points will be more challenging to employ effectively. Search engines punish unnatural link building, so take steps to avoid this.
How To Increase Positioning Without Links
Backlinks are only one part of the overall search engine ranking process. The algorithms consider various site aspects to calculate its position in SERPs. Here are a few vital factors influencing website value and positioning:
- Improve site crawl & indexing: search engines crawl your website quickly and easily, and so a focus on site indexing is crucial. Complicated layouts, link obstructions, and ineffective internal hyperlinking impede the algorithms and lower your positioning.
- Schema: schema is structured data that Google and other search engines use to understand the information on your website. While it won’t directly influence your rankings, it’s advised to go along with preferences such as Google’s inclination for JSON-LD schema.
- Page load speed: one central component of optimised technical SEO is page load speed. Google and other search engines prefer websites that load quickly over those with longer wait times. Ensuring an up-to-date platform with minimal loading times is essential.
- On-page content relevance & optimisation: use the main keywords in the title tag with the most important words first. Kept to under 60 characters, it will guarantee the whole tag shows up on SERPs, thereby generating higher positioning. Additionally, ensure you use H1, H2, etc. tags alongside images and captions.
- Accelerated mobile pages: using AMP pages is a great way to jump to the top of Google’s SERP rankings naturally. Depending on your niche, you can use these pages to feature in the AMP carousel and effectively rank first without much effort.
Strategies To Increase Site Traffic Without Links
Businesses can leverage several strategies to increase site traffic and content quality without link building. Once you have done sufficient in-depth keyword research, employ some of the tactics below:
- Keep a constant eye on breaking news in your niche and quickly generate high-quality content covering it. This will increase your search rankings and traffic, especially as people begin to view your site as a key place for the latest updates and information.
- Create highly informative and shareable infographics to boost traffic and generate natural backlinks to your website. Search engines and users looking for quick explanations see this kind of visual content as highly valuable.
- Write list posts with clear numbering and a mix of videos, images, and infographics. People often prefer odd numbers and, therefore, these are often used in page titles. For example, “Ranking The 7 Best SEO Tools”.
- Don’t just focus on creating new content. Upgrading old content in line with new SEO principles or advances in your field of business is essential to increase your site traffic and SEO naturally.
SEO Without Link Buildings Isn’t Always Possible
Although link building isn’t essential to a successful SEO strategy, most businesses get to a position where it is needed. It’s challenging to rank for the most popular, highly competitive keywords without a quality backlink profile. At some point, you will want to start link building to attract the most potential conversions.
You may consider the help of GainChanger to achieve this. Our comprehensive end-to-end SEO process will help you leverage link building as effectively as possible. Simply send us a message with some information about your website or business, we will get back to you shortly. Tell us what you need, we’ll handle the rest!
SEO Without Link Building – FAQs
Is SEO without link building possible?
Yes. SEO without link building is possible if you focus on key factors, including technical optimisation and valuable content.
How can SEO without link building be done?
Focusing on your website’s user-friendliness and keyword richness are two essential parts of SEO without link building. Improving page loading speed and mobile functionality is also critical.
Can I increase my site positioning without link building?
Yes. Site positioning can be increased via numerous techniques. A few successful tactics are ensuring content relevancy, on-page optimisation, and the correct schema language.
How can I gain traffic without link building?
Gaining traffic without link building relies on building an unbeatable content profile. For example, viral infographics, list posts, and breaking news articles can supercharge site traffic.
What strategies can I implement to do SEO without link building?
SEO without link building revolves around having a website that Google and other search engines deem valuable. This means delivering an unmatched customer experience, a high concentration of relevant keywords, and informative content.
SEO Team at GainChanger
