Not trying to make a point, just a question. Let’s say I start working on a new domain, building up authority in a niche where I have unique takes.
Is it possible to rank this site for some keywords in a competitive market without focusing on building backlinks? Maybe the content will attract some naturally.
Has anyone here tried it? The last time I gave it a go, it took me about a year to grow from zero to around 1.8K unique visits monthly with this approach.
What do you mean by ‘rank’? And how many unique visits would you say is a solid target after the first 6 months of a new site?
MarkJones said:
What do you mean by ‘rank’? And how many unique visits would you say is a solid target after the first 6 months of a new site?
By ‘rank’, I mean getting my main pages (the ones that make money) to generate some decent traffic for the niche, like between 500 to 1500 unique visits a month.
@WordsmithWanderer3
I managed to get around 200 unique visits per day within 3 months with just two backlinks from sites with about a DA of 15. I went after long-tail keywords with almost no competition.
I think it’s possible for long-tail keywords with very little competition, even though Google clusters topics now.
I’ve helped websites rank better by just fixing on-page SEO.
Olives said:
I think it’s possible for long-tail keywords with very little competition, even though Google clusters topics now.
I’ve helped websites rank better by just fixing on-page SEO.
On-page SEO is definitely one of the easiest ways to boost rankings. A lot of sites are really messy. I’ve worked behind other SEO folks, and it’s crazy what some people do just to make a quick buck.
Olives said:
I think it’s possible for long-tail keywords with very little competition, even though Google clusters topics now.
I’ve helped websites rank better by just fixing on-page SEO.
What do you mean by ‘clusters’? Where can I learn more about this?
@Leeland
Google groups keywords into related themes now, so a site can rank for a keyword even if it doesn’t use an exact match.
I’m running a local service business with a site that’s less than 2 months old. I got one backlink from my old website, which has a DA of 8 on Semrush. It started ranking in the top 5 for long-tail keywords (less than 500 searches per month) within 6 weeks.
@Will
When you’re going for long-tail keywords in a local service, are you adding the city or region name in your search terms?
Williamson said:
@Will
When you’re going for long-tail keywords in a local service, are you adding the city or region name in your search terms?
Yes, you should use whatever area your service covers. For us, it was all of Michigan, so we used terms like ‘near me’ and service-specific searches with Michigan.
@Will
Would it be okay if I DM’d you? I’m working on a local service business website too and have a few questions.
YukiJane said:
@Will
Would it be okay if I DM’d you? I’m working on a local service business website too and have a few questions.
Sure, feel free to send your questions over.
Yes, but it’s only doable if the keywords you’re targeting have really low competition (KD).
You can rank by using very niche and long-tail keywords. Just make sure your site’s technical setup and loading speeds are spot on. If everything is optimized, you can get good rankings, but it won’t be easy.
StevenMoore said:
Yes.
I’d be interested to see how that works for, say, a furniture store or any eCommerce site really.
It’s tricky. If you go after low KD keywords, the traffic will be low, especially with a new site and low DA. But if you target high-traffic keywords, the KD will be too high. The best plan is to aim for low KD keywords and gradually build up the site’s DA.
I’ve done this before, but it only brought around 25 visitors per month. So, I’m not sure it’s realistic without a few backlinks.
It’s possible, but only for really low KD or very local services. But the traffic will be very small.