Can you do SEO and rank a website with little-to-no backlinks?
✅ Yes
If backlinks were the holy grail of SEO, websites with little or no links wouldn’t be able to rank highly in search engine results as they often do.
With each Google algorithm update they seem to be incentivizing you to prioritize content that aligns with customer intent. Content that genuinely addresses searchers’ problems rather than SEO fluff with a bunch of links layered on top.
Can backlinks help your website show higher on Google? Definitely.
The demand for links will vary by industry and competition, but links alone aren’t the magic sauce they used to be.
/ 𝘋𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 (𝘋𝘈) 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘙𝘢𝘯𝘬 (𝘋𝘙) 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵.
Sorry, SEO experts. DA and DR don’t matter.
These acronyms, and dozens more, emerged when Google discontinued PageRank. This left SEOs wondering, “How can we identify the best sites to s̶p̶a̶m̶ target?”
SEO tools came rushing in, “We can save you!”
Every software started created their version of PageRank to address SEOs needing a crutch of a website “quality score.” But, these scores are not used by ANY search engine.
That’s why they have different names – because they’re not standardized.
While they may imply credibility, Google does not look at or care for DA/DR scores. Literally. At all
Backlinks are similar to tax returns. Everyone wants a larger tax refund, and by adopting an aggressive approach you may be able to snag a little extra cash in the short term. But if you push too hard you create a pattern and raise red flags. Hello penalties, both in terms of taxes and backlinks.
I welcome having to dabble less in the gray area of links.
More and more I’m seeing content provide equal or greater impact on search engine rankings than backlinks, with dozens of clients dominating page one purely off a well-researched, mapped out, intentional content strategy.
