Can You Rank Without Backlinks? Kyle Roof’s 3-to-1 Internal Link Rule — Transcript

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1. 0:00Can a new website rank on Google without
2. 0:03building back links? Suppose you launch
3. 0:05a new website with helpful content, good
4. 0:07technical SEO, and proper keyword
5. 0:10targeting, but you don't build any
6. 0:11backlinks. Do you think it can still
7. 0:14compete with established websites? This
8. 0:16was asked on the SEO growth subreddit.
9. 0:19I'm going to share the top five comments
10. 0:21from the SEO community, give my take,
11. 0:23and then SEO legend Kyle Roof's take,
12. 0:27which is a must listen, and you may not
13. 0:29have heard it before. First comment by
14. 0:31adult SEO maven. It can, but only in a
15. 0:34small corner of search. Longtail queries
16. 0:37where nobody has built a proper page are
17. 0:39winnable on content and technical SEO
18. 0:41alone. Once the top results have serious
19. 0:44link profiles, a site with zero links
20. 0:46usually gets stuck around page two or
21. 0:49three. Even with great content, mentions
22. 0:51and traffic from other channels help a
23. 0:53bit, but a few real editorial links get
24. 0:55you there faster. So, I try a handful of
25. 0:58low competition queries first before
26. 1:00building the whole plan around content.
27. 1:02Longtail queries are keywords that have
28. 1:04more words in them. And this keyword is
29. 1:06really good. Longtail keywords are less
30. 1:08likely to be targeted. Exactly. But the
31. 1:11thing is, there's actually plenty of
32. 1:12two-word keywords that are also high
33. 1:15intent and still undertargeted. What you
34. 1:17want to do is find those keywords where
35. 1:20nobody has built a proper page. As this
36. 1:22Redditor says, second comment from
37. 1:25Sarathus who said, "The short answer is
38. 1:28yes, absolutely, but with some major
39. 1:30caveats about what sandbox you are
40. 1:32playing in. If you are trying to rank
41. 1:34for commercial broad keywords like best
42. 1:36running shoes or CRM software with zero
43. 1:39back links, you are going to get eaten
44. 1:41alive by legacy authority sites. Where a
45. 1:44new site can and does win without active
46. 1:47link building is in the trenches.
47. 1:49Longtail queries, zero search volume,
48. 1:51hidden gems, hyper local searches, and
49. 1:54breaking topical niches. Here's how that
50. 1:56plays out in the real world. When I roll
51. 1:58out a new niche or client sites, I never
52. 2:01try to chase high volume terms on day
53. 2:03one. Instead, I write 10 to 15 articles
54. 2:06around a subtopic with everything
55. 2:08linking to each other. Also, I try to
56. 2:10focus on filling in the gaps for
57. 2:12questions that do not get answered. So,
58. 2:14this strategy of just ranking for terms,
59. 2:17anything that's not competitive, that
60. 2:19just gets some clicks on Google and then
61. 2:21using internal links, this is what's
62. 2:23going to be shared by Kyle Roof at the
63. 2:26end of the episode. Kyle Roof shares,
64. 2:28"How many internal links equal one
65. 2:30backlink?" Third comment from Studio 45
66. 2:33Sancet, who said, "Google's algorithm
67. 2:35has evolved significantly over the past
68. 2:3710 years. Earlier, link building was one
69. 2:40of the major strategies used to improve
70. 2:42keyword rankings. Today, a website with
71. 2:44highquality content, genuine eat
72. 2:46signals, and strong topical relevance
73. 2:48can rank well even without an extensive
74. 2:51backlink profile, especially for less
75. 2:53competitive keywords. However, highly
76. 2:55competitive keywords may still require
77. 2:58strong backlinks, authority, and a
78. 2:59comprehensive SEO strategy. Well, I like
79. 3:02that this person says that you can rank
80. 3:04without backlinks, but saying
81. 3:06highquality content is just meaningless.
82. 3:09What does highquality content even mean?
83. 3:11People throw that term around a lot. And
84. 3:14what's highquality to one person might
85. 3:16not be highquality to somebody else.
86. 3:18Everybody thinks that their AI slop is
87. 3:20not AI slop and it's great, but to the
88. 3:23outside viewer, it's still AI slop.
89. 3:25Highquality content means content that
90. 3:27satisfies search intent. So the people
91. 3:29who are actually seeing this content
92. 3:31from search are not dissatisfied and
93. 3:34going back to the search results to look
94. 3:36for something better and eat signals is
95. 3:38very contextual. The number one thing,
96. 3:40focus on satisfying search intent and
97. 3:43putting out content that targets your
98. 3:45keywords exactly. Fourth comment from AI
99. 3:48Searchcraft. Yes, especially if the site
100. 3:51targets specific low competition queries
101. 3:54where the existing results don't fully
102. 3:56satisfy the search intent. All right, I
103. 3:58think we're seeing a pattern here from
104. 3:59all these commenters. You can rank
105. 4:01without backlinks, but you want to
106. 4:03choose queries that other websites are
107. 4:06not targeting. This commenter says, "The
108. 4:08challenge is usually expanding beyond
109. 4:10those queries into more competitive
110. 4:12terms. I'd focus on building strong
111. 4:15topical coverage and making the content
112. 4:17genuinely useful first while earning
113. 4:19relevant links naturally over time.
114. 4:21Backlinks aren't a requirement every
115. 4:23ranking, but they can become a real
116. 4:25advantage as competition increases. And
117. 4:28that's true. That is also true. And the
118. 4:30last comment from this from Wilson
119. 4:33Alicia who said, "Yes, I think a new
120. 4:36website can rank without actively
121. 4:38building back links, especially if it's
122. 4:40targeting specific low competition
123. 4:42queries that established sites are not
124. 4:44covering very well." Super well
125. 4:46articulated. Focus on finding gaps where
126. 4:48you can provide a more useful answer
127. 4:50than what's already ranking. I would say
128. 4:52find gaps where the keywords that are
129. 4:55ranking are not being targeted and
130. 4:57that's really it. Or you could look at
131. 4:59the pages and if you think that the
132. 5:01pages really are not addressing the
133. 5:03search intent of the target keyword, you
134. 5:05can also try to make a better page. This
135. 5:07commenter says, "Strong internal
136. 5:09linking, good technical SEO, and content
137. 5:11that genuinely matches search intent can
138. 5:13give a new site a solid start, but in
139. 5:16competitive niches, backlinks and
140. 5:17established authority can make it much
141. 5:19harder to catch up." That's true, but
142. 5:21rather than competitive niches, I would
143. 5:23say competitive keywords. If you want to
144. 5:26rank for a keyword that lots of other
145. 5:27websites are already targeting and those
146. 5:29websites have real authority and you
147. 5:31don't, it's going to be a lot harder for
148. 5:33you. This commenter finishes, I wouldn't
149. 5:35avoid link building forever. Start by
150. 5:37publishing a small cluster of genuinely
151. 5:40helpful pages, monitor impressions and
152. 5:42rankings in search console and see where
153. 5:44the site gains traction before investing
154. 5:46heavily in outreach. All right, my take.
155. 5:48Can a new website rank on Google without
156. 5:50building back links? My answer is yes,
157. 5:53but it's going to take a while if you're
158. 5:56trying to rank for bottom offunnel
159. 5:58keywords that get enough volume to make
160. 6:00you money. Bottom ofunnel keywords don't
161. 6:02need a lot of volume to make money, but
162. 6:04they still need a little. And you can
163. 6:06rank for these keywords without links,
164. 6:08but it's just going to take longer. In a
165. 6:10lot of instances, it could take a lot
166. 6:12longer. So, should you not build links
167. 6:15just because you don't have to?
168. 6:16Absolutely not. There are very easy link
169. 6:19building methods. You can use relevant
170. 6:21directories. Super easy. Any website can
171. 6:24use boostbenchmark.com.
172. 6:26Boostbenchmark.com was made for SAS, but
173. 6:28there's lots of directories in there
174. 6:30that work for many different types of
175. 6:32businesses, local, ecom, go on podcasts.
176. 6:35Use aipodcastmatcher.com.
177. 6:37You will get back links from podcasts. I
178. 6:39went on 30 podcasts in 3 months using
179. 6:42that platform. There's helper reporter
180. 6:44out. There's source of sources. There's
181. 6:46connectively. Those are pretty easy.
182. 6:48It's journalists who need expert sources
183. 6:50for their articles, and you're that
184. 6:52expert source. Just don't respond with
185. 6:54AI. Or if you do, remove all the AI
186. 6:57giveaways. Make the answer super
187. 6:59concise. Don't have it read like AI.
188. 7:01There are, honestly, there's so many
189. 7:03easy link building tactics out there.
190. 7:05And the rewards are so crazy when you
191. 7:08chunk away at it over time. Don't try to
192. 7:10build all your back links in one week.
193. 7:12Just chunk away at it week by week by
194. 7:14week by week. The rewards, why do you
195. 7:16want to build backlinks? because you can
196. 7:18rank for some of the most lucrative
197. 7:20keywords in your niche. And the most
198. 7:21lucrative does not mean the most volume.
199. 7:24I came across this on X the other day.
200. 7:26This person said, "Do me a favor. Go to
201. 7:28Google, search apples, and let me know
202. 7:31if you see labons.com in the top search
203. 7:34results. We're working with a new SEO/PC
204. 7:37agency, literally one dude, and this was
205. 7:40the first blog post we've done with him,
206. 7:42and it's ranking above almost everything
207. 7:44nationwide, which is insane." So, I
208. 7:46searched apples, which has an estimated
209. 7:49monthly search volume of 137,000
210. 7:52searches a month, and this guy's site
211. 7:55was ranking between positions 1 and
212. 7:57three. I was seeing it at two, then I
213. 7:59was seeing it at one, then I was seeing
214. 8:01it back at two with an AI article, types
215. 8:04of apples, a complete guide to choosing
216. 8:06the best at the market. And the domain
217. 8:08authority of this site is only 27 out of
218. 8:11100. But remember, I said the most
219. 8:14lucrative keywords don't normally mean
220. 8:16the most search volume. Because Rob
221. 8:18followed up and he said, "To be clear,
222. 8:20this has translated to zero extra
223. 8:23business as nobody is buying apples from
224. 8:26us unless you live in a 10 mile radius,
225. 8:28but it's still wild to see and we have
226. 8:30no idea why the Google gods are in love
227. 8:32with it." But there is one there is one
228. 8:35nuance actually. This commenter on X
229. 8:37said, "Except you can actually generate
230. 8:40an ROI by interlinking that article to a
231. 8:42commercial intent page on your site
232. 8:45contextually within the article.
233. 8:46Interlinking hightraic pages to
234. 8:49commercial pages will almost always
235. 8:51boost the commercial pages in Google.
236. 8:53That's not theory and Kyle Roof is going
237. 8:55to explain that in a couple of minutes.
238. 8:57But if you have a page that's getting a
239. 8:59lot of clicks, that page is going to be
240. 9:01so valuable to put internal links into.
241. 9:03And since this is not a high intent
242. 9:06page, adding in more internal links is
243. 9:09not going to distract people from any
244. 9:11valuable call to actions. So actually
245. 9:13this page is a gold mine in disguise.
246. 9:16But still, the most lucrative keywords
247. 9:18don't normally mean the most search
248. 9:19volume. Another benefit to just chipping
249. 9:22away back links over time, you start to
250. 9:24rank for keywords other websites are
251. 9:26using to describe you. A couple episodes
252. 9:29ago, I shared pdffiller.com.
253. 9:31Super simple site. You just edit and
254. 9:33sign PDFs. That's all it is. It makes
255. 9:36$106 million a year. It has $860,000
256. 9:40paying customers. It has 15,000 keywords
257. 9:43in positions 1 through three on Google
258. 9:45ranks for a total of 233,000
259. 9:48keywords. And over the years, as it's
260. 9:50continued doing marketing and link
261. 9:52building, its brand has been described
262. 9:54in many different ways. As a result, its
263. 9:57homepage, which is optimized for none of
264. 9:59these keywords, ranks number one for
265. 10:02fake marriage license, car insurance
266. 10:04template, fill out a form, ranks number
267. 10:06one for all these keywords that it is
268. 10:08not optimized at all for because over
269. 10:11time it's gotten links that describe
270. 10:13this brand in different ways. So, if you
271. 10:15want to go deeper on building backlinks
272. 10:17and lots of great methods, episode
273. 10:201,218,
274. 10:21how to build local backlinks for under
275. 10:24$500 versus $5,000 a month. And those
276. 10:27strategies work way beyond local. They
277. 10:30work for ecom, they work for SAS. It is
278. 10:32a short episode and it's packed with
279. 10:35valuable link building strategies for
280. 10:37anybody. And now there's internal links.
281. 10:39So, according to the SEO legend Kyle
282. 10:43Roof on the podcast a few days ago,
283. 10:45>> if you have interlinking done properly
284. 10:47between those to a target page, you can
285. 10:48now take advantage of the strength that
286. 10:50you've built from your own site and it
287. 10:52it takes the place of some of the
288. 10:54backlinks you will need to rank. Um, but
289. 10:57I like to say we did, you know, three
290. 10:59supporting pages. A links to B, B links
291. 11:02A and C,
292. 11:04uh C links to B, and then they all link
293. 11:06up to that target page. And then as they
294. 11:09grow they pass that juice to each other.
295. 11:11They pass that juice to the target page.
296. 11:13But about three uh internal links of the
297. 11:16same value are equal to one external
298. 11:18link over that value. So just as a
299. 11:21random number, your site's strength of
300. 11:24however you like it is 30. If you have
301. 11:26three internal links at 30, that's equal
302. 11:27to one backlink of 30. And so you can
303. 11:30put out content on your site to take
304. 11:32advantage of that and limit the amount
305. 11:34of backlinks you need. It's safer. It's
306. 11:36faster. It's more effective and then
307. 11:38you're actually getting traffic out of
308. 11:39it too if you're doing it through
309. 11:41supporting content that's interlin. And
310. 11:43that was episode 1,213.
311. 11:46Kyle Roof ranked gibberish number one on
312. 11:48Google. Then Google de-indexed 20 of his
313. 11:50sites. Such a good episode that was. And
314. 11:52this is episode 1,220 of the podcast.
315. 11:561,220
316. 11:58days in a row doing this show. If you
317. 12:01want to learn how to find these
318. 12:03highintent lucrative keywords that other
319. 12:05people are not targeting, the types of
320. 12:08keywords that were discussed in this
321. 12:09entire thread, keywords that actually do
322. 12:11have enough volume to bring you
323. 12:13customers, to bring you users, to bring
324. 12:15you leads, but are still undertargeted
325. 12:18because companies don't know how to
326. 12:19target keywords properly. And so they
327. 12:21just rank for them accidentally because
328. 12:23maybe somebody described their brand in
329. 12:25that way, but you come in with the exact
330. 12:27relevant page and then you rank over
331. 12:29them. and your pages convert more
332. 12:31because you're making it for the
333. 12:33specific keyword with the intent in
334. 12:34mind. If you want to learn that method,
335. 12:36that's entirely what my SEO course,
336. 12:38Compact Keywords, is about. It's about
337. 12:40doing SEO that makes you money. So, you
338. 12:43can get that at compactkeywords.com.
339. 12:45If you watched this episode of the show
340. 12:47on YouTube, thank you so much for
341. 12:49watching. If you listened on Spotify or
342. 12:51Apple Podcasts, thank you so much for
343. 12:53listening and I will talk to you again
344. 12:56tomorrow. Bye now.