Here are 5 proven ways to Increase Search Traffic without building backlinks

There are many ways to increase search traffic.

I’ve asked search traffic expert, Anil Agarwal, to show you how to do it without building backlinks.

This is important to know because, hey, search traffic is free traffic.

People simply search for your content via search engines like Google.

And if you’ve used some of the suggestions Anil gives you in this article, your article could appear in the top listings.

That can drive lots of traffic your way, and you don’t have to pay a penny for it!

Now, do you have your blog set up to actually make money?

If so, you’re all set to go.

Increasing search traffic will certainly improve your chances for having a profitable blog.

So let’s see how to do exactly that.

Here Are
5 Proven Ways to Increase Search Traffic
Without Building Backlinks

by Anil Agarwal

Hands down, building quality backlinks to your site is a surefire way to increase your search rankings.

But link building is NOT the only way to get more traffic from search. 

You can do it even without links. Link building is becoming harder day by day and you really need to put a ton of effort to attract quality links.

So if you’re someone who hates link building but looking for proven ways to increase your search traffic, this post is for you.

Can You Increase Search Traffic Without Backlinks?
Here are 5 Ways to do it

1. Focus on the “long tail”

Long tail keywords are low hanging fruits. They usually contain 4 or more keywords. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in.  If you want quick results with SEO, you need to start targeting long tail keywords.

Why focus on long tail keywords?

Long tail keywords have so many advantages including;

• They are easier to rank in search engines. (That’s because they usually have low monthly searches when compared to head or short tail keywords)
• You can target a more specific audience with long tail keywords
• They also cost you less per click (PPC ads) while doing paid advertising 
• Above all, long tail keywords convert better as they are laser focused!

So how do you find long tail keywords?

One of the easiest and fastest ways to find long tail keywords is to use Google autosuggest.

Just enter a keyword phrase of your choice in Google search. It then starts showing you keyword suggestions automatically.

Here’s what it looks like:

As you can see above, “benefits of lemon juice” is a 4 word long tail keyword.

But you can find even more detailed long tail keywords with low searches and competition. Google autosuggest helps you with that as it is suggesting a ton of keyword variations like:

• The “Benefits of lemon juice on face”
• And “Benefits of lemon juice for hair”
• Or “Benefits of lemon juice on skin”
• And so on

Long tail keywords convert like crazy.  That’s because they help you with everything on your topic.  Even if you’re looking to increase your sales through deal pages – just target highly specific long tail keywords.

Quick tip: Install Keywords Everywhere (a free browser extension for Chrome).  It shows you useful Google keyword search volume and cost per click data on multiple websites. As you can see above, it’s displaying the monthly searches along with CPC value just adjacent to the keyword suggestions. 

Here are few more tools which are extremely helpful in finding really profitable yet low competitive long tail keywords.

• LSI Graph
• Serpstat (of course, it has great features)
• Keywordtool.io

2. Google loves in-depth articles

Gone are the days where you can get first page rankings on Google by writing a 500 word article. Google loves in-depth articles that adds value to the people.

In fact, 2000+ word articles perform really well in Google search.

Brian Dean from Backlinko did an interesting analysis on search rankings. He found that the average word count of a Google first page result is 1890 words.

And it’s not just Brian Dean’s findings.

There are so many case studies that have been performed by authority sites like Buzzsumo and HubSpot.

And they conclude that “long form articles perform really well in both the search engines and social media.”

So if you’re looking to increase your search traffic without actually building backlinks, creating in-depth content is the key.

Are you wondering about how to create in-depth articles to increase your organic traffic?

Here are few incredible tips for you.

Come up with an evergreen topic idea:

There’s no point in writing in-depth articles around “ordinary topics” which fade away after a year or two. You need to find “timeless topics” which can be relevant to your target audience even after 3 to 5 years. 

How can you find evergreen content ideas?

• Analyze your competitors.
• Ask your target audience.
• Brainstorm various topics.
• Use tools like Buzzsumo.
• Find questions on Quora.

There are so many ways to find evergreen topic ideas. 

Research, research, research:

The key to writing in-depth content is this: spend more time on research. The more you spend on the research part, the easier it gets for you to write longer articles. Try to cover A to Z information about the topics you’re going to cover.

Write, don’t edit until you finish:

One of the common mistakes most people make while writing is they often edit. Just outline your article. Use Google Docs. Put references and start writing. Don’t edit until you finish writing. That’s the key to writing long form articles really quickly.

3. Rank for the “featured snippets”

Have you heard about Position Zero in Google search?

Position Zero is an incredible feature that Google has implemented. It provides “faster information” to users above the fold on Google. If you’re ranking for Position Zero, you’ll be getting more visibility in Google organic search results than any other result.

Position Zero is also known as “Google featured snippet”.

Here’s what a featured snippet aka Position Zero looks like:

As you can see above, when you enter a search term like “who is Elon Musk”, Google shows a featured snippet. It includes all the quick information about Elon Musk, who is the real world Ironman.

That means, searchers don’t have to scroll through a ton of web pages to find key information about Elon Musk.  They can simply read the featured snippet to get a quick idea about him.

That’s why Google is more inclined towards showing featured snippets.  They want to improve searchers’ experience while browsing on Google. 

How to rank for featured snippets:

According to Ahrefs, 99.58 percent of the featured snippets are already in the top 10 positions in Google. That means, if you want to rank for featured snippets, you must first get into the top 10 search results for your desired keywords. 

To get into the top 10 search results for a keyword, you must choose low competition keywords. 

Analyze your competitors to see what type of content they are creating to get into top 10 search results for a keyword.

Above all, try to answer users’ queries.  Google wants to provide direct and relevant answers in the search snippets most of the time. 

So you must answer your target audience queries.

You can use platforms like Quora to find what are all the questions they have in their minds. Answer them in the form of your blog posts. 

Refer our detailed guide on getting Google featured snippets. It gives you more in-depth data and tips on how to rank for featured snippets. 

4. Find and improve underperforming content

Updating old content is one of the most underrated SEO strategies. To get more traffic from search engines, you don’t always have to create new content. 

Update your old posts with new improvements (along with relevant keywords). This can help you a lot in bringing more visitors from search. Make sure to use tools like Google Analytics to find underperforming content on your blog.

If your old blog posts are not bringing you any traffic or links, it’s time to start working on them.

Here are a few things you can do to improve your old content.

• Update
• Merge similar posts
• Remove (and use 301 redirects)

Let’s talk about each one of them. This will help you can understand how to improve your old content.  And that will help you to get more traffic from search engines in 2019 and beyond.

Update old blog posts

Let’s say your old blog posts are not bringing you any traffic from search engines.  It might be mostly for one reason: “missing keyword research and optimization.”

Make sure to come up with at least one primary keyword to target in every blog post you publish. If your old blog posts are missing keywords, then find relevant primary keywords to optimize your existing content. 

Also, improve your old blog posts.

Do this by 

• tweaking your headlines,
• and your meta description,
• adding more images,
• linking to other relevant pages,
• adding new information,
• and so on. 

The key here is to make your old content as helpful and as relevant as possible. This will impress both your audience and the search engines. Once you’re done with updating your posts, use Google fetch to let search bots crawl your URLs quickly. 

Merge similar posts into one

If you’ve been running a blog or website for some time now, you’ll probably have few (or a lot) of similar blog posts. They are likely to be targeting the same or relevant keywords. 

It’s better to find all such relevant pages and merge similar posts into one. Make it a mega blog post. It helps you avoid keyword cannibalization. But it also helps you get better rankings and links in the long run. 

Delete (if all fails)

If your old blog posts are not relevant or useful to your audience, you should probably remove them.  And make sure to use 301 redirects so that the link juice can be preserved to existing posts. 

5. Optimize your blog posts like a pro

On page optimization can help you move your keyword rankings in Google search.

You need to be careful while optimizing your blog posts for your target keywords, though. Most people end up stuffing the same keywords again and again.  That’s called keyword stuffing. It’s bad for your rankings in the long run.

You should know how to properly optimize your pages. And you need to include your target keywords in the right places.

These include…

• Title tag
• Meta description
• Image ALT tags
• URL 
• Subheadings such as h2, h3, h4 etc
• Throughout the body. Sprinkle LSI keywords to avoid keyword stuffing.

If you’re using WordPress, there are 2 incredible optimization plugins you can use.

These are:

• WordPress SEO by Yoast
• Rank Math

Let’s briefly talk about the two.

WordPress SEO by Yoast: This is the ONLY plugin we’ve been using on all of our sites for a long time. In fact, we’re using the premium version of it because it is worth every penny. If you’re looking to easily optimize your blog posts for a focus keyword, this plugin helps you with that.

The plugin also suggests you where to put your focus keywords. This is to better optimize your blog posts to get more visibility in search engines. I highly recommend it for all kinds of bloggers. 

SEO by Rank Math: This is new to the party, but is creating a lot of positive buzz lately. It helps you target multiple keywords and .  This will optimize your posts for rich snippets.  It easily integrates with Google search console.  SEO by Rank Math even tracks your keyword rankings. You can do a ton of other incredible things with this plugin. 

Conclusion about increasing traffic without backlinks

Link building is definitely one of the top ranking factors in Google. But still, there are many more ways you can grow your organic traffic without links. In fact, there are over 200 ranking factors.

The key to ranking high is to create evergreen content that adds value to your target audience. In addition, you should be using long tail keywords. And frequently update your existing content with relevant information.

Learn More About Donna’s Top Tier Mentoring Program

So how do you try to increase search traffic to your blog or website?

Do you spend way too much time trying to build backlinks?

How helpful is it to you to have learned of these 5 Proven Ways to Increase Search Traffic Without Building Backlinks?

Please leave your questions or comments below.

And also, be sure to share this article on your favorite social sites.

Thank you.

-Anil

About The Author

Anil Agarwal is the guy behind Bloggers Passion blog where he is helping newbie as well experienced bloggers in taking their blog’s search traffic & revenue to the next level. You can connect him on Facebook here.

• Bio
• Blogging Magic

Donna Merrill

Donna is a well known blogger and creator of "Blogging Magic" - an intensive guide to blogging. "Blogging Magic" is for beginners who are trying to figure out how to bring their blogs to life with tons of visits, comments and social media interaction. It's even for advanced bloggers looking to reach new levels of authority and engagement with their audience.