A real SEO example without backlinks - Google Top 10 in One Week

On our SEO example page we showed how we took this website from nothing to ranking for 'How to SEO your website' in less than two weeks without building or gaining any backlinks. In doing so we overtook 45,000,000 other websites ranking for this keyword phrase.

Hot on the heals of this, and before this website had gained any backlinks, that very page also started ranking for 'SEO example' and 'real SEO example'.

Remember this is also a brand new domain (we didn't buy an aged domain which might have made things easier) and a brand new website.

Here we'll show you how it happened and how we did it.

Diary of a SEO example without backlinks

Day 1 - 6th April

The website is now 36 days old and receiving traffic from multiple keyword phrases. We have already started to receive leads but no one has linked to this website yet. Today we added the SEO Example page.

Day 3 - 8th April

The SEO Example page goes top 5 in Google for the search term "real seo example" ahead of 72,000,000 pages already in Google's index that are ranking for this keyword phrase.

Day 25 - 1st May

The SEO Example page is now in Google's top 10 (averaging position 8) for 'SEO example' and averaging position 1 for 'real SEO example'. The first backlink to the site would not appear for another 3 weeks after this.

Seeing different results in Google?

We take our ranking figures from Google Search Console which gives 'global averages'. Each person's search results are skewed to reflect their geographical location and past browsing history so you may see our pages positioned slightly higher or slightly lower than we claim here.

How did we do it?

We didn't build any links or use any Black Hat techniques. We didn't buy a recently expired domain in the hope of fooling Google that we are an old trusted site back in action. What we did do is this:

• We created very comprehensive content in the subject area (SEO) and we made sure it was well written. We didn't go heavy on infographics although that might have worked even better!
• We did what we do - each page was search engine optimized before it was launched (and if you want to know how to do that yourself you are on the right website!

Sounds easy? Not really. Although we ranked on the first page of Google within a week we had spent many months creating the content for the website as a whole. Yes building backlinks helps content rank but better to build content which ranks on its own and attracts its own links.

We then used our extensive SEO knowledge and experience to make that content attractive and clear to search engines. In many cases this is all we do for our clients and it gets them ranked. We're able to do that because of the many years we've been working in this field. You can learn it too but it will take time.

Can we do the same for you?

If you would like to contact us about doing the same for your website please visit our SEO quote page

How to get started with SEO

So far we've sorted out how search engines rank pages and what SEO actually is. But before diving into Search Engine Optimizing the most effective first step is to understand where a website currently is. You can't work out how to get to where you want to go if you don't know where you are. To do that we need to understand SEO auditing.