Ranking pages without REALLY strengthening domain

Hey guys, I am aiming to rank for a some very competitive international dentistry keywords and am facing an issue right. I have backlinks which are just enough to let me rank for these niches, but in the end the categories/articles backlink profiles will be a lot a lot stronger than the homepage links in quantity (8 categories/articles with about 90 backlinks in total for a domain with about 20 backlinks pointing to the homepage).

I don't care about getting banned as I highly doubt this will trigger a flag for google anyway, shit happens all the time and it is natural tbh, but would like to know if I'l be able to rank for the keywords this way. I know domain authority is the most important factor for ranking for keywords and I would like to know if google would let me rank for these very competitive keywords with a domain authority thats not very high compared to my competitiors just by dominating them in the backlink game.

Yes, creating links to pages DOES increase domain authority, however I don't want to be guessing what's going to happen and just ask people who have the relevant experience

the answer is not simple because google considers over 200 factors when deciding where to rank each page. Just because you're going to outlink your competition doesn't mean you're going to outrank them. Topical relevancy, domain's age and trust with google, user engagement, on-page SEO, site's popularity, and plenty other things will come into play. And even if you do all of these things by the book, google can simply show you the finger to force you to buy ads, or they can simply refuse to rank you for no particular reason.

I know that this is not what you wanted to hear, but it's the best answer I have at the moment. Just start doing things and see what happens, and you'll know what to do next after you notice the first results, good or bad

tazarbm said:

the answer is not simple because google considers over 200 factors when deciding where to rank each page. Just because you're going to outlink your competition doesn't mean you're going to outrank them. Topical relevancy, domain's age and trust with google, user engagement, on-page SEO, site's popularity, and plenty other things will come into play. And even if you do all of these things by the book, google can simply show you the finger to force you to buy ads, or they can simply refuse to rank you for no particular reason.

I know that this is not what you wanted to hear, but it's the best answer I have at the moment. Just start doing things and see what happens, and you'll know what to do next after you notice the first results, good or bad

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You're completely right but I'm doing good with all of the things that you mentioned. These guys don't use ads either for the topics I'm considering. If you were to assume all other factors to be equal, would you tell that I'd be doing good by going this route or should I consider weighing in more on my homepage?

I'd do like you: point them to the pages that I want to rank. If those backlinks are good they'll definitely improve your rankings and then you can throw some of them to the homepage, as well

tazarbm said:

I'd do like you: point them to the pages that I want to rank. If those backlinks are good they'll definitely improve your rankings and then you can throw some of them to the homepage, as well

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Figured I'll just buy some to get things straight but I think it'll work regardless. Thanks man

I recommend that you not neglect building branded and generic links to the homepage if you’re going to be ranking inner pages. I’ve ranked websites in the past just by building links to the inner pages. Those websites all vanished from the serps starting in late 2019. I had about a 5 year run of good rankings with those websites.

I do believe it could have been because of no new content for a couple of years, but my niche doesn’t really require new content. There’s just not that much to talk about. I published new content anyway and built branded/generic links to the home page. Rankings did improve. Some queries I never came back for.

So to sum it up, don’t negelect the home page. 30% of the links I build now go to the home page as branded/generic links.

Zombie Pop said:

I recommend that you not neglect building branded and generic links to the homepage if you’re going to be ranking inner pages. I’ve ranked websites in the past just by building links to the inner pages. Those websites all vanished from the serps starting in late 2019. I had about a 5 year run of good rankings with those websites.

I do believe it could have been because of no new content for a couple of years, but my niche doesn’t really require new content. There’s just not that much to talk about. I published new content anyway and built branded/generic links to the home page. Rankings did improve. Some queries I never came back for.

So to sum it up, don’t negelect the home page. 30% of the links I build now go to the home page as branded/generic links.

Click to expand...

Thanks