How to Improve Your Rankings Without Link Building

Are you sick of your competitors outranking your content? How would you like to outrank them without even running a link building campaign?

What makes this possible is semantic search. Search engines today are using semantic search to rank sites. And there are tools to help you optimize your content. 

Do You Know What Semantic Search Is?

Semantic search means writing your content around topics rather than just focusing on keyword phrases.

Brian Dean of Backlinko, calls this type of content “topically relevant“. Optimizing your content for semantic search will help you write in-depth blog posts. However, without tools, this can be a cumbersome task.

How to Optimize for Semantic Search

You could use an advanced tool like SEMrush. Or you can use a simple, user-friendly tool like TextOptimizer.

To show you how this works, we have used this old post that needs updating and the keyword phrase “link building”.  According to TextOptimizer:

• Approximately 70% of pages optimized using this tool ranked higher within five weeks.
• More than 20,000 SEO specialists, webmasters, and business owners use TextOptimizer.
• You don’t need to be tech-savvy to use the tool.

I can personally vouch for not needing any technical knowledge. I have used the tool, am not a techie, have limited SEO knowledge, and found it very straightforward and easy-to-use.

How to Get Started

There are many features of TextOptimizer that are free to use. The process below will show you what you can do with the free version.

Go to: https://textoptimizer.com/ where you can get better rankings by optimizing the content already published on your site.

Put in your search term. This should be your keyword phrase. In this case, the keyword phrase is “link building”.

When you click “go”, TextOptimizer returns a lot of valuable information. The first chart tells you what the search engines think your text is about and why.

They even show you more about what your text is about and why.

Meeting the Expectations of Your Readers

When you write your content, you want to make sure it matches the user intent when they perform a search.

TextOptimizer breaks down your content into three categories:

• Those who want to understand or learn
• People who want to make a purchase
• Readers who wish to stay informed about a topic

How is Your Text Formatted?

You want your content to rank high in formatting so searchers will read it.

• How rich and diverse are the words you use?
• Do you have enough sentences?
• Are you using diverse verbs?
• Is your sentence length too long or too short?

The chart below gives you a score based on the above criteria.

The Words Used in Your Content

In the free version, TextOptimizer shows you some of the words you need to consider adding to your content.

To get a full list of all the semantically related terms, you will need to upgrade to the Pro version. We suggest trying to add at least 20 of the suggested words.

You should evaluate each suggestion to make sure it fits into your content and is relevant. The last thing you want to do is just throw words into your article that doesn’t make sense.

This will hurt you in the long run, as Google will see it as keyword stuffing. Although keyword stuffing used to achieve results, today you will get penalized for it.

Search engines have become wise to this practice and now will cause you to lose your rankings. It can even lead to your content being removed from search query results.

How to Determine if your Text is Optimized for Search

TextOptimizer analyzes the results of search engines and compares them with your text.

They then show you how to optimize your text by suggesting semantically related phrases to add and which ones to remove. 

Your next step is to click “Optimize my Test Now”. You will then select a search engine, either Google or Bing. We suggest selecting Google first as it holds the lion’s share of search.

You can always go back and follow the same steps to optimize your content for Bing.

We are still using the features of the free version. Isn’t it amazing how much information you can obtain for free?

Optimize Your Content for Your Keyword Phrase

At this next step of the process, insert your keyword phrase. For this post, we are using “link building”.

Here is another place where you will want to upgrade to get a list of all the semantically related terms to optimize your search for “link building”.

The current score is considered insufficient, with a score of 24%. Below is the image you will see with the free version.

With the pro version of TextOptimizer, you will get a list of semantically related words to include in your content.

Only use the ones that are most suitable and avoid ones that are not relevant or don’t make sense. Make sure any new words you use sound natural and are not just stuffed in to try to rank higher.

Remember you want to avoid keyword stuffing. Repeat this process until you reach at least 90% on the content rating.

The words that are in gray above are already included in your text. Try to add between 15 and 25 of the other words with the white background.

TextOptimizer also suggested action phrases for you to add to your existing content to encourage action on the part of the reader.

New Feature Helps You Build Full Sentences and Phrases

TextOptimizer has added a new, powerful feature to their valuable arsenal of tools. Not only does it suggest words and concepts for you to add to your already existing content or new content.

It also helps you build full sentences and phrases that you can add to create optimized content now. See screenshots below.

Suggested Questions to Answer in Your Content

The free version of TextOptimizer will show you several questions you might want to consider answering for your next blog post.

The tool will also show you the number of competitors who have already answered the same questions.

If you upgrade to the Pro version, you will be able to see millions of questions people are asking related to your keyword term.

Use TextOptimizer Before You Publish a Blog Post

If you prefer to find semantically related words before you publish a post, you can do that too. Start by clicking on “optimize” in the top bar navigation.

Then select your search engine. Remember to start with Google. You can come back and follow the same process again with Bing.

Insert the search term you want to optimize your content for, using your keyword phrase. In this case, we are using “link building”.

Now you will want to enter your keyword phrase as “new text”.

You will need the Pro version of TextOptimizer to get a full list of optimized words for better rankings on Google for your keyword phrase as seen in the screenshot below. In this case, we are using “link building”.

Below are suggested action phrases to add to your new text, helping you to create more actionable content.

Follow the same suggestions given previously for existing content.

See how much value even the free version of TextOptimizer offers? Compared to the complexity and cost of similar tools, even the pro version is a good value.

Are you ready to outrank your competition by optimizing your content for semantic search? Give TextOptimizer a try and improve your rankings without link building.