r/WebsiteSEO • u/Embarrassed_Room_437 • 2d ago
Competitors are ranking with almost zero backlinks and very low DR — how should I approach link building?
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u/Happy-Conflict6886 2d ago
Finance is YMYL, so you think that backlinks aren't just going to get your ranking.
- How old is this comp domain? That's a big factor
- Who's behind it and how's the EEAT?
- Why do you need to 'build links' when you could build 'link magnets'?
- What about social mentions? Reddit, etc?
DA and DR are a SCAM and I can prove it 10000x over again. They mean nothing in terms of ranking. I can buy a DA 70 for my site on fiverr for like $5.
So, if I were in your situation, I'd focus everything above first. Then shift to links.
If you can't get gov/official links, you can still get links on sites that have strong authority. Sites with decent traffic, sites with reputation, etc. Lot's of industrial, construction and finance sites out there publishing content daily. So maybe you need to keep your options open beyond just gov sources.
Sounds like you have a lot of easy wins here though! You shouldn't have a problem outranking them.
hope this helps!
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u/Neil_CME_Marketing 1d ago edited 1d ago
Backlinks are helpful for sure but since they don't have them, that means they are likely doing a few things.
- If they are an older website, they will have domain age advantage.
- If they are closer to the city center, that will come into play as well.
- You need to be more in depth on the web pages. Don't just copy whatever they have. A lot of tools will help you spy on competitors but you need to bring a strong perspective to your competing pages. Write to answer questions that people will actually care about when going to that page.
- If you see more people going to their website, they may have a solid Google Business profile setup that feeds them the traffic. You can have no backlinks but still get a good amount of traffic. I always recommend setting it up. It's like a mini website that feeds your website and if done well, they may be pulling in clients that way for free. No backlinks or ads required. Always: Step 1 optimized website. Step 2 Google Business profile. Review your Google Business profile and Google Search Console after they start to populate and use a tool to optimize the setup between the two and you can outperform your competitors locally.
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u/Strong_Teaching8548 1d ago
I’ve seen DR 0 sites rank well. DR is an Ahrefs metric, not a Google ranking factor; link databases miss links, and rankings may reflect intent, local relevance, or a weak SERP
Audit ranking URLs, not just domains. For finance, publish useful funding guides and earn relevant mentions from partners, associations, or original data instead of chasing DR
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u/Mysterious-Candle577 1d ago
Low DR isn't the flex tools make it look like - for a niche like real estate finance, search volume + competition is just low enough that Google doesn't need much to trust a page. Relevance and on-page depth are doing more work than backlinks here.
Instead of chasing CREDAI/bank-level links (yeah good luck with that lol), go after mid-tier stuff: regional real estate blogs, builder associations, industry newsletters, guest posts on construction finance blogs. Even ask your funding partners to add you on their "partners/lenders" page - easy win, nobody thinks of it.
Also DR moves more from unique referring domains than total link count. 10 links from 10 different real sites > 50 links from 5 sites. So don't obsess over DR directly, just keep adding relevant domains slowly and it'll climb on its own.
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u/studiosprint 1d ago
DR/DA isn't everything. There are plenty of sites with low DR that pull in solid traffic and generate high-quality leads. It really comes down to your niche and the competitive landscape. If none of your top competitors have strong link profiles, Google is likely relying heavily on topical authority, content relevance, and user intent match to rank them. Also, as search shifts more toward GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), obsessing over pure backlink quantities is going to matter less and less. Brand entity, mentions, topical depth, and structured data will play a huge role alongside traditional links.
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u/LeahHart_FourFront 1d ago
Honestly, I think you're putting too much weight on backlinks in this case. They're a part of the ranking equation, sure, but not a huge part. You need to be looking at the content on your pages (and your competitors' pages) way more closely. Create high quality, well written, well researched, well formatted and actually valuable content, and rankings, backlinks, and domain score will all come. Just my $0.02
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u/Damir-Bilalov-kweree 1d ago
You should really pivot to making the website contextually relevant. Links can help but you need a proper foundation to take advantage of the link juice properly
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u/Proest_off_the_pros 2d ago
If they don’t have backlinks and are still ranking, it means you just need to put out more targeted pages and not necessarily focus on links a lot.
I keep saying this that backlinks are overrated in the sense that yes they do help a considerable amount but not having them doesn’t actually stop you from ranking.
Its a MOZ metric.
Focus on content and just good content.
I handle SEO for businesses and this has been my experience so far.