Effective Link Building Strategies for eCommerce

Ranking category, product, or brand pages should be the primary focus of most e-commerce SEO efforts. E-commerce sitewide conversion rates hover around 2–3%, but product pages can reach over 30% (an average of 7%) in the right circumstances.

Link building for e-commerce websites is difficult. There aren't a lot of obvious opportunities to get links to product and category pages. But, thankfully, there are some. In this post, we'll go over some of the most effective link-building strategies for eCommerce websites.

What is eCommerce Link Building?

Link building for e-commerce is a very important method of digital marketing. It mainly deals with getting inbound links, which are also called 'backlinks,' from outside websites that carry good reputation to your online store.

These backlinks guide possible customers towards your shop, enhancing the visibility and power of your website in search engines. The links work like votes of trust, according to search engines, making it better placed in search results.

Link building helps search engines understand your website's value. Both external and internal links enhance the visibility of your site, making it easier for search engines to crawl through it.

Although many people who own sites know about making internal links via on-page optimization, building off-page links could be harder, more expensive and not within their control or skillset.

Websites that have a robust link profile show good performance in search engine results, they attract traffic, reach their target audience, and create income. This highlights the importance of link building for ecommerce success.

How Does eCommerce Link Building Work?

Getting other websites to link back to your site helps in making your ecommerce site more visible and simple for the people you want as customers to locate. You can construct ecommerce link building strategies such as guest blogging, collaborating with influencers, producing excellent content, or mending broken links on other sites.

If one site links to another, search engines see it as a vote of confidence in the linked site's content. This can make your own site rank higher in search results. In the online market that is filled with many competitors, having more high-quality backlinks means better visibility and profit for your site.

Link building isn't an overnight process. It begins with making great content that invites links organically. You must also make efforts to connect with other sites for potential linking and form good associations with influencers in your industry. Keep a constant eye on your backlinks and evaluate them to identify what works best. Enhance your strategy, understanding that the quality of connections matters more than their quantity in link building.

8 Effective Link Building Tactics For Ecommerce Brands

1. Make Use of Video Content

Through walk-throughs, narratives, and in-depth instructional videos, video content helps you bring your brand's products and the stories behind them to life. You can also use this medium to create a variety of content for your target audience, ranging from educational how-to, funny stories, and slapstick comedy. This is very helpful in the quest to create effective links that engage customers and increase click-through rates. Video content ranks well on Google and has the potential for featured snippets. 87% of marketers say video has helped increase sales. Creating fun, engaging video content on topics related to your business's niche is a great way to attract links and more customers. Increase your audience by hosting the video on YouTube and then monitor the analytics to see who is embedding it. This can provide you with opportunities to reach out to relevant blogs and request a link back to the original page on your site.

2. Work With Influencers

E-commerce brands should collaborate with influencers to boost the impact of social media on online shopping. Influencer marketing is a key channel for eCommerce due to its impressive ROI, high engagement rates, and effective targeting.

Four out of ten consumers have bought something recommended by an influencer. Influencer marketing leverages influencers' credibility through sponsored promotions, making it highly effective for eCommerce brands of all sizes.

However, millennials, the largest consumer group, are becoming skeptical of major brands and sponsored messages. This skepticism makes it harder for e-commerce brands to connect with them. Influencer marketing, which relies on trusted recommendations, can help overcome this challenge and build customer loyalty.

3. Use Integrated Content Marketing

As Google's algorithms evolve to prioritize organic links, brands are shifting to a content-focused strategy. Instead of directing customers to specific product pages, they are building an internal linking structure that integrates content marketing. This approach enhances the customer journey and improves link-building effectiveness, making it a worthwhile investment.

At the core of this link-building strategy lies the blog, which serves as a platform for hosting relevant and high-quality content. By generating authoritative links, the blog acts as a natural pathway to specific product pages. This approach not only engages customers and improves link quality, but product-related posts also guide readers to commercial pages on your website.

4. Do Guest Post Updates

You can do guest post updates by asking editors if you can update one of their existing blog posts. They are more effective than regular guest posts because you can pick out a post that already has backlinks, resulting in a stronger backlink to your site. You can use them to create links to product pages occasionally, but they're most useful to get links to blog posts and other informational content.

You can find guest post update prospects using a variety of tools. Look for non-competing, outdated posts that mention a topic about which you already have content. In order to find blogs with a lot of backlinks, it is important to focus on pages with a lot of referring domains. Also, keep the domain rating of the sites in mind so that the link you build is strong. This adds value to your blog pitch and may help improve organic rankings and traffic.

5. Be a Guest on Podcasts

Being a guest on podcasts not only boosts your visibility but also earns you links back to your website. Podcast hosts typically link to your site in their episode posts, leveraging their audience's engagement.

To land podcast spots, highlight your unique skills or knowledge. Craft a compelling pitch tailored to the show's style and tone after listening to a few episodes. Introduce yourself briefly, showcase your expertise, and explain why you'd be a great fit. Mention specific topics or perspectives you can discuss.

Podcast links tend to bring engaged traffic, enhancing your site's SEO significantly. These links can give you a competitive edge in search rankings, as they are often overlooked by others in your industry.

6. Post Curated Lists of Statistics

Statistics pages present facts and figures about a specific topic. They often attract backlinks because those looking for statistics on Google are usually bloggers and journalists looking for sources for their articles. As a result, publishing a list of curated statistics relevant to what you sell is an easy way to attract relevant backlinks to your site.

Because e-commerce sites don't always have a lot of resources to conduct unique studies, curating statistical pages is a simple way to do this. Curate a list of statistics from government data sites or primary research studies and combine them for the reader to save them time.

First, find out what statistics people are looking for. Type in keywords related to your business. Also, before deciding on a topic, look at the SERP to see which pages are ranking high. You should ideally see a lot of backlinks to them. This shows that people are looking for statistics to include in their articles. It's then just a matter of creating your own statistics page and outreaching for backlinks.

7. Look For Unlinked Mentions

An unlinked brand mention occurs when your brand name, products you sell, or team members' names are mentioned in a blog post or webpage without a clickable link to your website. These mentions are opportunities to secure links to your homepage or specific brand pages.

Authors who already know about your brand are more likely to consider adding links when they notice these unlinked mentions. This familiarity makes them more receptive to your request for links.

You can use Google Alerts or Ahrefs to find unlinked brand mentions. Create Google Alerts for your brand name and any variations of it to start. This will notify you via email whenever your brand is mentioned online. Check to see if the mention includes a link to your website, and if not, contact the site owner to request one. For each website, you should know metrics such as domain rating and the number of referring domains. These metrics will help you decide which websites to approach for link-building opportunities.

8. Resource Page Link Building

A resource page is a web page that lists and links to valuable resources, tools, or content related to a specific topic or industry. Find or create high-quality, informative, and valuable content for your website that would work well for resource pages to start. This could include blog posts, articles, tutorials, guides, infographics, tools, and other types of content that provide value to users. Look for resource pages in your niche or industry that might want to link to your content.

Check the quality and relevance of the resource pages you come across. Look for pages with high domain authority, users who are engaged, and relevant content. Then, send a polite, personalized email to the website's owner or editor, explaining who you are and why you believe your content would be useful on their resource page. Make a point of mentioning the specific benefits your content provides and how it will benefit their audience.

Final Thoughts

To drive high conversion rates, e-commerce businesses must rank category, product, or brand pages in Google search results. However, because of the nature of e-commerce, getting high-quality backlinks to these pages can be difficult. E-commerce websites can benefit from effective link-building strategies. Implementing these strategies can increase the visibility and success of your e-commerce website.