E-Commerce Link Building Strategies, Tips and Resources in 2015

March 25, 2015 - E-Commerce

It is impossible to imagine good search engine optimization without right link building strategy. The last one can turn your website into a successful e-commerce project with high traffic. At the same time, the wrong strategy can push it out of business. Keep in mind, that there are a lot of tactics that put the website in a risk of being penalized. Google continues to refine SEO standards, so you should be careful with all suspicious link building strategies.

Of course, spammy links and other inappropriate techniques often work in short term, but devastating return is inevitable. Unethical ways of creating links always leads to failure. Over the last few years, Google did a lot to make it almost impossible for unfair websites to operate unnoticed. Excessive link exchanges, low quality directories for link building, and repetitively use of exact keyword are all examples of prohibited actions. You should always remember, that in a case of link building quality over quantity rules.

It is much better to earn links. In order to do this, you should create unique and compelling content, and try to avoid the attempt to link your site with other sites that have no relation with your business niche. The best way to show your unique content to others is to incorporate social media – people will share it and you will get the increased visibility.

The way you create links is also extremely important. Remember, that you should use different anchor texts for inbound links. Otherwise, Google views your strategy as a mechanical link building, which affects your e-commerce SEO in a bad way. The same is about inbound links which lead only to homepage.

Table of contents

1 Key link building ideas for e-commerce websites
2 E-Commerce SEO Services And Link Building Resources

Key link building ideas for e-commerce websites

Create a Deal Page. You can use deals to earn more links. Instead of creating new page for every deal, you can use one generic deal page and list your current promotions there. Such page will amass a lot of external links and you customers will always know, where they can find new deals on your e-commerce website.

Deal Page at Overstock

Make Products and Categories share worthy. You can even create a fake category or product to generate media interest around it. Canned phoenix meat or dragon leather coat can attract attention. And don’t forget to specify that they are out of stock.
Use contests and giveaways. You can use contests and giveaways to target a specific audience and generate extra links. For example, sweepstake can create the buzz around your site. As a result, you will get new inbound links and extra traffic.
Invest in good PR. Non-professional campaign can do a lot of harm to your business, so don’t forget that miser pays twice.
Use brand mentions as links. Chances are, that brand mentions will work as links in nearest future, but until this happen you can ask people who mention your brand to add links which lead to your e-commerce store.
Create a blog. Blogging on different topics related to your e-commerce website is an easy way to earn external links. Blog should become the place, where you regularly post unique and interesting content.

Our Blog

Find the influencers. Try to establish contacts with bloggers and influencers from your niche. Links from their websites or blogs will positively affects your SEO. Follow them on social networks, repost and retweet their products or articles and share your content with them. In addition, you can create an interview with one of these experts and post it on your blog.
Use SEO services and tools. There are a lot of site explorer, backlink and other seo software that you can use to find out some useful information. Analyze link profiles of your closest competitors and try to figure out their advantages. With this information, you will be able to enhance your current link building strategy.

Ask manufacturers to post links to your e-commerce site, as they often have pages on their websites with the information about retailers sailing their products online.
Use high quality visual content. Create infographics, as they can result in a plethora of external links pointing to your site. Create how-to guides and product reviews. First of all you should think about your customers. The guides don’t have to be top quality, but they should be interesting and useful. As a result you will be able to promote your e-commerce store not only among buyers, but among other retailers, as they can post your how-to videos on their websites. The same is about any other visual content.

infogr.am

Don’t forget about industry forums. Participate in industry related forums and subreddits. By sharing your knowledge, you will be able to promote your store, blog or content and generate tons of external links.
Find websites that link out to other sites in your niche and ask them for a link back to your e-commerce store. You can also ask your friends and relatives to do the same.
Fix broken links. Use Check My Links extension to see which links are broken. Email the site administrator or owner about the broken links, and ask them to fix the problem.
Place your e-commerce store on such directories as DMOZ, BOTW, or FamilyFriendlySites.com. Keep in mind, that there are also a lot of niche specific directories on the web.

DMOZ

Create a unique icon set themed to your niche and submit it to icon site. You will receive a new external link and extra customers (if your icon set is attractive).
Try to get some .edu links, because .edu domains have a lot of authority. Sign up for an employee discount program of any university and get your link. You can also become a sponsor or post a relevant and informative content valuable for the university’s site.
Create a Pinterest profile and follow new people. The more people you follow (and the more people follow you), the more links you get. You can use Reddit to get extra links.
You should also build a Google Plus profile. It is a great investment for increasing your rankings.

Our Google Plus profile

Buy expired domains that have links pointing to them. Keep in mind, that they should be from your niche.
Leave comments on different blogs. Keep in mind, that blog commenting links are usually nofollowed, but they can attract attention to your e-commerce site. All your comments should be value-adding and insightful, otherwise, they will be recognized as spam.
Remember, that links from Wikipedia are nofollowed, but they can generate some traffic.