Digital marketers and SEO experts know that link-building is the hardest task to accomplish. And it gets even harder when you’re doing e-commerce link-building.
Search engines are allergic to promotional links. They see these links as paid links and that you’re buying links to manipulate the algorithm. And if you link your product in a “promotional” anchor text, you are in a bad position.
You can always earn links from other link-building strategies other than guest posting. But the core problem here is that you’re linking to a product, and that product is on sale. Google might think of this as linking to the product just to get some sales.
So here’s an article that will guide you to a 100-day regimen for proper e-commerce link building. But first, let’s see why you need links for your e-commerce website.
- The Need for Link Building in the E-commerce Industry
- Complete Step-by-Step Guide for E-commerce Link Building from Day 1 to Day 100
- FAQs
The Need for Link Building in the E-commerce Industry
According to a recent study from Statista, the projected sales in e-commerce for this year peak at $5 trillion. That’s a lot of money – and it only gets higher in the next coming years.
Popularity is crucial for an e-commerce website. You can convert the traffic to sales with a good marketing and funneling strategy. And links will get you the traffic that you need.
You need links for:
- Brand Awareness and Authority
- Trust Factor
- Relevance of Product
There are other benefits of link building. But these 3 are the most beneficial for your e-commerce website for a higher ROI.
A. Brand Awareness and Authority
Brand awareness is the process of promoting a new brand or a brand’s product and brand authority refers to the process of building trust between the brand and customers. It is an important aspect of e-commerce link-building. And to get the authority you need for your brand, you need to build backlinks.
Links give authority to your site in two ways:
- Domain Authority (DA) and Domain Ranking (DR) are two factors that dictate your site’s authority. The more high-quality backlinks you earn, the more authoritative your site will be. Higher authority means your site will appear more on SERP.
- More backlinks mean more brand awareness. And with more people knowing about your product, the more organic traffic you can gain. This could be leveraged to convert this traffic into sales.
B. Trust Factor
As mentioned in our last article about link building, backlinks contribute a lot to establishing authority. Your site will be more trustworthy in the eyes of search engines if you have more links pointing back to your site.
The same is true when it comes to outbound links. Visitors will also see your site as a credible one if you cite authoritative websites in your articles.
If they trust your site, visitors will more likely buy your product or subscribe to your services. It’s easier for visitors to move down your sales funnel if they trust your brand.
C. Relevance of Product
Gaining links from relevant websites in your niche is a great way to boost your ROI. These links allow you to reach out to an untapped market that’s looking for products similar to yours.
Let me give you an example. If you’re an SEO reseller, it’s a good strategy to get links from other SEO-relevant websites. This way, readers who are looking for SEO-related assistance can find your services.
Like any other aspects of SEO, all you need is some patience and hard work to build relevant links to your site.
Complete Step-by-Step Guide for E-commerce Link Building from Day 1 to Day 100
1. Day 1 to Day 30
a. On-Page SEO
Let’s start our guide with one of the most regarded aspects of SEO. On-page SEO is concerned with the on-page elements of your money page. This should be optimized so that prospects will find what they need to find on your site to convert them into sales.
Here are some on-page SEO elements that you should optimize to increase your traffic:
- Title Tags – should be unique and relevant with keywords.
- Header Tags – should include primary and secondary keywords related to the article.
- Alt Text and Image File Names – should clearly describe your product and its function.
b. Technical SEO
We dive more into the technical aspects of SEO because this could also help you optimize your e-commerce site. It makes your site more visible to search engine users and provides them with the product they’re trying to find.
Here are some technical SEO tips that can help you gain traction with your audience:
- Your site (especially your money page) should be responsive and quick to load.
- Your e-commerce site should be easy to navigate. It shouldn’t take more than 3 clicks to reach what users intend to reach.
- Your site should be mobile-friendly. No matter what device your users are using, your page should be compatible and responsive.
Here are some parameters to check if your website is SEO optimized:
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- Core web vitals from the Google Search console
- Check for Schema.org Markup and rich snippets
Nobody likes a dysfunctional website – it only leads potential customers AWAY from your website. If it’s too technical for you, hire an SEO expert to save some time and effort with this.
c. Audience Research
Optimizing your site is a stretch, but to make it work, you have to target the right audience. To gain high-quality backlinks, you have to reach enthusiastic audiences with websites of their own. Letting them know that your site exists is a good leap to gaining links from them.
Once you know what keywords they used to reach your page, you’ll have an idea of the kind of content that users need. It will be easier to gain valuable backlinks for your website if you know what your prospects are looking for.
d. Brand Registration
Brand Registration is a process of registration that provides protection to a brand name and helps in launching the ownership of the brand name or logo of a company. For your brand to be popular, you have to be present on the platforms that your prospects use. You must register your brand on online marketplaces, social media sites, web directories, and web 2.0 sites to gain links.
You must register your brand on these websites:
Social Media Websites:
- YouTube
Web Directories:
- Google My Business (GMB)
- Yelp.com
- YellowPages.com
- Foursquare
- Apple Maps
- ProductHunt.com
Web 2.0 Sites:
- WordPress.com
- Medium.com
- Blogger.com
Online Marketplace
- Amazon
- eBay
- Etsy
- Facebook Marketplace
Once you’ve registered your brand on these platforms, you should follow it up by making relevant content for your niche. You can easily earn backlinks from these shareable assets.
2. Day 30 to Day 60
a. Competitor Analysis
Now that your accounts are all set, it’s time to do a little background research about your competitor. If you know how your competitors get their backlinks, you can use the same strategy for your benefit. There’s no reason you can’t get the backlinks that your direct competitors have.
However, inspect the backlinks that your competitors have. Some of them might be less valuable (or completely nonsense) for your product. Linking to these sites may harm your website instead of helping it gain traction.
Here are some tools to check the backlink profile of your competitors:
- Ahrefs Site Explorer Tool
One of the best tools for keyword research, backlinks, search volume, rankings, etc. - Moz Link Explorer Tool
It helps in analyzing the backlinks, linking domains, anchor texts, etc. It helps in creating high-quality content. - MajesticSEO
As it is considered the best backlink checker, Majestic SEO mostly focuses on link analysis.
Read More: Website Competitor Analysis (15 Tools and 5 Tips)
b. Leverage Video and Content Marketing
When it comes to link building, content is one of the most important assets you can leverage. Through high-quality and unique content, consumers will find your site interesting. If it’s helpful for your niche, other brand and blog owners will link to your pages.
The key here is finding the right content that your audience will link to. It doesn’t have to be formal all the time. You can let your creativity explode and take over to make an engaging post.
Videos help you relate more to your audience through narratives or casual talk while still bringing your brand forward. It’s also flexible with different types of audiences. You can make a technical how-to video and a humorous commercial for all kinds of people.
c. Create Product Features to Share
Marketing your product is one thing. Featuring other products in your blogs is another. If your brand is brave enough to feature other products without any worry, it makes your credentials better.
Featuring other products can also gain you multiple backlinks all from a single post. For example, you’re in the guitar-making niche and you create a listicle of the best guitars. If you mention other guitar brands, they might feature your article in one of their posts.
d. Include Your Product on Roundups
Product roundups are effective articles to gain backlinks. Just like product features, features other products in an article. Don’t forget to include your product on these roundups that you make.
Product roundups appeal to a huge audience. This opens up a lot more opportunities for your outreach campaigns and e-commerce link-building.
e. Digital PR
Press releases on the Internet are more of high stakes, high rewards. You need to generate a PR that works like a magnet for the press. Once they know about your brand, you can build business relationships with them.
To get your audience’s attention, you have to think of crazy, out-of-this-world ideas or products that will shake their nerves. It should immediately catch their attention to get their interest and link back to your site.
You can also produce infographics that can be helpful in your niche. Bloggers will find this relatable and helpful. It’s an easy way to earn one-way links to your site.
3. Day 60 to Day 90
a. Outreach and Guest Blogging
Since you’re reading this deep into the article, I can safely assume that you already know about outreach and guest blogging (guest posting). If you want to guest post on authentic blogs, you can opt for our guest posting services and save a lot of time.
In this article, we’ll focus on the types of links you can get for your e-commerce website.
Dofollow Link
A dofollow link passes PageRank from the host website to the receiver of the link. Earning dofollow links will signal search engines about your authority in your niche. The more dofollow backlinks you have, the more authoritative is your site.
The general rule about dofollow links is that they should always exceed the number of nofollow links. You can hire our blogger outreach services to make sure that you’re getting high-quality dofollow links for your e-commerce website.
Nofollow Link
These links are not helpful for your SEO since they don’t pass link juice. But they can help in another aspect.
First, they help in gaining more traffic. These are still high-quality links, so they are still seen by Google as authoritative sites.
Second, since a nofollow link doesn’t pass PageRank, you can use it if you’re linking to sponsored links, affiliate links, or user-generated content. It won’t pass PageRank if you add a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the website you’re linking to.
b. Develop Partnerships With Other E-commerce Businesses
E-commerce businesses related to your product can be your ally, especially for startups. Things that go hand-in-hand (like frying pan and spatula) can partner up to improve e-commerce link building.
And since we’re in the latter days of our program, you already have an established website for your e-commerce business. You can easily sell your product to partners and prove to them that your relationship will be profitable.
It’s easier to build links from your business partners than on a random blogger’s website. It also serves as a recommendation from the other company. You can also increase your traffic since you’re gaining affiliate links.
c. Influencer Outreach and Marketing
Consumers nowadays are hyped up by big brands and sponsored ads from influencers. That makes it harder for smaller brands and startups to keep up with the trend. But influencer outreach and marketing can help you create powerful assets that influencers will be interested in.
You need to get influencers to talk about your product. You can give them samples of your products for free. Let them review the product and link back to your site to boost your traffic.
People see influencers as role models, thus the name influencers. And if they recommend a product, their subscribers will most likely try your product out.
4. Day 90 to Day 100
a. Monitor Unlinked Brand Mentions
And now you’re done with your outreach, it’s time for some things you need to manage to improve your e-commerce link building. After doing all those efforts, you must monitor the unlinked brand mentions that you get.
You might get mentioned on a blogger’s feature without them linking back to you. This can also happen if they use a picture of your product without any citation. You can claim these unlinked brand mentions and earn one-way links.
b. Ask Customers for Product Reviews and Backlinks
If your customers had a great experience with your product or services, you can ask them for their recommendations and product review. Positive reviews will attract bloggers to link back to your site.
When other people see great reviews and recommendations for your product, they will be more comfortable buying your product. When these 5-star reviews reach other bloggers in your niche, they might also mention your brand and link to you.
c. Interact With Community Forums
By providing helpful answers to relevant questions in your niche, people in Q&A forums will see your profile as an expert in your field. You can then promote your product by linking to it in your answers.
You can also end your answers with a signature containing your promotion and your link. It should look like this:
Remember to build your credentials first by answering questions before you talk about your products. And since you’ve established your credentials already, they can link back to your site directly.
5. Day 100+
After you’ve finished the 100-day regimen for e-commerce link-building, you should continue monitoring your link-building efforts continuously. Ahrefs Site Explorer tool will help you monitor what’s happening with your links. Maintain a good link profile and disavow harmful links to avoid getting flagged by Google.
E-commerce link building requires you to have patience because your efforts will not bear immediate results. You have to wait months (or even years) to see the fruits of your labor. Consistency is the key to building links for your e-commerce website.
a. Business As Usual
A hundred days are simply not enough to gather the links you need to rank on search engines. You need to maintain these link-building strategies and conduct a website assessment every once in a while. This makes sure that your links are functional and not broken.
b. New Initiatives
E-commerce link building should not stay inside the box. There are out-of-the-box ideas that you can employ to gain more backlinks.
If you have new product ideas, make a ground-breaking announcement to promote awareness. You can build links around this new product to snatch the attention of your regular customers. This will drive traffic and other links to your new product.
Related Reads
- Best Link Building Tools in 2023
- 6 Ways To Index Backlinks Faster In 2023
- Link Equity: All You Need To Know In 2023
FAQs
1. What is the difference between On-page SEO and Technical SEO?
On-page SEO is a technique for improving the rankings on a site through page optimization. Technical SEO is a technique that leads search engines to crawl and index the site.
2. What is the importance of link building?
Some of the importance of link building is brand awareness, boosts Domain Authority, recurring income, building credibility, and increases visibility.
3. Why is there a need for audience research?
Audience research is a process where your company can understand the customer’s needs, it is a key element in content creation and they can build marketing and branding strategies.
Wrapping Up
While link building takes time and effort, your method of practice matters a lot. E-commerce is an ever-growing vertical that requires a lot of effort to establish. Set out your goals clearly, create methods, establish metrics, and work towards them patiently. Get yourself in touch with experts in the field to start off your link-building journey. LinkDoctor specializes in helping and solving problems at scale which will definitely help you start right.
