Link Building for Ecommerce: 6 Effective Strategies

eCommerce link building is an essential yet challenging component of SEO that’s also the most rewarding. The best link-building strategies for eCommerce have the right content strategies and tactics to build quality links and boost the visibility of your landing pages. Let’s review some of the most effective eCommerce link-building techniques to see how you can apply them to your online eCommerce store.

How Does Link Building Work?

Link building is the process of getting other websites to link to yours. Search engines count links as votes of relevancy, authority, and trust that, when compounded, boost domain authority and page authority. When ethically done, link building enhances SEO for eCommerce efforts.

The process of earning links as opposed to buying them (a black-hat SEO practice that can get sites banned from SERPs) takes time. Not all links are equal.

A link from a website like CNBC will have a greater impact than a link from a new startup.

High-quality links are challenging to acquire, but they’re imperative to achieve high organic search rankings.

Success Stories

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1.5X

increase in transactions

31%

improvement in conversion rate

Ecommerce

Matrix Home Fitness

760%

Increase in qualified leads & sales

23X

Increase in targeted traffic from SEO

174%

Improvement in conversion rate

Ecommerce

American Tent

28%

improvement in conversion rate

35%

INCREASE IN USERS TIME SPEND ON WEBSITE

Ecommerce

Alexis Bittar

800%

INCREASE IN REVENUE

21X

increase in targeted traffic from SEO

42%

improvement in conversion rate

Ecommerce

Blackhawk Supply

233%

INCREASE IN REVENUE

162%

INCREASE IN ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC

30%

INCREASE IN AVERAGE SALE PER-TRANSACTION

Ecommerce

SNAC

62%

INCREASE IN ORGANIC TRAFFIC

150%

INCREASE IN REGISTERED USERS

124%

INCREASE IN REVENUE

Ecommerce + Corporate

Blue Crates

6 Best Link Building Strategies for Ecommerce

Implementing the best link-building strategy for your eCommerce store can be the difference between having your site rank on the first page of a search engine instead of falling by the wayside.

1. Create a Blog

Blogs are excellent content marketing tools that allow you to publish link-worthy content. Advantageous link building occurs through developing and nurturing relationships with linking partners. Remember, blogs are about building trust, credibility and nudging users along the buyers’ funnel. They are not a hard sell.

Blogging helps link building by creating valuable content that attracts natural backlinks, boosting website authority and search engine rankings

When starting out, blog about your industry or products, but not your brand. Use your blog to build a network of bloggers, influencers, and credible companies whose links would be of value.

Once you’ve established relationships and your product, you’ll find others will naturally begin the process of link building by mentioning your products.

You can also pay influencers to create sponsored content about your product or send press releases out to worthy publications, depending on the industry you work in. Press releases work very well in the fashion and design industry, but then again, a company with specialized agricultural equipment may also be able to reach out to niche online publications relevant to their industry, for example.

2. Create an FAQ Section

Frequently Asked Question sections are linkable assets that provide solutions in your industry and drive highly targeted traffic to websites. They immediately improve SEO rankings because Google’s algorithms are designed to prioritize websites focussed on helping users access information they need.

FAQs can be linkable assets that drive targeted traffic and improve SEO rankings through providing industry solutions and helpful information

Perhaps what’s most advantageous about FAQs, beyond the obvious need to educate consumers, is their alignment with long-tail keywords. These keywords can be trickier to work into blogs or webpage SEO copy but are perfect for FAQs. For example, “How much does it cost to fix a roof?” might contain the long-tail keyword “cost to fix a roof” that fits in perfectly as an FAQ but may be clunky in other copy.

The problem-solving nature of FAQs makes their page rank higher on search engines, boosting website visibility. In theory, when users search for these queries, your post should pop up. Users are also more likely to share this type of linkable asset on social media, their blogs, and other forums, strengthening eCommerce link building.

3. Contact Your Partners

Suppose you’ve already picked the low-hanging fruit and reached out to everyone you know who can promote your product. In that case, you might consider launching an affiliate marketing program with selected brands and businesses. Affiliate marketing is a method of paying people to promote your product via a commission if their promotion leads to a sale.

In the eCommerce space, affiliate marketing provides the opportunity to earn additional sales through user-generated content, namely influencers. This is an excellent link-building strategy because it increases sales, drives organic traffic to your eCommerce site, and builds links.

If you choose the right affiliate partners, you will end up with links from high-quality sites.

This type of eCommerce link building doesn’t always directly affect ranking, but it boosts visibility and drives traffic to your store, resulting in more backlinks. The only challenging part is selecting the correct partners and ensuring the transaction is worthwhile for them.

4. Push Your Top Sellers

All online marketing strategies demand focussed efforts. Because link building requires others to mention your company or products on their websites, it’s better to concentrate efforts on top-selling products before diverging to others.

Make these product pages and content keyword-rich to encourage more visitors and conversions. Ensure their compressed images are high-quality and realistic to meet customer expectations (there’s nothing worse than ordering a product that looks different from what was advertised.)

Link building and top sellers are linked as focusing on promoting top-selling products attracts mentions on other websites, enhancing SEO and driving more targeted traffic and conversions

Running surveys with spot prizes and other competitions drive traffic to your website and boost link building, especially if the entry qualification into the competition requires users to share your webpage with others. Word of mouth is one of the oldest and best marketing tactics, too. This can introduce your product to prospective clients, boosting visibility and traffic.

5. Reach Out to Influencers

The best link-building strategies for eCommerce include sponsored product reviews. Contact suitable bloggers and influencers in your niche to see if they would be willing to review your product. With sponsored reviews, influencers typically get to keep the product in exchange for promoting it.

It is important to bear in mind that they are not obligated to give glowing reviews.

The aim of sponsored product reviews is to expose your product to untapped markets and boost visibility.

Hopefully, your product is good and so too is the review. Note that smaller influencers may be satisfied with the product as payment, but those with a massive following and some publishers may request monetary payment.

6. Engage in Crowd Marketing

Crowd marketing is a promotional technique that increases brand awareness and sales through the use of entrepreneurs and other individuals reaching out and interacting with targeted audience groups.

Many believe it’s the same as influencer marketing; however, it’s far more targeted. Instead of approaching a mass audience, it uses industry-specific forums and social media networks to directly promote a product or service to select audiences.

Much of the time, it encompasses a marketer, entrepreneur, or influencer participating in organic discussions related to a company’s unique value proposition.

What Are the Benefits of Crowd Marketing for Ecommerce?

Increase Brand Awareness

Crowd marketing generates a buzz about your brand and reinforces your position as an expert in your industry. Publishing useful articles, questions, answers, proposals, and comments regularly keeps your brand relevant across multiple channels. Think of crowd marketing as a way of sprinkling breadcrumb trails back to your eCommerce website to increase conversions.

Amplify Positive Brand References

Utilizing high-quality content strategically generates positive references and reviews, which builds a positive brand image. There’s nothing more important than cultivating trust with current and potential customers. Positive brand references are indispensable because they develop credibility organically, which customers and search engines love.

Reinforce Brand Authority

Another benefit of crowd marketing is the use of consistent, quality content that cements your brand as an opinion leader in your niche or industry. Because you’re targeting a specific audience segment, it takes far less time to establish and maintain brand authority.

Boost Referral and Direct Traffic

Crowd marketing keeps your brand relevant on multiple platforms. It also drives traffic from backlinks and customer referrals, increasing leads and the potential for new sales. When you make it a habit to update old content and actively engage in community discussions and forums, you naturally attract a constant stream of new customers.

What Types of Platforms Are Used for Crowd Marketing?

Crowd marketing utilizes a variety of platforms to help reach specialized audience groups, including the following:

Thematic Forums

Thematic forums are similar to social networks, except they’re more theme-driven. Think of examples such as Reddit or Quora, where there are sub-categories to chat about specific topics. Because thematic forums are specific, it’s important that whatever you post is accurate, relevant, and comes from an expert.

The forum you choose should also be respected and have high web traffic to help increase traffic to your eCommerce site. Tactics include commenting, product recommendations, responses, shares, questions, etc. The aim is to establish the individual who represents your brand as a trusted expert.

Social Media Platforms

It’s impossible to mention crowd marketing without noting the prevalence of social media platforms. Popular options include Facebook (groups) and Twitter because they’re more text-driven. If you’re planning to use social media, make sure you pick the most relevant network for your target audience.

Slowly begin participating in social media discussions on related topics. Avoid bombarding people with blatant advertising. You want to be genuinely helpful to your audience and passionate about whatever you are engaging with.

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Conclusion

The best link-building strategies for eCommerce entail identifying content links to build and cultivating long-term relationships that encourage link building. Do you think your eCommerce store needs more links? At Comrade Digital Marketing, we provide link-building services to boost SEO efforts and improve SERPs’ ranking. Contact us here for a free non-obligatory consultation.

About the Author

Stan Bogdashin

Stan co-founded Comrade Digital Marketing and serves as its marketing strategist and IT expert recruiter.

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