According to a study in 2022, nearly 85.7% of e-commerce business owners focused on link-building for improved online site visibility and better brand reach.
So, if you own an e-commerce website and are not actively building backlinks yet, then you are probably missing out on a huge profit and audience reach.
Approximately 58% of business leaders experienced a major improvement in the search engine rankings of their e-commerce websites, with up to 9X revenue growth.
In this blog, we will share 9 e-commerce link-building strategies that have worked great for our own clients. So, keep on reading to have a detailed insight into link building strategies for ecommerce sites, their importance, challenges, and a lot more.
What is E-commerce Link Building?
E-commerce link-building is the strategic process of getting your business website linked to authoritative resources. Backlinks act as the ‘brand recommendations’ by the already established websites in your industry.
In simple words, link-building helps your e-commerce business site reach the right audience just at the right time when your potential leads want to invest in the services or products offered by you. This drastically improves your sales and revenues due to the right kind of brand exposure.
E-commerce Backlinks Vs. Traditional Backlinks
So, now you know how important it is to build backlinks for your e-commerce website.
But, wait!
If you are thinking that the traditional link-building strategies will work for you this time, then it’s probably time to think again.
E-commerce link-building is a bit different from traditional backlink acquisition.
| E-commerce Link-building Vs. Traditional Link-building | |
|---|---|
| ✔️ Drives traffic on individual site pages such as product pages, category pages | ✔️ Improves mainly the site’s authority score and ranking on the SERPs |
| ✔️ Backlinks are acquired from product-specific resources | ✔️ Industry-relevant resources are good enough for backlink acquisition |
| ✔️ Focuses on a specific product/service | ✔️ Focuses on the website as a whole |
| ✔️ A strategic approach | ✔️ Less targeted approach |
| ✔️ Boosts sales and revenues | ✔️ Improves the site’s online visibility |
| ✔️ Backlinks secured on review websites | ✔️ Backlinks secured on blogs, news sites, etc. |
Top 5 E-commerce Site Pages To Get Linked
Before we get into this, it is important to consider the ultimate goals of implementing link building strategies for ecommerce sites. Since the e-commerce website owners want to boost their sales, we have listed 5 website pages that you should definitely get linked to authority sites.
This has worked for our clients, and we hope it will work for you, too.
✔ Place a link back to your product page on authoritative review websites to drive referral traffic directly and boost traffic conversion.
✔ Do not forget to acquire backlinks for your blog posts and articles because when posted on social media platforms, they act as powerful traffic magnets.
✔ If you want your audience to explore a wide range of products for the best user experience, add a link back to your category pages.
✔ Building backlinks for your home page is crucial if you want to build trust and credibility with your audience and ensure a strong brand presence.
✔ Connect with your audience and establish brand authority by acquiring backlinks for your About Us page. Share your brand’s unique story and mention the Unique Selling Points for a strong brand reputation.
Why is Link-Building Important for An E-commerce Site?
With each passing year, link-building has evolved to be one of the best strategies that can help you boost your site’s search engine rankings and online visibility.
However, e-commerce websites are different compared to most other traditional business sites in terms of business objectives and marketing approach.
So, acquiring quality backlinks for e-commerce business sites is not just important, but also essential, as they help your brand reach a larger audience.
The outcomes of strategic e-commerce link-building include:
✔️Increased brand exposure
✔️Enhanced audience trust
✔️More organic traffic
✔️Better conversions
✔️Increased sales
✔️More business revenues
9 Ways to Build E-Commerce Backlinks
Here, we have shared only those link-building strategies that have worked for our e-commerce clients. However, the results might alter in your case, but these are worth implementing. Also, we will talk about some of the most common link-building techniques that are truly effective sometimes.
💡 Create Linkworthy Infographics
Crafting informative infographics about your products not only educates your audience but also attracts backlinks from other industry leaders, bloggers, and business owners.
The benefits include:
☑️More backlinks
☑️Increased brand awareness
☑️Better user experience
Creating infographics is easier if you follow a few steps.
Here is the process:
✅Research well about the popular trends in your niche
✅Observe the marketing trends, user preferences, and behavior
✅Select a particular topic relevant to your products
✅Collect not-so-common data, reports, insights, etc.
✅Work on the design and make it visually appealing
✅Add outstanding images and brief content
✅Include elements such as charts, graphs, tables, etc.
✅Share it on social media platforms or community forums
Key ideas for infographic creation:
✔️Product comparison
✔️Recent product findings
✔️Product benefits
✔️How-to guides
✔️Industry reports
Sharing the infographics on relevant community platforms will draw the attention of the industry leaders, earning your e-commerce sites valuable backlinks.
💡 Look into Resource Pages
Industry resource pages link to relevant content, tools, or data resources. So, getting backlinks from resource pages is a great idea if you want to establish the authority of your e-commerce website.
Resource page backlinks will improve your site’s:
☑️Referral traffic
☑️User experience
☑️Niche authority
☑️Credibility
☑️Business revenues
Linking your e-commerce site to resource pages is easier because they are:
➡️Less competitive
➡️Easy to acquire
➡️Diverse
A lot of websites often create organized resource pages by categorically listing the outbound links to other resources. So, it broadens the scope of backlink acquisition in general.
Here are the steps to follow:
👉 Identify the right resources first
- Type [your niche+resources] on Google
- Or input search engine queries like [your niche+useful sites]
- Analyze your competitors’ backlink profile
- Check out websites with curated resources
👉 Check these parameters to ensure resource page quality
- Industry relevance
- Niche authority
- Engagement metrics
- Credibility
👉 Reach out to the editor/resource page owners
- Prepare a personalized message
- Focus on the user benefits of your resources
- Explain briefly why linking to your site will enhance user experience
👉 Craft useful, informative, and valuable user content
- Focus on creating link magnets such as blogs, articles, guides
- Try to align the subject of your content with the resource page theme
- Address specific user needs and queries through your content
Best content ideas for resource page link-building:
- Articles
- Blogs
- Tools
- Software
- Ebooks
- Case studies
- Reports
- Research findings
- Webinars
- Podcasts
The secret to success with this link-building strategy is to provide value to your audience. Resource pages are highly authoritative, and when you acquire backlinks from such resources, you ensure greater website exposure and improved audience reach.
💡 Leverage Online Directories
Online directories are resources with business listings, categorized by location, industry, and services or products offered. Getting your e-commerce business details listed in local directories is a great link-building strategy, promising massive business growth online.
Backlinks from directories provide your site with:
✅Increased visibility
✅Referral traffic
✅Authority and credibility
✅Improved rankings on Google
Here are the quick steps for directory link-building:
✔️Identify relevant online directories
✔️Keep a check on their authority scores
✔️Select the right business category
✔️Enter your business details ( Name, Address, Phone number, site URL)
✔️Write a precise business description and mention the Unique Selling Proposition
However, here are a few things to avoid:
❌Relying solely on directory link-building
❌Purchasing paid backlinks
❌Neglecting local/general business directories
❌Not monitoring the relevance of the backlinks acquired
Focusing on acquiring backlinks from authoritative and relevant online directories will help you build a diverse backlink profile for your e-commerce business site.
💡 Reach Out to Professionals
This is more of an approach to ensure the best link-building outcomes.
Reaching out to renowned industry leaders and business owners will help you secure premium backlinks from relevant authoritative resources.
However, let’s discuss the benefits first:
👉Better industry network
👉Improved audience trust
👉Enhanced site credibility
👉Increased traffic
👉Enhanced site visibility online
Steps to a successful influencer outreach:
✔️ Identifying Target Websites
- Analyze your competitors’ websites
- Keep a check on niche-specific blogs
- Leverage social media platforms & forums
✔️ Craft A Personalized Mail
- Start off by writing a compelling subject line
- Draft a few catchy lines about your expertise
- Mention what you liked about their sites the most
- Explain briefly how your resources will improve their user experience
- Also, address the common issues you found on their sites
- Propose your site resources as better alternatives
- Ask the site owners to link back to your site
- Offer value in return for the backlink (niche edit/guest posting)
✔️ Write a follow-up email if you do not hear anything from them
✔️ Focus on relationship building
- Connect with suppliers and manufacturers
- Focus on adding value to their site in some way
- Partner with relevant influencers for site promotion
- Collaborate with bloggers for product marketing
- Communicate with your audience as much as you can
A few examples of value-added content:
- Guest posts
- Links to your product page
- Product reviews
- Infographics
- Videos
Growing your industry network is the easiest way to secure high-quality backlinks for your e-commerce sites. However, link-building is a time-consuming process, and you need to be patient throughout the outreach journey for the best outcomes.
💡 Digital PR
Around 52% of the e-commerce website owners prefer this link-building strategy above others due to its strategic simplicity.
The technique is all about leveraging the popular digital platforms and media publications to ensure solid exposure for your e-commerce websites.
Digital PR link-building improves your site’s:
✔️Online visibility
✔️Niche authority
✔️Organic traffic
✔️Conversions
✔️Sales
Here is the quick link-building process:
✅Start off by creating unique content such as data-rich stories, research findings, infographics, surveys, & guest posts
✅Participate in online discussion forums and connect with reporters or journalists
✅Pitch your brand stories or updates about upcoming events to reputed media partners
✅Collaborate with relevant influencers for product review and honest feedback
✅Address the negative comments and constantly track brand mentions for a strong brand presence
Bringing your e-commerce brand stories into the limelight or sharing brand and product-specific updates on relevant platforms will earn your site high-quality backlinks from reputable media publications and news outlets.
💡 Develop Affiliate Partnerships
This link-building technique is particularly helpful for e-commerce businesses because this industry relies heavily on advanced marketing techniques. And what could be better than leveraging industry partnerships to promote your site as a beginner?
The benefits include:
✅Natural backlink acquisition
✅More referral traffic
✅ Improved brand reputation
✅Increased site awareness
✅A huge growth in sales
The steps are quite simple:
👉 Build A Strong Network
✔️Identify your target audience base
✔️Analyze your competitors’ backlinks to find out potential affiliate partners
✔️Join affiliate networks to grab affiliate marketing opportunities
✔️Communicate more with your audiences for valuable recommendations
👉 Join An Affiliate Program
✔️Create a dedicated page to inform your partners about your affiliate program
✔️Provide them with links to join your program, compelling product descriptions, banners, etc.
✔️Set a definite amount that you will pay your affiliates for generating new sales
✔️Share the unique affiliate link or coupon code with each of your affiliates
✔️Monitor the rates of clicks, conversions, or commissions earned through marketing software
👉 Collaborate, Inspire, & Track Progress
✔️Partner with your affiliates for engaging product reviews, guides, and tutorials
✔️Inspire them to brainstorm new content ideas and promote your products
✔️Offer lucrative incentives or increased commissions to encourage your affiliate partners
✔️Track the quality and relevance of the backlinks acquired and monitor site metrics
Affiliate marketing expands your industry network and helps you draw attention and acquire backlinks from the leading e-commerce business owners and their websites.
💡 Product Reviews
Getting your e-commerce products reviewed by influential bloggers and site owners will help you secure backlinks from high-authority industry resources.
Wondering how to build links with this strategy?
Here is the process:
✔️Identify the most reputable bloggers in your niche with a huge number of followers
✔️Reach out to them, introduce your products, and ask them for an honest review
✔️Quote their feedback on your commercial site or add video clips for added transparency
Apparently, this is an easy link-building process.
However, the biggest advantages are:
✅Acquisition of premium backlinks
✅Strong business awareness
✅Positive brand reputation
✅More referral traffic
✅Increased sales
Product reviews by popular influencers help you build trust and credibility with your audience, leading to a potential increase in your sales and revenues.
💡 Create Roundup Posts
Round-up posts are blogs and articles that link to other valuable resources in your niche, such as pricing calculators, tools, research findings, product reviews, descriptions, user guides, etc.
Getting your site linked to such roundup posts will earn you:
✔️Increased site visibility online
✔️Stronger relationship with site owners
✔️Enhanced traffic generation
✔️Improved brand credibility
Now, there are two ways to build backlinks using this strategy.
✅ Process No.1: Roundup Post Creation
👉Research trending topics or audience queries in your niche
👉Identify your target audience
👉Craft high-quality content that addresses their issues
👉Reach out to influencers and bloggers personally
👉Explain why linking back to your resources will improve user experience on their sites
👉Ask them politely to link back to your site/content
👉Share your roundup posts on social media or other relevant platforms
✅ Process No.2: Get Your Site Featured in Roundup Posts
👉Update your site’s content and work on its visuals
👉Make sure the content is authentic, credible, and valuable for the audience
👉Connect with bloggers and editors of round-up posts
👉Explain why a link back to your site would be a valuable addition to their roundup posts
👉Modify or edit your content so that it aligns with their interests
If your site contains valuable data and products, the roundup post creators will definitely link back to your site. However, focus on offering real value to the users for high-quality backlink acquisition.
💡 Collaborate with Industry Leaders
The strategy is all about partnering with the complementary business owners, brand leaders, and influencers & leveraging their solid network for your e-commerce site promotion.
Implementation of this link-building technique will:
☑️Boost your site traffic
☑️Increase brand credibility
☑️Make your network with industry leaders stronger
☑️Enhance niche authority
☑️Improve online site visibility
A quick insight into the link-building process:
✔️Identify complementary businesses/brands
✔️Reach out to bloggers with a huge number of followers
✔️Partner with suppliers, manufacturers, & thought leaders
✔️Brainstorm collaborative ideas for engaging content creation
✔️Be live on social media platforms
✔️Arrange for online events or product tutorials
The secret to success includes active promotion of your site or products on relevant platforms and connecting with industry leaders or brand owners to ensure improved e-commerce business awareness, and reaching out to your target audience.
Other E-Commerce Link-Building Strategies That Work 💯
Apart from the techniques already mentioned, there are some other link-bulding strategies that work for almost all business niches.
They include:
➡️ Look for unlinked brand mentions where a site has mentioned your e-commerce site/brand/exclusive product and ask them for a link back to your site.
➡️ Create engaging and informative articles/blogs and guest post them on relevant and reputable resources for brand exposure.
➡️ Propose other site owners in your niche to insert a link back to your site in an already existing content as a better alternative.
➡️ Fix broken backlinks on other relevant websites and add a link back to your site as a good replacement.
5 Challenges of Building Backlinks for E-commerce Sites
⛔ Highly competitive business industry
⛔ Features mostly product pages that attract a limited number of backlinks
⛔ Difficulty in engaging content creation
⛔ Lack of resources to acquire premium backlinks
⛔ Often fail to dominate the market due to already established e-commerce sites
Dos and Don’ts for E-commerce Link-Building
| Dos 👍 Don’ts 👎 | |
| ✅Be focused on quality content creation ✅Create as many infographics, videos, and linkable visual assets as you can ✅Try to connect with popular e-commerce site owners ✅Prioritize influencer collaboration and strategic outreach ✅Monitor your site’s backlink profile regularly ✅Leverage social media connections, digital PR, media publications, news sites, etc. | ❌Never buy backlinks from PBNs/link farms ❌Focus on quality backlink acquisition instead of quantity ❌Make sure the target resources are specific to your products ❌Never use the same anchor text for link-building ❌Try to offer real user value through your content ❌Adopt a country-specific link-building approach for the best results |
Top 8 Tools for Effective E-commerce Link-Building
- Ahrefs for a comprehensive competitor backlink profile analysis
- SEMRush for backlink quality and referring domain analysis
- Moz Link Explorer for analyzing the target website’s Domain Rating, authority score, and link-building opportunity
- URL Profiler for backlink audit in bulk and in-depth URL metric analysis
- Mailshake for effective influencer outreach campaigns
- Hunter.io to find email addresses and other contact details of site owners
- Screaming Frog for fixing the internal linking structure
- Google Search Operators to find valuable guest post opportunities
Dominate The SERPs with Powerful E-Commerce Backlinks
A strong backlink profile of your e-commerce site helps your site secure the top spot on the search engine, leading to enhanced organic traffic.
If you are suffering from low authority score of your e-commerce sites, limited traffic or conversion, and poor sales or revenues, it is time to boost your site’s online visibility and lead generation through premium backlink building.
Focus on high-quality link-building, competitor backlink profile analysis, expert marketing, and blogger outreach.
If your e-commerce site is visually appealing and features useful products and information, you will successfully secure backlinks from authoritative resources by implementing the aforementioned link-building strategies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. How many backlinks should I build for my e-commerce business site?
Ans: To make the backlink profile for your e-commerce business site stronger, you should focus on acquiring quality backlinks, even in a limited number. Though there is no ideal number of backlinks that you must aim to build, it is good to start with building 4 to 10 high-authority backlinks per month. However, for a budding website, securing 3 to 5 backlinks per day is more than enough.
Q2. Should I buy backlinks for my e-commerce website?
Ans: Buying backlinks for your commercial websites is not something that the search engine approves of. The practice is against Google guidelines and comes with severe consequences, such as search engine penalties and even unindexed websites.
So, it is better to follow ethical link-building practices even if it takes time. However, if you do not want to hire an in-house team, partner with professional link-building agencies to ensure quality backlink acquisition.
Q3. How long will it take to show some improvements in my site’s Google rankings after building backlinks?
Ans: There is no definite timespan that can guarantee you improvements in the search engine rankings for your site. Factors such as backlink quality and authority of the target websites often determine the success of link-building campaigns. However, within 10 to 12 weeks of building backlinks, you might observe slight improvements in the search engine rankings of your website.
Q5. What is backlink analysis, and why should I do this before building backlinks for my e-commerce site?
Ans: Backlink analysis refers to the structural and systematic evaluation of the quality, number, and contextual relevance of the backlinks to your e-commerce site. Analyzing your e-commerce website’s and your competitors’ backlink profiles will help you set a clear road map for your link-building journey.
You will get detailed insights into the type of content that gets natural backlinks, relevant link-building resources, strategies, and much more. Based on this analysis, you can plan your link-building strategies and implement them for a stronger backlink profile of your e-commerce site.
Q4. Should I acquire social media backlinks for my e-commerce business site?
Ans: Yes.
Backlinks to our e-commerce website from popular social media platforms and relevant social media forums are highly valuable. They ensure a greater site exposure and better reach to a larger audience, leading to increased online site visibility, organic traffic boost, improved conversions, and sales.
Q5. Are affiliate links considered valuable backlinks?
Ans: Affiliate links are ‘nofollow’ backlinks from other relevant commercial platforms. Though they do not contribute to making your site secure the top rankings on the SERPs, but definitely increase your e-commerce site’s awareness and drive referral traffic. However, Google often finds affiliate links to be manipulative and considers the link-building technique a form of paid advertising.
Q6. What kind of backlinks would be harmful for my e-commerce business site?
Ans: As we all know, not all backlinks are equal. Some are truly detrimental to your site’s health and might get it penalized or even unindexed forever. So, avoid buying backlinks from spammy and low-quality resources such as link farms and PBNs. Also, do not acquire backlinks from irrelevant websites or resources that post contextually different content or hacked websites.
