The ecommerce market continues to grow exponentially, with projections suggesting 20.8% of retail purchases in 2023. Hence the need for link-building strategies becomes more critical than ever.
Operating within an increasingly saturated online environment means improving your website’s visibility and authority on search engines is crucial. Studies indicate that search is the primary source of external traffic for about 35% of ecommerce sites, highlighting the importance of strategic SEO practices like link building.
This strategy not only drives traffic to your site but also amplifies your online presence, supports your site’s credibility, and improves your SEO ranking. Therefore, developing a well-planned link building campaign is integral to the success of your ecommerce business.
So, let’s dive into eight effective link building strategies that can help you stay ahead in the competitive ecommerce industry.
Ecommerce Link Building: Obstacles and Resolutions
There are several challenges that you may come across while building quality links for your business. But there is no point in worrying, as there are many solutions available that can help you build a strong backlink profile.
8 Link-Building Strategies for Your Ecommerce Business
When it comes to achieving your business goals, the path to success is constantly evolving, demanding unwavering adaptability and a keen strategic sense. Here are some practical and result-driven link-building strategies to follow.
1. Use Unlinked Brand Mentions
One underutilized strategy involves capitalizing on unlinked brand mentions. Whenever your brand is mentioned online without a corresponding link to your site, it is an opportunity.
Monitor these mentions, then contact the website owner and request a link addition. It’s a straightforward strategy that can produce substantial results.
Step 1: Set Up Brand Monitoring
Start by setting up brand monitoring to track your brand mentions across the web. Tools like Google Alerts, Mention, or Awario can be incredibly helpful. Set up alerts for your brand name and any common variations or misspellings.
Step 2: Assess Mentions
Not every mention of your brand is worth pursuing a backlink. Assess each mention for relevance, audience fit, and the site’s quality. Factors like domain authority, relevance to your niche, and overall content quality are important considerations.
Step 3: Identify Unlinked Mentions
Next, identify brand mentions where the site hasn’t linked to your website. These are your opportunities.
Step 4: Craft Your Outreach Message
Once you have found a quality, unlinked mention of your brand, it is time to reach out. Craft a friendly, professional message to the website owner or the piece’s author. Express your gratitude for the mention and kindly ask if they’d be willing to add a link to your site.
Also read: Cold Email Strategy: 9 Tips for Your Outreach Campaigns
Step 5: Specify the URL for the Link
In your outreach message, specify the URL to which you want them to link. It could be your homepage or a specific product or service page, depending on the context of the brand mentioned.
Step 6: Follow Up
If you don’t receive a response after a week or two, send a polite follow-up email. Sometimes, messages get lost or overlooked, so a gentle reminder can go a long way.
This approach to leveraging unlinked brand mentions can enhance your link-building efforts significantly. Remember, though, the key is to be respectful and value-oriented in your outreach. Effective link-building is as much about building relationships as it is about gaining links.
2. Reverse Product Image Link Building
Reverse product image link building is a powerful yet underutilized strategy for ecommerce businesses.
With this approach, you can gain high-quality backlinks and additional visibility for your brand. This ecommerce link building process can help you in many ways. Here’s how it works:
1. Start with Unique Product Images: This strategy ensures that your ecommerce site uses unique images for each product. Generic stock photos won’t work as they are widely used and not unique to your brand or products.
2. Perform Reverse Image Searches: Once you have a collection of unique product images, you can perform a reverse image search using tools like Google’s reverse image search or TinEye. These tools allow you to find other websites that are using your images.
3. Identify Unlinked Images: When you find a website that’s using one of your product images, check to see if the image is linked back to your site. If it is not, you have discovered an unlinked image.
4. Evaluate the Website: Before reaching out for a backlink, evaluate the website to ensure it’s a place you want your brand to be associated with. Consider the site’s relevance to your business, its authority, and its audience.
5. Reach Out to the Site Owner: If the site checks out, the next step is to reach out to the site owner or webmaster. Politely let them know they’re using an image from your site and ask if they’d be willing to provide a link to your product page. Make it as easy as possible for them by providing the exact URL.
6. Follow-Up: If you don’t get a response, it might be worth sending a follow-up email after a week or two. Remain professional and courteous, as you are asking for a favor.
7. Track Your Results: As with any link-building strategy, tracking your results is essential. Keep an eye on your referral traffic and rankings for the product pages to which you are trying to build links.
Remember, while this strategy can be a great way to build high-quality backlinks, it requires consistent effort and monitoring.
The key is to remain proactive and persistent. With time, effort, and the right guidance, this tactic can significantly enhance your ecommerce site’s SEO. For a comprehensive understanding, consider reading a link building guide that’ll help you get through easily.
3. Pitch Guest Post Updates
Guest post updates are an innovative spin on the traditional guest posting strategy. Instead of creating brand new content for another website, you offer to revamp an existing piece of content.
Find Outdated Content: Look for content in your industry that is outdated or lacking in-depth information. Use tools like SEMrush or Buzzsumo to find popular content in your industry that could use an update.
Create a Proposal: Approach the site owner with a specific plan for how you will update the content. Ensure your proposal adds value to the existing content by adding recent statistics, incorporating new developments, or providing a more thorough analysis.
Incorporate Your Link: When you update the content, add a relevant link to your site. This should be done naturally and should add value to the content, not distract from it.
4. Resource Page Link Building
Resource pages are dedicated pages on a website that link to helpful content on a specific topic.
Find Relevant Resource Pages: Search for resource pages that are relevant to your industry.
Assess Your Content: Review your existing content to find pieces that add value to these resource pages. The content should be high-quality and offer unique insights.
Reach Out: Contact the website owner, propose your content for their resource page, and explain why it would add value for their readers.
5. Rank Curated Statistical Pages
A curated statistics page is a collection of statistics from various sources compiled in one easy-to-read page.
Collect Relevant Statistics: Gather statistics from credible sources relevant to your industry.
Create Your Page: Organize these statistics on a page in a way that’s visually appealing and easy to navigate.
Promote Your Page: Share your page on social media, newsletters, and relevant forums. You can also contact other websites and suggest they link to your statistical page if it’s relevant to their audience.
6. Get Listed on the “Where to Purchase” Pages
Many manufacturers have a “where to purchase” page on their website that lists approved distributors or retailers.
Identify Opportunities: If you are an authorized seller of certain products, ensure you’re listed on the manufacturer’s “where to purchase” page.
Reach Out to Manufacturers: If you are not already listed, contact the manufacturer to request inclusion. This can drive highly targeted traffic to your site and improve your SEO.
7. Create Linkable Assets
Linkable assets are quality pieces of content that draw backlinks organically.
Identify What’s Link-Worthy: This could be an in-depth guide, original research, a unique tool, or a piece of high-quality content unique to your site.
Create Your Asset: Build your linkable asset, ensuring that it provides evident benefit to the audience and is relevant to the industry you work in.
Promote Your Asset: Share your asset on social media, in email newsletters, and by contacting other sites that might be interested in linking to it.
By applying these strategies, you can build a diverse backlink profile, significantly improving your site’s visibility and authority in search engines.
8. Publish Curated Statistics Pages
Curated statistics pages are essentially compilations of important, relevant, and unique data points and statistics pertaining to a certain topic, industry, or niche.
They are typically presented in an easy-to-read, visually pleasing, and well-organized format.
When executed effectively, these pages can serve as a valuable resource for others in your industry, prompting them to link back to your page and thereby increasing your site’s authority and visibility.
Remember, link building is not a quick-fix solution. It takes time, patience, and consistent effort. But by using these eight strategies, you can build a strong link profile for your ecommerce business, improving your SEO ranking and boosting your online visibility.
Key Takeaways
In the evolving digital landscape, ecommerce businesses must stay ahead of the curve to maintain a competitive edge. Link building, an often underutilized aspect of SEO, presents an extraordinary opportunity to boost your brand’s visibility, credibility, and authority. Make sure you:
- Focus on SEO
- Create quality content
- Build high-quality backlinks
Also read:
- 11 Best Marketing Agency for Ecommerce Businesses
- Top 7 AI Marketing Tools to Grow Your Business in 2023
