Building Quality Backlinks for Ecommerce Sites: 2024 Strategies for Success

Building quality backlinks that drive real traffic can feel overwhelming, right? But quality links remain one of the most powerful ways to elevate your ecommerce site and its visibility.

As per a 2023 study by Ahrefs, about 66.31% of pages online have no backlinks. This means that many of these sites aren’t living up to their full potential. This is because the lack of these quality backlinks limits their visibility online.

However, there’s good news. There are proven and practical SEO tactics you can start using immediately to unlock more organic search traffic through quality backlinks over time. Ready to do this? Start here.

Best Types of Content You Can Create

If you don’t know this already, Google prioritizes backlinks and they’re one of the major factors for sharing your content. The point? Content that gets linked or referred to by prominent websites can be evidence of expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.

That said, high-quality, informative content should be the foundation of your backlinking strategy. Here are some types of evergreen content you can create:

#1 Guides and eBooks

Publish in-depth guides and eBooks that teach your audience something valuable related to your products or industry. For example, an electronics store could create a guide to setting up a smart home or choosing the right laptop.

#2 Comparison Articles

Compare the top products in your niche across various factors like price, quality, or features. Keep these updated regularly. You could compare the latest digital cameras or best shoes for plantar fasciitis.

#3 Industry Reports and Trend Analysis

Provide original market research and insights into trends. A pet store could analyze generational differences in pet ownership patterns. These establish your authority.

#4 Product Roundups

Round up and briefly review the best options across product categories or price ranges. For example, showcase the top 10 affordable or luxury watches.

#5 Video Content

Videos tend to be highly engaging to audiences. As per Statista data, online videos had an audience reach of about 92% of internet users worldwide in the third quarter of 2023 alone. That shows that it’s about time you seriously considered a video strategy.

Create YouTube tutorials related to using or choosing products in your market. Or maybe do some TikTok Video challenges or Instagram reels to share more about your ecommerce store.

But before you go full in, make sure you know your audience well,  their interests, challenges, and what keeps them up at night. Whether your content educates, entertains, or solves a problem, make it worth their time.

Overall, the key to content creation is to help your readers, not directly promote your business. So, refresh evergreen content occasionally with new data or recommendations. Armed with great content, you can then reach out to industry websites to secure quality backlinks through guest posts, contributed articles, or reviews.

How to Actively Earn Quality Backlinks

While strong content builds links passively over time, you can accelerate results by actively pursuing quality backlinking opportunities. Here are proven ways:

1. Broken Link Building

About 66% of links from the past nine years are already broken or dead, thanks to page removal, updates, and redirections. That’s a lot of dead ends that could lead to frustration, disappointment, and a tarnished user experience.

This negative experience may very well mean hemorrhaging customers to your competition. And this is one of the worst nightmares in ecommerce. So, how do you stop the freefall? The answer is simple: broken link building!

Use tools like Ahrefs Broken Link Checker to identify dead pages on websites in your industry. Prioritize sites with authority in your niche. You can then offer to replace each broken link with one of your best content pages covering a similar topic.

Politely email site owners explaining the broken link you found and how your content helps their audience. If they replace the dead link with a link to your page, you earn relevant quality backlinks. You also get to improve their site’s user experience as an extra perk.

2. Technical SEO and Website Optimization

Optimizing your website’s technical foundations enhances overall SEO and indirectly supports building quality backlinks, too.

Optimizing for Local SEO

Start by beefing up your Google My Business profile. Fill it from head to toe with rock-solid keywords, crystal-clear images, and your latest business details. Also, a nice prominent link directs local searchers back to your online shop.

Pour the same TLC into your Yelp, Apple Maps, and niche citation listings so everything syncs up across the web. These local listings are like virtual storefronts showcasing the very best of your brand to nearby customers surfing on their phones.

While you focus on claims and citations, make sure to show some love to customers leaving you positive local reviews and namechecks, too. Diplomatically ask happy shoppers to call out your store, products, or service with an organic link back to your website.

Getting it right with local customers can do some good for your revenue and overall SEO. If it sounds like what your business could use, the information provided on this page might help.

Improving Internal Site Linking

Be strategic with how your blog articles, guide pages, categories, and internal support docs interlink using contextual anchor text and labels. You want foot traffic to flow easily from your informational content hubs to relevant purchase pages using well-placed links that feel helpful, not salesy.

Moreover, don’t forget to refresh older assets. Route hard-won links from existing pages towards your latest and greatest content so boring old pages get value injection from trophy pieces. Solid internal linking brings cohesion and helps Google better index your treasure trove of pages.

Revving Up Your Site’s Performance

Run your site through the wringer with PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix. These free tools shine a light on what’s slowing download speeds including things like unoptimized images, bulky file sizes, janky coding, and more.

Also, enable browser caching and minimize CSS/JS files so returning visitors don’t have to re-download your site’s assets every single time. Ensure to lazy load any non-essential media like lower-fold images and videos so above-the-fold content pops up lightning fast.

While tweaking for performance, make sure your site looks slick on mobile and tablets, too! Tiny text or wonky navigation kills the experience for phone surfers. You want everyone’s first impression to feel fast, fluid, and frustration-free. Perfecting your website’s foundations indirectly makes link building so much easier downstream.

Who wants to link out to a slow-loading, mobile-unfriendly site? By showcasing your authority through a well-built site, you lay the groundwork for all future growth and opportunities like coveted backlinks from industry big shots. So, get your technical SEO right from the start.

3. Unlinked Brand Mentions

Set Google Alerts for your brand names and products to get notified when mentioned online without a link. You can then email the websites, politely asking them to hyperlink your name to your site when mentioned.

This way, you’ll position your ecommerce store as a value-add for their readers. Prioritize sites with strong domain authority and relevant organic traffic. Persistent outreach pays off here.

4. Reviews and Roundups

Search Google for relevant keywords like ‘best [product] reviews.’ Go ahead and scour forums for recommendations to find influential bloggers and review sites your audience trusts.

Once you identify the top reviewers, email them professionally. You can offer complimentary samples of your latest products or popular sellers. Be transparent that you hope for an unbiased review in exchange for helping showcase your brand to their engaged readership.

Follow up after they’ve had time to test out your products. Remind them politely about the opportunity to have affiliate links or quality backlinks embedded in the review to send their readers to your online shop and thank them for their fair evaluation. The awareness and quality links will continue building your brand’s authority and trustworthiness.

Securing authentic third-party endorsements builds tremendous goodwill and validation. Prioritize reviews from sites already ranking well for those search terms.

5. Resource Page Listings

Search out popular industry directories, niche lists, and resource pages popping up for your focus keywords. Check what websites are already linked from those resource pages to analyze what sites currently have some authority in your turf.

Then, reach out directly to the webmasters or site owners via email. In this correspondence, highlight some of your best content, like trend reports or data studies, that their audience would truly benefit from.

Politely advocate for your site’s inclusion in their resource list with contextual, quality backlinks that add value for their readers, too. Follow up persistently over email or social media messaging if needed. Building genuine connections takes effort but pays dividends.

By positioning link requests as a win-win through your outreach, you have every chance of getting a spot on those coveted resource pages. This is especially true if you don’t take ‘no’ for an answer (in a friendly yet persistent way, of course).

6. Leverage Your Network & Community

Your personal and professional networks are invaluable for securing quality backlinks. Here are some ideas:

Industry Events and Conferences

Identify key events, seminars, and conferences in your niche. Secure speaking spots or exhibit booths to raise awareness.

Network with other players in your market. Collaborate on co-branded content like guides, infographics, or webinars that link back to your site.

Build relationships with influencers and potential partners. Exchange guest posts, broken link replacements, and quality backlinks to each other’s sites. Getting this right could go a long way.

Podcast Guest Appearances

Research top podcasts in your industry that align with your products or expertise. Pitch the podcast host to be interviewed as an expert guest. Make sure to discuss backlinks ahead of recording. Securing the podcast guest spot raises your authority and earns quality backlinks.

Online Community Engagement

With over four billion people on social media, the online community isn’t a place you want to ignore.

• Join and actively participate in relevant forums, Facebook Groups, Subreddits, and online communities.
• Share your expertise via insightful comments and helpful advice that organically mention your content or site.
• Build community trust before politely sharing links to your helpful blog posts or product pages where relevant.

The key is to connect with your niche networks both online and offline. Focus on building relationships, raising your expert profile, and exchanging value. The backlinks will grow naturally over time.

7. Tap That Influencer Juice for Links

Do a little Instagram and TikTok recon and make a hit list of influencers, thought leaders and niche celebs aligned with your ecommerce vibe. Reach out respectfully to ones creating content that already nicely showcases products like yours.

Offer to send products to unbox, style, or review if they’re open to organic shares. Negotiate ahead so that a clickable link and a brand tag get prominently featured in their caption copy or video details in return.

For bigger product launches or major news, don’t be shy to ask leaders in your industry for quotes, testimonials, or co-hosted giveaways you can mutually promote. The key to influencer marketing is adding value for the influencer’s audience rather than a hard sell.

8. HARO Queries

HARO stands for ‘Help a Reporter Out.’ It’s a platform that connects journalists and bloggers with relevant expert sources.

Here, you can set up alerts for relevant keywords to your industry. Respond to journalist queries where you can provide expert commentary related to your niche. Follow up persistently with the reporters and pitch angles benefiting their audience using your insights.

If featured, you’ll likely secure quality backlinks in that published news article, podcast, or video. This builds tremendous credibility. The key is quality over quantity with backlinks.

Building relationships with reporters via helpful insights and ideas can lead to recurring media coverage, brand awareness, and quality backlinks over time.

In Closing

There you go. Armed with these tips, you can start slowly but surely building quality backlinks that drive tangible results as you find your niche voice. With these diverse tactics for earning kickass backlinks, you now have a reliable blueprint to build upon at your own pace.

Don’t aim to tackle everything at once. Pick a few strategies, implement them consistently over three to six months, and let the ROI compound over the longer term. Focus on adding genuine value for others while also shining the spotlight on your store.

Keep an eye on the latest SEO innovations, too, but don’t lose sleep trying every shiny new tactic. Building trusted authority online takes time, but the journey is worth it.

Here’s raising a toast to your upcoming success story!

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