25 Strategies for Acquiring Backlinks for eCommerce Sites

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Strategies for Acquiring Backlinks for eCommerce
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  • Post last modified:February 15, 2024

eCommerce is now a highly-competitive marketplace. Users type the request in search and receive thousands of suggestions by Google.

How do you make prospects come to your store?

You need to be as high in search as possible, ensure a seamless user experience, and stay on the curve of recent trends. For example, cater to mobile visitors as mobile traffic is growing exponentially.

Some online merchants develop adaptive websites. Some website owners convert their stores into progressive web apps to stick to a mobile-first approach.

Luckily, there are ready-made package solutions, including the most popular PWA themes for Magento. They reduce costs and speed up the transformation of the store.

What can you do to reserve a place on the first page of search results? You need search engine optimization (SEO).

One of the strategies to promote the website in search is to acquire backlinks. These are links from other resources leading to your store.

Are you ready to earn backlinks for your website?

This guide will help you with 25 link-building strategies.

25 Ways to Gain Backlinks for Online Stores

Backlinks have different values depending on the source. While you may think the more backlinks, the better, it’s not always the case.

One mention from the authoritative resource can replace a hundred links from low authority score websites. And one mention from various sources is better than numerous mentions from one website.

Natural backlinks develop over time. And these are the most valued links for Google because they indicate your business is worth promoting.

However, growing the base of natural links takes time. For this purpose, there are strategies to speed up the process.

1. Create a Blog and Publish High-Quality Content

An online store will have more chances of being mentioned if it has a blog. It will open up the opportunities to promote your articles on other platforms and get mentioned as a credible resource.

Share valuable tips. Customers will bookmark and share your content which is a natural way of getting backlinks to your store. For example, an online furniture store can write about related topics, such as interior design.

You can follow the skyscraper technique to write long-form articles. It involves picking the most popular topics and keywords and writing new material based on existing information.

You should create a longer article than the one you’ve taken as an example. Like a skyscraper is the tallest building in the city, your blog post should be the most extensive in your niche.

2. Claim Your Brand Online and Join Google Local Pack

Appear on as many platforms as your resources allow. For example, you can create social media accounts, register on web 2.0 sites (Medium), and appear on review resources (TrustPilot, Yelp, Yellowpages). They will streamline your content distribution and bring backlinks to the store.

Do you have a physical address? If yes, create a profile on Google My Business to appear on Google Local Pack.

People will see your store on a map when looking for products or services in the same region. The store will have a mark on the map and a short description, reviews, and links.

Screenshot was taken on Google

3. Resort to Guest Posting

Being a guest author means reaching out to other website owners to publish your articles on their resources and put a link to your store.

What can an online merchant write about? You can distribute articles on email marketing, SEO, PPC, and other topics where you have experience.

Look for resources with your targeted audience. This traffic may interest your products or services when arriving on the website, so you can improve your SEO and increase conversions.

However, finding a platform willing to publish your piece is problematic. You can start by searching for your keyword + β€œWrite for us”/β€œGuest post”/β€œBecome a contributor”. With time, you’ll grow your link-building base, so more websites will be eager to accept your submissions.

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4. Create Infographics

Infographics are a visual representation of complex information. Which infographics can an online store create? You may research the shoppers and present findings on their behavior.

Provide value and rely on real-life data. After collecting the information, use tools like Canva to draft your well-designed infographics.

How can it help in link-building?

Other content creators will use the image and give credit to the research. You can boost the promotion of your content and distribute the infographic through dedicated platforms, such as Daily Infographic, Infographics Showcase, etc.

5. Accept Guest Blogging in Your Store

Your eCommerce blog can be a platform for industry leaders to share their knowledge. Why should you practice reverse guest blogging?

It helps you if you run out of topic ideas or are pressed for time to write articles regularly. But most importantly, ask authors to put a link to your store on their websites or social media.

Attract bloggers to your website on LinkedIn. Authors with a small or medium following can be a good and cost-effective start. And the best part, they have a tight-knit community to encourage readers to click through to your store and buy.

6. Appear in Local Business Directories

Local business directories (also known as listing websites) are places where an online store can get a backlink. These websites collect information about companies in a particular area, niche, or industry.

What details do directories include? The business name, contact details, physical location, and why we are here: a link to proceed to the website.

One of the local business directories is Superpages. You can select a city or category or search for a particular brand on the website.

The list briefly introduces you to a company and contains a sorting feature to speed up the process.

Screenshot taken on the official Superpages website

7. Employ PR

A lot may be going on in your store. Do you release a new product? Do you launch a sustainability program or participate in an event? Contact the press to mention it on the news.

First of all, you get invaluable exposure, especially from local media, looking for fascinating stories. And they will put the news on their digital resources.

Compile a press release about your business, the importance of the news, and the details. Distribute your piece using Newswire. Simply by spreading your work, you will gain backlinks for the store.

8. Sponsor Digital Events

Online events are now the norm. They open up additional possibilities to get a mention on the web and broaden your audience.

Become a sponsor for conferences, music performances, and other virtual events. It’s also reasonable to partner with local groups to boost your local search engine optimization efforts.

Your online store will raise awareness and foster relationships with opinion leaders, ensuring future collaboration and more backlinks.

9. Ask for an Expert Opinion and Compile Round-Ups

Do you find it hard to generate in-depth materials? Interview experienced representatives in your niche and publish expert round-ups, offering valuable insights to your audience.

An expert round-up is an article with comments from key figures in your industry. They may provide tips on various subjects, from productivity to promotion.

And the best part is the number of possible backlinks it can bring. You can ask ten, 20, or even 50 people to give short comments on the topic.

Some of them will be eager to share this article on their platforms. Here you can read a step-by-step tutorial on how to create an expert roundup. Now you have a backlink or even several of them.

10. Review Products You Use

Clients’ feedback is essential for companies. They indicate to prospects that the business is trustworthy and popular. So if you use services or tools, their providers will be eager to post your review on their website.

Many companies publish customer reviews on the home page or a dedicated page (such as β€œCustomer Success Stories”). And they include a link to the author’s website or social media to prove their credibility.

Audit the tools you use while managing the store. The experience of employing them should be no less than six months so you could discover the pros and cons and test all features.

Check whether the company provides room for testimonials on the website. Describe your impression of the product or service and contact its owner and specify whether they can place your feedback on the home page to get the maximum exposure.

11. Use Deal Websites to Promote Your Business

Promoting your offers and discounts through deal websites is another great way to receive a backlink. These platforms include Offers.com, Slickdeals, DealNews, etc.

You can spread your deals on these resources and link the deal with the store. Do you know there is a way to increase the deal visibility? Invest in advertising there.

A case in point is Slickdeals. It contains the β€œFeatured Deals” sections to put the store above other brands. The discount description includes a link to where you can buy it, attracting purchasers to the store.

Screenshot taken on the official Slickdeals website

12. Launch Giveaways and Contests

Giveaways and contests can attract attention to the business, grow a follower base, and boost sales. But there is also a chance to acquire a backlink from giveaways. Ask people to share a link to your store as part of the terms.

Come up with a lucrative reward and attainable terms of enrollment. You’ll get invaluable promotion in search results, while participants will drive more traffic to the website. Such content can go viral, causing more people to join and mention your link.

13. Make Donations

Donations and sponsorships support good causes. They help living creatures survive, so organizations and charities will give you credit for investing in their work.

However, there is a high risk of overdoing it. Don’t join those websites willing to generate quality backlinks in a short time and rank on Google through donations.

Strike a balance between donating from the highest motives and pursuing it for link building. Otherwise, Google will consider it a spammy tactic and punish you for buying links.

14. Discover Broken Links on Websites

Broken links are the ones that display a 404 error when clicking on them. They appear if the website owner takes the resource down while all its backlinks remain.

An external link to the unavailable page is bad for the SEO of the hosting website. So you do a good thing when spotting such links and suggesting web admin replace them.

Use it as a chance to attach a link to your store. Look for broken links on product aggregators, catalogs, or even blogs. Browser plugins like Check My Links for Chrome or tools like Ahrefs can simplify the task and highlight broken links.

15. Search for Your Product Photos

Images also can bring backlinks to the store. For example, other websites may use them as illustrations in their articles, social media posts, etc.

But not everyone cites the source or does it properly. Namely, authors insert a link to the file itself, not the original page. Your task is to track your product photos and request attribution.

A simple way is to employ a Google reverse image search. Upload your image or paste in the URL to see pages where similar photos appear. Connect with web admins to put the link back.

Screenshot taken on Google

16. Take Control of Unlinked Brand Mentions

Link reclamation can be another link-building strategy for eCommerce. Unlinked brand mentions appear when someone introduces your brand, products, or anything without linking it to the corresponding page.

Send an email to the content creator and suggest hyperlinking the mention. Stress that this step will improve the user experience as readers won’t have to look for the brand or product.

Utilize tools like Google Alerts, BuzzSumo, or others to receive an alert each time someone mentions you without an attribution.

17. Incorporate a Link on Marketplaces

Do you sell on marketplaces, such as Amazon, Etsy, or eBay? Utilize this method to acquire a backlink for your store. It’s not a clear link-building strategy, but attaching a link in product descriptions will help you promote the website on third-party resources.

Note that the brand name on marketplaces should coincide with your domain name. This strategy will streamline consumers’ search process on search engines and raise the click-through rate for brand queries.

18. Attend Podcasts or Interviews

Podcasts and interviews can also help you generate backlinks to your store, provided you have something to say.

Listeners can consume the information while on the go, driving, or doing chores. That’s why you can expand the reach to those who won’t read an article and attract their attention to the store.

Inspect the relevant podcasts on the platforms, such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. Outreach the podcast host and prove why you should be a guest.

Did they accept you?

Great. Get ready, give the interview your best shot, and ask a host to include a link to the store in the episode description on special platforms (like in the screenshot below) or even a website, if they have any.

Screenshot taken on the official Google Podcasts website

19. Ask Customers for Opinions

Loyal and satisfied customers can provide you with a backlink by telling about their experience on review websites, social media, or even blogs in case they have it. Contact clients and invite them to write a review linked to the store.

Even if some reviews aren’t as favorable as you expected, you can turn them to your advantage. Deal with negative comments timely and show the determination to satisfy customers.

20. Partner with Influencers

Influencers are people specializing in a particular niche and uniting like-minded people under one roof. They keep their blogs, YouTube channels, social media, or all these media at once.

Leverage the opportunity to collaborate with influencers and ask for a review. Determine opinion leaders in your sphere of eCommerce. Reach out to them and offer to send your product samples for review.

Look for influencers willing to advertise your website without forcing them to link back. Some authors may not have a large following, but they usually have higher engagement rates to drive their readers to your store.

21. Answer to Requests from HARO

Screenshot taken on the official HARO website

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a service for professionals in various industries, enabling them to get a backlink from authoritative sources. You need to register as a source to receive several emails a day.

Pick the topics that are relevant to your niche. The letter will include a subject, description, and the publisher’s email address.

Your task is to thoughtfully answer the question to stand out from hundreds of other sources. The piece should include a link to your website. If a content creator picks your reply, they’ll attach the link, boosting your domain authority.

22. Avoid Risky Tactics

Some link-building methods may be penalized by Google, such as private blog networks (PBNs) and buying links. The risky tactics let your website achieve numerous links fast.

But these backlinks can disappear in a moment once Google discovers a PBN or buying links. It will deindex all content, damaging your store’s ranking.

Suffice it to say that it’s hard to administer a large network of websites. And the quality of such links leaves much to be desired.

Further readings:

23. Capitalize on Video Marketing

Video marketing is about creating engaging and educational content. High-quality videos may inspire people to share them on other platforms and embed the link to your store or channel.

Why will others want to use your video on their resources? The reason is that videos improve the website SEO, increasing the time spent on-page.

So you can not only acquire a backlink thanks to videos. Share them on your website to keep visitors on the page longer.

24. Answer Questions on Resources Like Quora

Screenshot taken on the official Quora website

Quora is a website with a high domain authority score where more than 300 million people come to ask and answer questions. And you can leverage this resource for your SEO purposes to get a backlink to the store.

  • Browse topics containing keywords that are relevant to your niche.
  • Pick the sections with high traffic and a large targeted audience to maximize the effectiveness of this website.
  • Provide well-researched and correct answers to the questions, prompting readers to discover more information by clicking your link.

Note that you’ll get a nofollow link from Quora. But it’s worth a try as part of link-building strategies, nurturing connections with potential customers, and raising traffic, credibility, and SEO score.

25. Dive Into Competitor Research

How do other eCommerce companies get links to the same types of pages that you have?

Spy on your direct and indirect competitors and other places in your neighborhood.

Some of their link-building strategies may be impossible to duplicate, but you can discover quality places to get a mention of your store, such as directories or resource pages.

Conclusion

Link building aims to convince the search engines that your store and products are fantastic, but you need others to endorse this fact. I’ve mentioned 25 ways to acquire backlinks to your store.

Set aside time to reach out to other resources to promote your eCommerce website. The key thing is to connect with high-authority websites. It will signal to Google that your website has mentions from credible sources to boost your rankings.

Further readings:

What are your tried and tested link-building methods?

Drop your tips in the comments below!

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