We’ve written several blogs on the topic of eCommerce SEO, whether its power, flexibility, or importance, and cannot emphasize enough the vital place that effective SEO holds in determining the success of your business.
Effective eCommerce SEO has a great many key factors to it, ranging from keyword research, meta-data, image optimization, and more. One factor, however, is crucial to establishing you as reliable and trustworthy to Google: backlinks.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks help connect you and your name to reputable sources and establish your credibility to Google. It acts similar to word-of-mouth marketing to search engines.
Picture it this way: if Google were to find a link to your website sitting on a page in an already reputable website, Google’s going to look at and see you as reputable too! And that means getting placed higher in the SERPs.
Careful though, the inverse also holds true: if Google finds links to your site in less-than-savory spots, Google will hold that against you.
Now, while backlinks are important, they aren’t something that can just be thrown up. It’s important to know that, as stated previously, some backlinks are more important than others, and some even have the potential to actually harm your site in the long run.
So what are some good methods you can use to get quality backlinks for your eCommerce store?
GUEST BLOGGING
Blogs and other fresh content are already an essential part of killer SEO. But blogging can serve an even more useful purpose: it can generate you vital backlinks! How so?
Many bloggers love having ‘guest writers,’ because that means they get fresh new content for their site at relatively little effort from them. This creates an excellent and worthwhile opportunity for you to write a few off-site blogs and generate some much-needed backlinks for your site!
It’s important to keep in mind the principle mentioned earlier: not all backlinks are good backlinks. So make sure that whatever source or blog you choose to pitch to for a post is reputable and relevant to your store.
Probably the most natural place you can stick a backlink would be in the author’s bio. Most blogs offer this feature to give a little background on the writer. Take advantage of this and provide readers with a link to your eCommerce website!
MANUFACTURERS
A lot of eCommerce store owners will turn to their manufacturers and (politely) ask if they’d list their shop in the manufacturer’s directory. This is a great way to get some reputable links for your business.
It also serves to benefit the manufacturer as well. Keeping an updated list of everyone who sells their items helps appeal to more potential customers and can serve to point people in the best direction for them.
If your manufacturer doesn’t have a directory page, there’s no harm in (again, politely) asking if they’d create one.
INFLUENCERS & BLOGGERS REVIEWS
A fantastic way to generate great backlinks as well as increase traffic would be to have a blogger or influencer review your product.
This method requires more time and effort and your part, mostly to familiarize yourself with the setting you’d be interacting with.
Find a blog that’s popular among your potential clients and familiarize yourself with it. Start commenting and showing some interest, even possibly sharing their content on your social media feed.
Once you’ve gained enough footing, you can make a pitch to have them review your product.
The key thing to keep in mind here is to be friendly!
These people have a reputation to maintain, and they aren’t going to simply rate their experience based solely on the product. They’ll take into account the entire process of dealing with you, from beginning to end.
Building a solid reputation here can open up many opportunities down the road for more valuable opportunities for your business!
INFOGRAPHICS
Infographics are the last area to generate quality backlinks that we’ll cover here. Infographics are simple and effective tools that are used and shared by countless people all around the world. They help solve reader problems and answer questions quickly and easily.
Submitting your infographic to as many infographic directory sites as you can could turn out to be a huge benefit to you and your business. A lot of blogs use these as sources for their own content. So in the end, not only could you end up with a good initial backlink from the directory, but many, many more after.
Not to mention, infographics are really big on sites like Pinterest. Posting your infographic to someplace like their could result in tons of organic traffic and a wealth of backlinks.
Conclusion
Backlinks are an essential part of effective eCommerce SEO. Building them can take some time, effort, and judgement. But with the variety of methods at your disposal, the end result is well worth it!
Gapstow Design offers a variety of SEO packages to best suit your needs. Contact us to see just how we can help optimize your eCommerce site and help you build to sustain maximum growth! Or, feel free to check out our other eCommerce blogs for other helpful eCommerce tips and tricks!
