Link building for eCommerce websites
Link building is very important for every website and more so for integrated eCommerce sites that are naturally bigger in size and require more attention.
Let’s start this topic by explaining what link building is and why it is so important.
It is very simple. Link building is the process where other websites link back to your website. These links are also known as inbound links or backlinks.
Consider these links as a vote of trust. Where other people, in our case websites, vote for a piece of content or product on your website as content worthy of citation, meaning it provides valuable information.
These links’ importance can vary depending on a website’s domain authority. The higher that authority is, the better for you. You should always aim to get high domain authority websites to link back to you.
Note that it is usually better to have 1 high domain authority backlink than 50 low domain authority ones.
For you to understand the concept behind this, I am going to ask you the following question.
Is it better if the president of your country recommends you as the best in your field or is it better to have 50 friends of yours, that no one knows, recommend you? I think the answer is obvious, in most cases at least.
Let's talk about links now.
All links are not created equal. Links are counted for in terms of authority, relevance, and trust.
Now, let's explain more what each of these terms means.
- Authority
Authority can be broken down into the following 3 subcategories.
Domain Authority is a website’s relevance for a specific area or industry.
Page Authority is a metric that tells you how well a specific page will rank on SERPs.
Link Authority is about how “authoritative” a link that directs users to your website is.
- Relevance
Relevance refers to links that come from websites with content similar to yours.
For instance, let's say you sell footballs. If a website such as Sky Sports has a blog on the best footballs and link back to your website as a place where people can buy the best footballs, then you should be happy.
Sky Sports are an expert in their industry and so by linking to you means that your content is relevant to footballs and has the "approval" of an expert.
However, you don’t want every website to link back to your eCommerce. This is because the search engines will get confused about the content of your website.
When we say the search engines will get confused, we mean that if, as per our previous example, sell footballs but car websites, electronics websites, and other websites that are not in your industry link back to you, then the search engines will not be sure if your content is about sports or not.
Links should always come from websites with relevant content to the products that you sell.
- Trust
Trust refers to the degree to which the search engines trust your website and your domain. Obviously, the higher the trust the better.
This trust is, in most cases, a slow process that takes time to build up. You need to stick to search engine guidelines and always seek for high authoritative backlinks.
Consider domain trust the way you would consider a human's trust. You need to be trustworthy, ethical, and do what you say you do to earn people’s trust. Likewise, the same applies to your website’s trust.
As long as you keep these in mind, domain trust will come naturally.
Many ways will allow you to increase your link building. Below, we are going to list 3 ways that will help you achieve that.
-
Blog section for eCommerce websites
It may be obvious, but having a blog section seems like the first thing most websites implement. Writing blogs on a daily or even weekly basis most definitely requires time.
However, if you decide to go with this solution, then it is recommended that you spend some quality time doing thorough research on the topics you are going to cover.
Note that It is better to write one long detailed blog post than 5 short ones. As long as you use SEO best practices to write your blogs, it will not only increase your chances of getting lots of traffic, but it’ll also increase the likelihood of other websites linking back to your blog.
Lastly, when choosing a topic, do it with a strategy in mind. When writing a blog post, it should always be with that same strategy in mind. Meaning that you should try and promote one of your products or services in your blog posts in one way or another. Writing a blog that has nothing to do with your eCommerce’s theme can be just a waste of your time and resources.
-
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for eCommerce websites
Even though it’s not compulsory, it’s highly recommended that you have a FAQs section on your website.
This will not only work as a place where visitors can answer some of the most common questions they may have about your eCommerce or your products, but it will also help you get more traffic and possibly more backlinks.
You should start by writing as many questions as you think that your customers may ask. Then, you should do your research and find out what people are searching for to answer. Once you have found the kind of questions that you want to feature on your website, you can start creating your FAQs section.
Prioritise your FAQs according to their importance and search volumes. Then, categorise your FAQs. This will make it easier for customers to find an answer.
Below, look at how extensive Amazon’s FAQs section is. The list goes on and on.
Try to make your FAQs informative. Include guides, images, videos, links and anything else you may need to to make them great.
Now, let’s explain how the FAQs will get you more links.
FAQs are sections where people get quick and accurate answers. Having such sections means that you add real value. When this happens, people tend to share your answers on social media or Q&A platforms for other people to see.
That means one thing, more links and more traffic.
All these links have an authority level. This authority level is passed on to your FAQs’ pages so you need to ensure that this authority is going to your FAQs and not your product or category pages.
As a bottom line, FAQs are adding value and they help you increase your authority which is an essential signal to search engines and your organic ranking.
-
Affiliate Marketing Program for eCommerce websites
Let’s start by explaining what affiliate marketing is.
In simple terms, affiliate marketing is when someone promotes your products or services and that as a result leads to a sale. That person will then earn a commission from you based on that sale.
Below, have a look at how Amazon’s affiliate program looks like to get an idea if you wish to do something similar.
Amazon has different sections explaining how to join, advertise, and then earn as an amazon affiliate to both increase sales and improve your link building strategy.
If it works for Amazon it can most likely work for you, too. That is why it may be a good idea to follow this tried and tested method.
Now, let’s explain why you should create such a program for your eCommerce site.
To begin with, you don’t have to invest any amount of money in this. You can do this by yourself. People will then apply to become your partners so they can promote your products.
Usually, these people will already have a network of affiliates and in most cases will run a blog where they write about different products.
When writing about a product, they will spend a lot of time to make sure that their blog will rank well on the SERPs.
Then, they will link their blog to your product page to encourage people to buy your product.
This has 2 huge benefits for your eCommerce.
First, you will increase your sales without having to do pretty much anything as your affiliate partners will do all the hard work for you.
Second, all these links are also known as backlinks. As you may know, high authority backlinks increase domain authority which is very important for every website.
As a piece of advice, you should always choose your partners. Do not accept every person who wants to be your partner, be your partner.
Have a qualification process in motion that will ensure that you only get people who are the best at what their doing can be your partners. These people usually own websites with high domain authority and will help you in increasing your traffic and sales.
Summary
Link building is a slow, yet effective process to improve your website’s SEO rankings which is extremely beneficial in the long run.
However, you can’t just start your link building campaigns if you don’t have any high-quality and valuable pages to link back to.
As a result, you first need to consider and plan what pages you want to get inbound links for, then create the content for your actual pages and then try to get the backlinks.
Also, remember that Google and the other SERPs prioritize content that is informative to users. Don’t just start creating sloppy content for the sake of creating new content regularly. Try to focus on quality over quantity.
What we covered in this blog are just a few tips which you can use to start building some backlinks for your eCommerce website. However, just for your information, there are many other ways to do this, too.
Now, regardless of how you are going to tackle this task, you need to first ensure that you have a great integrated eCommerce solution like our award-winning WebShop.
WebShop provides you with peace of mind when it comes to your online store and it allows you to focus on such tasks and other important aspects of your business.
More related articles
The keyword research guide for eCommerce websites