A Link Building Primer for Ecommerce
It is not enough to build a website for your business. You must also optimize it so that people can actually find it on the Internet. Without optimization, your site will be lost amongst all the others out there.
Most experts say that one should employ multiple optimization strategies. One strategy that is very important to the ultimate success of your site is link building, also known as back linking.
What Is Link Building?
Link building refers to increasing the number and quality of links that point to your website. The more high quality links going to a page, the higher it will rank in the search engines. This translates into more people getting to your website with a targeted search using Google, Bing or other search engine.
Link building is not a one-time event. Rather, it is a process that should last for the lifespan of your website. Continue reading to learn a few link-building strategies that can add authority to your site and increase your site’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Obtaining Good Links Takes Time and Effort
Obtaining good links is not something you can do by yourself. It requires the cooperation of the owners of other websites. Find authoritative websites that relate to the products you are selling on your ecommerce website in some way.
Once you have selected those sites, you will then need to convince the site owners that they will benefit from having links to your site. This means you need to do your research. Follow them on Twitter, read their blogs and share those blogs socially. Link to their site if it makes sense. Eventually, you will become a known quantity whom they will trust linking to.
Comment on Relevant Posts
One way to make yourself known to bloggers is to post thoughtful, well-written comments on their blogs. A thank you or compliment is not enough. Add something that expands on the topic of the post. For instance, if the blog is “10 Ways to Sell Widgets on the Internet,” add five more ways in your comment. You will be noticed and your thoughts will be appreciated.
Write a Guest Post
Once you have raised your profile with the owner of the target blog or website, ask to write a guest blog post. Pitch two or three topics that fit the theme of the blog and have not recently been posted about. Another approach is to suggest a follow-up post to an earlier blog. A well-crafted guest post will increase traffic to your own blog or website, gaining you those high-value inbound links your site needs to thrive.
More Ways to Obtain Inbound Links
Other strategies for getting inbound links include:
- Find out if another website or blog mentions your brand or product without linking to your site. You can do a Google search or use a social listening tool to see if anyone is talking about you or your product. Then you can request a link. You might not get it, but it never hurts to ask.
- Find out who is linking to your competitors. Ask them to link to you as well.
- If your business or staff is involved in a charity, find out if that organization will link to you.
- Write glowing reviews of subcontractors, suppliers and other businesses to post on their websites. Almost every site owner will be happy to provide a link to your site in return.
- If you are a distributor or retailer of products, find out if the manufacturers have online lists of sellers; if they do, get your business on that list.
You Don’t Have to Do Link Building by Yourself
Link building is time consuming. The good is news is that you do not have to go at it alone. There are marketing consultants who can do it all for you. No one knows your niche better than you do, though. If you employ a consultant, find one who will work with you closely to leverage your knowledge of the field.
However you divide the work of link building, the result should be many more high-quality inbound links that will increase both your authority and your SERPS ranking.
