4 definitive link building strategies for e-commerce sites in 2018

Most entrepreneurs, newbie webmasters, and even marketing professionals erroneously believe that e-commerce sites only need active online marketing to boost their ROI. Link building is a part of off page SEO that only serves blogs and content heavy sites, which have little to do with selling. In reality, this belief could not be more wrong. All sites need link building for boosting their visibility. As we already know by now, nothing compares on organic traffic and websites without organic traffic can hardly thrive in the cut-throat world of online business.

Organic traffic vs. paid traffic

Organic traffic is the volume of traffic any website gets from search engine results. When a user searches for key-terms related to your product and/or services, your website link or your webpage title URL should show up on the first page. If the user finds the title and the meta description compelling they will click on the link and land on the pertaining page of your site. The entire process does not involve any artificial boosting or paid advertising. When no form of sponsorship contributes to the inflow of a certain volume of traffic that is your website’s true organic traffic.

To boost organic traffic and CTR, you need to work on your link building tactics. This will include a few new practices as well.

Indulge in video marketing

Marketers have been talking about the power of video ad nauseam this year. Facebook, Instagram, and even Twitter are using video content. YouTube user stats are off the charts thanks to the popularity of video content. Almost all brands have a YouTube channel that talks about their products, services, brand values, narratives and how-to guides.

It is one of the easiest ways to reach audiences of almost all age groups and user groups. Remember to include your brand colors, logo and attribution link under the video. If you do not have the budget for a professional digital marketing expert, follow the footsteps of popular indie bloggers. Make up for the quality of video with quality of content!

Don’t shy away from using social media influencers

Social media influencers are no less than celebrities like Gigi Hadid or Kim Kardashian. They have the power to influence their thousands of followers to shift from one brand to another. Since millennial customers are increasingly doubtful about sponsored ads and sponsored content, using influencer marketing is one of the more rewarding ways to build link for e-commerce brands.

Several international brands have been using influencers to create content for their e-commerce sites, mobile apps, and even blogs. These powerful content assets automatically generate links by their high-value shareable features. It can attract natural referring domains from high authority sites, bloggers, and other reviewers.

Let the influencers sample the goodies

This is also a part of influencer marketing, but this section is for the dedicated blogger influencers. There are thousands of bloggers in your domain, who sample products and services from brands and then review them. You can conduct competitor research to find out about the most influential bloggers your competitors use right now to promote their products.

Try to stick with a blogger who has a reputation for giving genuine reviews. Provide a sample of your product and request a review in return. There are some professional bloggers, who accept upfront payment from brands for reviews. However, that is just another form of promotional content, and the chances of impressing millennial buyers with this strategy are quite slim. Before you pick your blogger, remember to use SEMRush, Similarweb or Ahrefs traffic estimator tool to estimate their influence.

Create your blog

Blogs have always been a huge influence in link building ever since this off-page strategy gained popularity. Blogging has the power to attract attention and engage customers instantly. This is completely separate from influencer blogging. Your e-commerce site needs to have a blogging section. Of course, you need to conduct thorough keyword research, identify content SEO strategies and invest in creating genuine content. Even the kind of e-commerce, Amazon has understood this by now. eBay has a wonderfully maintained and updated blogging section with several instructional posts. Take a leaf out of their page and link your posts directly to pertinent products on your site.

While a lot of “experts” will try to tell you that link building is not for e-commerce sites, you need to take a deep breath and keep garnering those organic views as time goes by.