E-commerce was, is, and will be the fastest-growing business in the world. And it is not hard to understand why. You have a great product; the whole world is on the internet- all you got to do is put your product online, and bamm! Yes, I get why you’re not skeptical. However, the market is so saturated with so many billionaires running the show that for a newbie to have a crack at making it big here is a scary proposition. But if you have a game plan, there’s no reason why you can’t find your footing here and even grow big. All you need to do is apply your brain, and one of the tricks you can use is link-building strategies.
What is link building?
Link building in SEO refers to the process of acquiring high-quality backlinks or incoming links to your website from other websites. These backlinks act as “votes” for your website’s authority and relevance, helping it rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Search engines like Google consider backlinks as a significant ranking factor. When high-ranking websites link to your content, it signals to search engines that your content adds value to users and is considered credible. This improves your position on the SERP, making it easier for potential customers to find you.
Link building for new businesses
For a new business, getting found on the internet is much tougher than getting lost here. There are millions of websites around the world, and for you to stand out, you have to leverage all the powers of your brain to come up with a plan. In this case, the plan is to rise to the top by getting the support of those who are already on top. In SEO lingo, this means getting backlinks from authoritative websites that are considered credible in the niches of industries.
Backlinks from authoritative sources can enhance your website’s credibility and authority. This is an effective way of building trust with your audience. This trust is the first step in making them engage with your content and subsequently buy something from your store. This leads to a higher brand exposure that helps you reach more potential customers.
A strong backlink profile can provide long-term advantages for your business, as it can continue to drive traffic and enhance your search engine rankings over time. This gives you a competitive advantage, especially in a crowded market, because you have one thing they don’t have: a positive brand reputation, which leads to increased customer loyalty.
Link building strategies of new e-commerce businesses
A link building strategy is just one of the many strategies which are part of e-commerce SEO. This is essentially a means to improve your website’s authority and also gain new leads to grow revenues. In e-commerce, link building also involves outreach to suppliers, manufacturers, bloggers, or influencers. These interactions can lead to meaningful partnerships or collaborations that go beyond just a link because networking with industry leaders can open doors for joint ventures, influencer marketing, and other opportunities that accelerate business growth.
Here are some of the most viable and ethical link-building strategies tailored to e-commerce:
1. Leverage relationships with suppliers and manufacturers
Leveraging relationships with suppliers and manufacturers is a highly effective strategy for gaining quality backlinks for an e-commerce business. Many suppliers or manufacturers have a “Where to Buy” section or a “Partners” page on their websites. You can contact your vendors, suppliers, or manufacturers and request to be listed as an official retailer, distributor, or partner.
These types of pages often have high domain authority because suppliers and manufacturers are typically well-established businesses. A backlink from these sites signals to search engines that your site is trustworthy.
Application
You can contact them through email or call them to ask if they would be kind enough to link your e-commerce store to their website. If they agree, provide them with all the necessary details, such as your business description, product pages, and the URL you want them to link to.
Example
An example of this backlink strategy is the partnership in which Best Buy gets backlinks from suppliers like Sony or Samsung in their “Where to Buy” sections. The suppliers also mention the e-commerce story in their blogs, earning the website a very authoritative backlink.
2. Create high-quality content
I know it, you know it: if you want to create a masterpiece, you have to get your hands dirty. We could list here thousands of link building tactics, but if we have to name one that has a 100% success ratio, it’d be content creation. This is a strategy to secure the most effective backlinks that can work wonders for your site’s optimization. Create high-quality content, and you will hit your mark 10 out of 10 times. Well-researched, high-quality content naturally attracts backlinks from websites looking to reference authoritative resources.
Application
You can begin by focusing on topics that are valuable, informative, and related to your products or niche. Some of the common themes include:
- Product buying guides (e.g., “How to Choose the Best Running Shoes”)
- Tutorials and “How-To” articles (e.g., “How to Set Up a Home Office with Our Furniture”)
- Industry trends or insights (e.g., “Top Fashion Trends for 2025”)
- Comparison articles (e.g., “Smartphones vs. Tablets: Which Is Better for Work?”)
- Product reviews or case studies
Once you have identified the content type, undertake thorough research and survey your customers, both existing and potential ones. The idea is to use original data, information and insights. Make sure your content is detailed, thorough, and covers the topic comprehensively.
You can conduct surveys, analyze industry data, or offer insightful statistics that are relevant to your niche. These insights are useful for websites, bloggers, and even researchers looking for data points to support their arguments. They will link to your original research as a credible source.
For a more engaging narrative, use visual content such as infographics, explainer videos, charts, and graphs that are highly shareable. These can be embedded by other websites with a backlink to your e-commerce store. Visual content is often more engaging than text, and other websites or blogs will frequently link to the original source when using these visuals.
You can also create an embed code for your infographics or videos to make it easier for a blog or a website to share your content. With embed links, you will always get a backlink to your site.
Once you have created the content, reach out to relevant blogs, websites, or influencers in your industry and offer to write guest posts. This guest blogging allows you to tap into an established audience and drive traffic to your site while also earning high-quality backlinks.
Example
A great example of an e-commerce store gaining quality backlinks through original content is REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.), an outdoor gear and apparel retailer. The company creates a series of in-depth expert guides on various outdoor activities like camping, hiking, climbing, and biking. These guides provide extensive advice on gear selection, trip planning, outdoor safety, and more.
The guides are highly detailed and written by experts, offering immense value to outdoor enthusiasts. As a result, websites in the outdoor, travel and adventure niches naturally link to REI’s content because it provides authoritative information.
3. Free tools or resources
Another way of getting quality e-commerce backlinks is leveraging the power of content by offering free resources or tools. This strategy works for a number of reasons:
- Shareability: Free tools and resources are highly shareable, making them attractive for content creators, bloggers, and other websites to reference or recommend.
- Value-Driven: Providing genuinely helpful content or tools creates goodwill with your audience, encouraging backlinks without aggressive outreach.
- Brand Authority: Offering unique tools or detailed resources establishes your brand as an authority in your industry, which can lead to increased credibility and organic backlinks.
Application
Here are some of the resources you could offer so that users, websites, and blogs using them could link back to your website:
- Product comparison tools
Interactive tools like product comparisons can help users make decisions by comparing products. Industry blogs, influencers, and media outlets are likely to link to unique and useful tools that make shopping easier for their readers. For example, this tool is of great utility for electronics stores to allow their users to compare two smartphones or home appliances to find the perfect gadget that fits all their needs.
- Product Recommendation Quiz
Another option for a personalized tool that can get e-commerce valuable backlinks could be a tool or quiz that helps users find the best product based on their specific needs, like a skincare routine finder or a fitness gear recommendation tool. This tool could be featured by bloggers or sites that focus on product reviews, personalized shopping, or expert recommendations in your niche.
- Shipping cost calculator
This calculator is perfect for all stores that don’t charge a flat shipping rate and rather calculate the cost based on the customers’ location. Customers can use this tool to calculate the exact costs and delivery time before buying a product. This helps customers plan their purchases and reduces the likelihood of abandoned carts, which is a big problem for e-commerce stores. This tool can be used by a number of companies which offer services ranging from logistics, shipping, and quick commerce.
Example
A great example of an e-commerce store offering free resources or tools to earn quality backlinks is Shopify. It offers a variety of free tools for entrepreneurs and small businesses, such as Business Name Generator, Logo Maker, Slogan Generator, Profit Margin Calculator, etc.
These tools are often shared and linked to by business blogs, entrepreneurial websites, and even by other companies in their resource sections.
4. Brand mentions and product reviews
E-commerce businesses can effectively leverage brand mentions and product reviews to earn high-quality backlinks, which help improve their search engine rankings and online visibility.
Application
Most of the time websites have mentioned your businesses without a backlink to your website. You can hunt these unlinked mentions and turn them into a quality backlink. Use tools like Google Alerts, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to monitor online mentions of your brand or products. Once you have identified those mentions, reach out to the site owners who mention your brand but haven’t linked to your website, and politely request that they turn the mention into a backlink.
For product review link building, you can partner with industry influencers, bloggers, and review websites to review your products. In exchange for reviews and backlinks, you can offer free products for review or discounts. You can also reach out to journalists, editors, or bloggers who cover your industry and offer product samples, exclusive information, or interviews. This would help you because your brand might get a mention in authoritative news outlets or industry publications.
Example
Daniel Wellington, a watch brand, used a highly targeted influencer marketing strategy by partnering with micro-influencers and bloggers to showcase their products. These influencers created posts and blogs about the watches, linking back to the Daniel Wellington website or specific product pages.
By collaborating with hundreds of influencers, Daniel Wellington created significant brand awareness and earned a large number of backlinks from influencer blogs and websites. The volume of backlinks helped the brand boost its SEO and drive traffic directly from these influencer posts.
Conclusion
Link-building strategies are a long-term investment with the end goal of increasing your website’s authority and improving online visibility. While some marketing tactics offer short-term results, building backlinks creates a lasting impact that helps your site continue to rank well in the future. By focusing on link-building early on, new e-commerce businesses lay the foundation for sustained organic growth, leading to more consistent traffic and revenue over time.
