As you’re working on search engine optimization for your e-commerce brand, you’ve probably heard the phrase link building. If you’re newer to SEO, you probably realize that link building has something to do with hyperlinks, but otherwise, you might be lost. Link building needs to be a part of your SEO strategy. So, let’s talk more about what exactly it is, and why you need it so much.
So, What is Link Building?
So, what exactly is it? Link building is the action of securing hyperlinks on other websites that go back to your page. It is what helps you build trust as well as authority, this can lead to you showing up more often in search results. Why is this important, though, how will it benefit your e-commerce business?
Benefits of Link Building
Believe it or not, link-building creates benefits that go beyond the links themselves! Let’s explore three ways that link building can benefit your e-commerce business.
Build a Network of Professional Relationships
Link building is often paired with outreach efforts that extend to complementary businesses, bloggers in your niche, or other relevant websites. The typical goal of this outreach is to secure a backlink, but oftentimes you can build a long-term beneficial relationship with influencers and professionals that can last for years to come.
Improved Branding
Strong backlinks can help you establish your business as a thought leader or authority in your niche. Supplying quality content that other industry players use as a guide, can go a long way in propelling your brand awareness.
Increase in Referral Traffic
A high-quality backlink can lead to an increase in referral traffic that is primed for conversion. This means the backlink’s value extends beyond SEO and can lead to actual sales revenue. Regardless if the end user commits to purchase instantly, getting your link on a relevant website can increase the number of people who know who you are and what you do.
Why is Link Building Important for E-commerce Websites?
Links are extremely valuable pieces to your SEO puzzle. They are one of the main ranking factors in search engine (Google, Bing, etc.) algorithms, and are a key factor in increasing your site traffic. Links show support from one website to another (kinda like a vote) and they help individuals visiting a web page have a direct path to your website. In short, link building helps your website rank better, drives more traffic, and it helps you to sell more products! In order to do this, though, it’s also important to understand how search engines use links.
How Search Engines Use Links
When it comes to using links, there are two ways search engines will go:
- They’ll use a link to identify new web pages to crawl and include in SERPs
- They’ll help determine how well a page should rank in SERPs
Google bots will crawl web pages and extract the contents of those pages to add to their indexes. Their crawls will determine whether a page should be ranked for relevant keywords. The bots use links pointing to that page from external websites as a signal that the content is high-quality and should rank well on SERPs. In general, you can conclude that the more high-quality websites that link to you, the better you will rank in search results.
It’s All Worth It
At the end of the day, your efforts will be well worth the time and energy spent to get your link-building strategy in place and moving. A focus on SEO can make an incredible impact on your eCommerce site, and will ultimately drive more success.
We hope this guide has helped you better understand link building, its benefits, how search engines use links, and why it’s worth it for your e-commerce business. If you’d like some help with link building or an SEO strategy, set up a consultation with our team. We’d love to see if we’d be a good fit and can help you grow your business!
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Looking for more link building tips to help you grow your e-commerce business? Check out these posts:
- What Are the Different Types of Links You Should Build For Your Ecommerce Business?
- What Is Link Anchor Text & How To Use It For Your Ecommerce Business
- How To Tell If A Link Is Valuable & Will Move The Needle For Your Ecommerce Business
Greg is the founder and CEO of Stryde and a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with thousands of businesses, large and small, to generate more revenue via online marketing strategy and execution. Greg has written hundreds of blog posts as well as spoken at many events about online marketing strategy. You can follow Greg on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.
