In the last decade, the Internet has become a crucial part of every business, irrespective of its size, industry, and demographics. One of the major industries that has been heavily influenced, evolved, and generated billions of dollars of revenue with the help of the Internet is e-commerce.
The E-Commerce industry is quickly gaining momentum & is expected to touch $8 trillion by 2028 (As per a report by Statista). The businesses that will be able to utilize this boom with proper strategies are going to benefit the most.
A website is capable of generating more than 75% of the product sales and driving profits for business owners. Thus, investing in a user-friendly, visually appealing, easy-to-navigate E-Commerce website is a viable option for people.
But there is one more thing that impacts the visibility of any website on search engines…
SEO- Search Engine Optimisation
It is the process to optimise the website in a manner that it gets ranked on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.
Better SEO = Higher your website ranking = More likely to convert sales.
Several types of SEO techniques that help in optimising any website are mentioned in the diagram below!
But as SEO is a vast topic, in this blog we will be dealing with how Link Building, an off-page SEO technique helps my clients grow their website traffic.
That being said, let’s understand the concept of Off-page SEO and E-Commerce link building.
Importance of Off-Page SEO and E-Commerce Link Building
Off-page SEO refers to strategies and work done outside of the website to help rank on search engines. One such way is through link building, a way to acquire backlinks to your website through other websites.
Having good backlinks can help improve various aspects of websites to boost visibility and ranking.
Let’s dive deep into the strategies that I follow with E-Commerce brands to generate millions of traffic and boost sales and revenue.
After onboarding an E-Commerce client I make sure everything is followed with the blueprint mentioned below:
Client Niche: E-Commerce Website
Step 1: Check Current Backlink Profile Analysis
A discussion with the client is conducted to understand the goals they want to achieve in the upcoming month, their budget and other necessary details are noted.
Further, a proper backlink profile analysis is done to understand the current status of the website using tools like Ahrefs.
Each of the metrics mentioned in the above diagram plays a key role in evaluating the backlinks:
- A low Domain Authority score (lower than 30) showcases that the website has a low chance of ranking on search engines.
- A low Page Authority score (typically lower than 40) showcases fewer quality links and is not trustworthy.
- A high spam score ( between 5%-10%) indicates that the website has a high chance of getting penalised by Google.
- A low authority score (lower than 40) indicates that the website does not have a strong backlink profile. The reason might be getting links from websites with lower DA and PA.
- A low domain rating score (below 30) again indicates that the website is not credible and has a weak backlink profile.
- A low user rating showcases that the user doesn’t find the website reliable enough. This affects the website traffic as Google might push this to a lower rank.
- A low current traffic indicates that the website is unable to drive visitors.
- A low organic traffic from SERP indicates that the website is not able to rank organically on the search engines.
- A low referring domain score (lower than 10) means a limited backlink profile (not diversified)
- If a website has fewer do-follow links it means it has less authority on the search engine.
- If a website has high no-follow links it indicates that most of the backlinks are not contributing to ranking the website.
- Low niche relevancy indicates that the backlinking sites are not providing any relevance or adding any value to your website.
Based on all the parameters mentioned above a proper plan of action/ strategies is made and implemented to drive results for the client.
Step 2: Strategies and Implementation Based on Analysis
To rank the website on SERP, various backlinking techniques are followed.
Number 1: Guest Posting
It is an organic link building strategy that helps in getting the website rank through posting blogs, articles etc. on high-quality websites.
Finding high-quality websites for Guest Postings
The deal breaker for having high-quality backlinks is choosing the right guest posting website which has high DA, PA and low spam scores.
For the E-Commerce niche following these steps can help:
- Go on Google search and type “E-Commerce + Guest Post.” This will give relevant sites that provide guest posting options in the E-Commerce industry
- Another method of searching for similar sites is to search “E-Commerce + write for us ”. This also provides sites that offer guest posting options in the E-Commerce industry.
Few more examples:
E-Commerce + Contribute with us
E-Commerce + Guest Post with us
- Evaluate the quality of each guest posting website in terms of DA, PA, and spam score and choose the best one.
- Further, write an email regarding an interest in writing a guest post for them.
- Once written, promoting on other social media can help in initial traffic and also monitor it with the help of Google Analytics.
Number 2: Product reviews through influencers
Getting reviews from influencers from the same industry in this case, E-Commerce helps in building the credibility of the websites.
Finding Influencers to write reviews
There are multiple ways to find the right influencers who can help a website build backlinks and trustworthiness amongst the users.
For E-Commerce Niche Follow these steps:
- Search for Tools that can help find influencers. One of the tools that can be utilised is BuzzSumo.
Buzzsumo helps find influencers based on keywords and then filters them out based on engagement, ratings, and comments.
- Another way is to directly find influencers using social media channels like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Choosing the right platform for product reviews:
- Understand and research about the target audience. Find out which platform has the highest number of active users related to E-Commerce.
- For products that require user-generated content use platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
- For products that require in-depth information use platforms like YouTube to post long-form videos and Reddit for long-form text reviews.
- Depending on the product type, the audience chooses the best platform to get backlinks.
Once the right platform and ideal influencers are chosen, write a personalised message about their interest in working with them. Further, keep track of the reviews with the help of tools like Google Analytics etc.
Number 3: Directory Submission
In this strategy, the submission of website links based on specific categories and niches is done to improve domain authority and search engine visibility.
There are several ways to submit links in the directory mentioned in the diagram below:
Finding the right directory in E-Commerce Industry
- Type in “E-Commerce directory list” to get a list of directories in the industry.
- Another method is to search “Submit website to E-Commerce directory”
- Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush can also help in finding the right directory based on the competitors.
- After choosing the right directory, submit the website based on the correct category and subcategories.
- Further, add in website link, title, description, and email address which will help in monitoring the link.
- Keep track of the directories with the help of Ahrefs.
While implementing these strategies monitoring, and reassessing the strategies play a crucial role in improving the website searchability.
Step 3: Monitoring and Reassessing the current plan of action.
Not all strategies give the desired results. Thus, it is important to keep track of what’s working and vice versa. Things that are monitored during the process are mentioned in the checklist below!
Steps to monitor backlinks for websites
Number 1: Set up tools
Various tools can be used to monitor the backlinks like:
- SemRush
SemRush is one of the most known tools in the SEO industry. The tool can distinguish between organic and paid search strategies. Further, it can also help in analysing competitors and track backlinks.
- Google Search Console
It is a tool provided by Google that helps business owners monitor and maintain their site performances. It is free of cost and provides direct insights into organic search.
- Ahrefs
It is also one of the well-known tools that offer a vast database of backlinks and allows one to track backlinks. Due to its vast database, it is one of the best tools to find out about backlink opportunities.
- Serpzilla
A tool that can help in real-time monitoring, and diversified link options with a user-friendly dashboard. It can be used by small and big business owners who are focused on result-driven strategies can utilize this tool to enhance their search engine ranking.
- Ubersuggest
A tool developed by Neil Patel that provides features from analysing competitors to finding keywords. This tool is majorly used by owners as a go-to-stop to do monitoring for websites. Another great feature of this tool is that it is suited for both small and big business owners.
In this blog, Ahrefs and Ubersuggest will be taken into consideration to showcase the process of monitoring!
Let’s get further with the process!!
Number 2: Track new and lost backlinks
For new backlinks, check that these links are coming from authentic websites that have good anchor text.
For lost backlinks, check whether any backlinks have been removed and ask the site owners for any particular reason. Don’t let go of goof backlinks without any inquiry.
Number 3: Check Domain Rating to analyze the quality of backlinks
Use Ahref to find out the DR of the website. If any encounter low quality backlink remove it immediately to improve the domain rating.
Number 4: Analyze and monitor competitors’ backlinks
Use the Ubersuggest backlink feature to find out which website competitors are using to build backlinks. Further, try to contact the website owners to get site backlinks. This will help in boosting backlink building opportunities for the website.
Number 5:Analyse existing and build new strategies based on the results
- Based on the results, build strategies that give effective results and change the ones that are not driving results.
- Make sure to remove spammy or toxic links from the sites as they harm the website visibility and Google can penalise the site.
- Don’t over-optimise the website to drive results fast. This may harm the website’s credibility.
- In the case of any website, any backlink is lost. Try to reach the webmaster of that website and describe the problem. This will help in regaining the site link
By regularly following these steps, healthy website optimisation and maintenance can be done. That would help in driving sales and generating revenue for the business.
Step 4: Reporting to clients
Reporting to the clients is one of the major steps in the SEO backlinks process. A well-prepared report that showcases the metrics that have been improved with a well-defined strategy. This helps the clients understand the back-end process that has been implemented in the last couple of months.
Use tools like Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Google Search Console or Moz to collect all the data to have a structured explanation.
Conclusion
Search engines are involved day by day so it is important for all E-Commerce business owners who want to grow their brands online to understand the need for adaptability.
Start using the AI features that can enhance the website’s user experience. Further, add voice searches and also optimise visuals/ images on the websites.
Use proper tags and ensure that provide high-quality content while building backlinks to build credibility. Additionally, as most people use their phones to scroll through sites, make sure the websites are optimized for mobile SEO.
Incorporating the current SEO trends would an edge over the competitors and also will help you grow your website traffic with an increase in sales and revenue.
Furthermore, link building is going to play a crucial role in the upcoming years in deciding the growth of any E-Commerce business across the world.
Thus, working on link building from now on would give businesses an edge over others and can get easily ranked on search engines.
Additionally, businesses can also work on going with the latest technology and adapting it to their website to make their website user-friendly and efficient.
