Ecommerce link building means earning links to your store from relevant, trustworthy websites. The strategies that work best are link-worthy content, digital PR, unlinked mentions, broken link outreach, genuine partnerships and competitor research. Skip bought links and mass directories.
A beautiful store and great products aren’t enough. Search engines treat links as votes of trust, and online shops usually have fewer natural links than blogs or publishers do.
I’m Nazirul Islam Nakib, and I’ve done link building for online stores for 8+ years. Here are the seven approaches I rely on, and the traps I avoid.
This guide covers shops. For the general method, see my link building service.
Why links are harder for online stores
Few people link to a product page just because it exists. Product pages are commercial, and most sites prefer to link to something useful.
So the work is to create reasons to link. Then you ask the right people at the right time.
1. Create content worth linking to
Useful content attracts links without begging.
Buying guides. If you sell hiking gear, “How to choose hiking boots” is useful and linkable.
Data and reports. Your own sales or customer data can make interesting insights. Journalists often look for original numbers.
Tutorials. A kitchenware shop can teach people how to use what it sells.
Free tools. Size guides, calculators and checkers get linked again and again.
Then link from these pages to your categories and products, so the value flows through. See content SEO.
2. Broken link building
Many sites in your niche link to pages that no longer exist.
The process:
- Find relevant blogs, resource pages and guides.
- Check them for dead links with a tool such as Ahrefs or a browser extension.
- Make sure you have a genuinely good replacement.
- Email the owner, point out the broken link and suggest your page.
You are helping them fix a problem. That’s why it works.
3. Digital PR
Digital PR earns links from news sites and magazines that are hard to get any other way.
Ideas that work for shops:
- A survey with a surprising result.
- A genuinely new product or story.
- A real partnership with a charity or local cause.
- Expert comment on a trending topic in your niche.
Be honest about what you publish. Journalists remember who gave them good material, and who wasted their time.
4. Turn unlinked mentions into links
Sometimes sites mention your brand without linking to it.
Set up Google Alerts or use a mention-tracking tool. When you find one, send a short, polite note thanking them and asking if they would add a link.
It’s one of the easiest wins in link building.
5. Work with bloggers and creators
Reviews, guest posts and expert round-ups can bring relevant links and traffic.
A few rules keep this safe:
- If you send free products or pay, the relationship should be disclosed.
- Paid or gifted links should use rel=”sponsored” or nofollow, as Google asks.
- Pick publishers your customers actually read.
6. Study your competitors’ links
Use a tool such as Ahrefs, Semrush or Moz to see who links to competing stores.
Look for patterns: roundups, resource lists, local press or industry sites. If a site links to three of your rivals, it may well link to you if you give it a reason.
Don’t copy blindly. Some of their links will be poor quality.
7. Build real relationships
Links usually follow trust.
- Share and comment on other people’s work first.
- Join industry events and communities, online or offline.
- Offer value before you ask for anything.
Over time, people link to brands they know and like.
What to avoid
- Buying links to boost rankings.
- Private blog networks and link farms.
- Mass directory submissions.
- Over-optimised anchor text, such as the same keyword every time.
- Link exchanges at scale.
These may work briefly, but they risk penalties. Read the difference in white hat vs black hat SEO.
How to tell if it’s working
Don’t just count links. Look at:
- Links from relevant, trusted sites.
- Referral traffic from those links.
- Ranking changes on the pages you linked to.
- Revenue from organic search over time.
Link building is slow. Expect months, not days.
Off-page SEO for stores, in short
Everything above is off-page SEO: actions outside your own site that build trust. They work best when your store is in good shape first. A slow site or weak category pages will waste your hard-won links.
See what a full plan includes in ecommerce website SEO packages and on the ecommerce SEO page.
Frequently asked questions
How many links does an online store need?
There is no fixed number. It depends on your competition. Look at the stores ranking above you and aim to earn links of similar quality.
Should I build links to product pages?
Mostly to categories, guides and your home page. Those pages then pass strength to products.
Is guest posting still okay?
Yes, when the site is relevant and the article is useful. Mass guest posting for links is not.
How long does it take to see results?
Usually several months. It depends on competition and link quality.
If you’d like help, you can hire an SEO expert or request a free website audit. The home page lists all my services.
