Link building for ecommerce sites presents unique challenges. Most backlink strategies are designed for blogs and informational content, but online stores need links to product pages, category pages, and the homepage—pages that don’t naturally attract editorial links.
This guide covers practical link building strategies designed specifically for ecommerce websites, from quick wins to long-term authority-building tactics.
Why Ecommerce Link Building Is Different
Content-driven websites earn links naturally when people reference their articles and resources. Ecommerce sites don’t have that advantage. Nobody links to a product page because they found it intellectually interesting.
This means ecommerce link building requires more creativity and deliberate effort. You need strategies that either create linkable content assets or leverage your products and brand to earn links through other channels.
The good news is that ecommerce sites have unique link-building advantages that content sites don’t:
- Physical products that can be sent for reviews
- Supplier and manufacturer relationships
- Customer stories and testimonials
- Original product photography
- Industry data from sales and customer behavior
Create Linkable Content Assets
The most sustainable ecommerce link building strategy is creating content that people want to link to. This content lives on your blog or resource section and passes authority to your commercial pages through internal linking.
Buying Guides
Comprehensive buying guides answer the questions shoppers have before making a purchase. A guide like “How to Choose the Right Running Shoe for Your Foot Type” provides genuine value and earns links from fitness blogs, forums, and resource pages. The guide then links internally to your running shoe category and product pages.
Original Research and Data
If you have access to interesting data, publish it. An ecommerce store selling outdoor gear might analyze purchase trends to create a report on “Most Popular Hiking Gear by Region.” Journalists, bloggers, and other sites link to original data regularly.
Visual Assets
Infographics, comparison charts, and sizing guides are highly shareable. A clothing retailer’s international size conversion chart or a supplement store’s vitamin comparison infographic can earn dozens of links from sites that reference the visual in their own content.
Tools and Calculators
Interactive tools earn links over time as people discover and share them. Examples include paint calculators for home improvement stores, fabric calculators for sewing shops, and compatibility checkers for electronics retailers.
Leverage Product Reviews and Mentions
Getting your products reviewed by bloggers and publications is one of the most natural link building strategies for ecommerce.
Blogger Outreach
Identify bloggers in your niche who review products similar to yours. Reach out with a personalized pitch offering a free product in exchange for an honest review. Focus on quality over quantity—a single link from a well-regarded blog in your niche is worth more than dozens from low-quality sites.
Product Roundups
Many publications create “best of” roundups (e.g., “15 Best Kitchen Gadgets for Home Cooks”). Research which roundups exist in your space and pitch your products for inclusion. These posts often rank well themselves, making the link doubly valuable.
Unlinked Brand Mentions
People may mention your brand or products online without linking to your site. Use tools like Ahrefs’ Content Explorer or Google Alerts to find these mentions, then reach out politely asking if they’d add a link. The conversion rate for this outreach is typically high since they’ve already mentioned you voluntarily.
Build Relationships With Suppliers and Manufacturers
Your supply chain is an underused source of backlinks.
- Authorized retailer pages – Many manufacturers list authorized retailers on their website. Make sure you’re listed with a link
- Case studies – If you’re a significant retailer for a brand, they may feature you in case studies or success stories
- Co-marketing – Collaborate on content with suppliers. A joint guide or lookbook benefits both parties and earns links from each other’s audiences
Earn Links Through Digital PR
Digital PR involves creating newsworthy stories or data that journalists want to cover. This strategy requires more effort but can earn links from high-authority news sites.
Data-Driven Stories
Analyze your sales data for interesting trends and package them as press-ready stories. “Sales of home fitness equipment increased 340% this year” is the kind of statistic journalists cite and link to.
Expert Commentary
Position yourself or your team as industry experts available for journalist queries. Services like HARO (Help a Reporter Out), Qwoted, and Terkel connect experts with journalists who need quotes for their articles. Each feature typically includes a link to your site.
Newsjacking
When relevant news breaks in your industry, quickly create commentary, analysis, or resources that journalists covering the story would find useful. Speed is essential—the window for newsjacking is usually just a few days.
Broken Link Building
This technique involves finding broken links on other websites and suggesting your content as a replacement.
- Find resource pages in your niche using Google searches like “your niche + resources” or “your niche + useful links”
- Use a tool like Check My Links (Chrome extension) to find broken links on those pages
- If the broken link pointed to content similar to something on your site, email the site owner suggesting your page as a replacement
For ecommerce, this works best when you have informational content (guides, resources) that can replace the broken link. It’s unlikely someone will replace a broken link with a product page.
Guest Posting With Purpose
Guest posting still works for ecommerce link building when done strategically. The key is to contribute genuinely valuable content to relevant publications rather than chasing any site that accepts guest posts.
Focus on:
- Industry publications your target customers read
- Blogs with engaged audiences in your niche
- Sites with strong domain authority and organic traffic
Your guest posts should demonstrate expertise and provide value to the publication’s audience. The link back to your site should feel natural within the content, not forced.
Scholarship and Sponsorship Links
Sponsoring local events, industry conferences, or community programs often comes with a link from the event’s website. Similarly, creating scholarships generates links from university financial aid pages, which tend to have high domain authority.
These links are legitimate because they reflect real business activities and community involvement, not manufactured link schemes.
Internal Linking: Distribute the Authority
Earning external links is only half the equation. You need a strong internal linking structure to distribute that authority to your most important commercial pages.
- Link from your linkable content assets (blog posts, guides) to relevant category and product pages
- Use descriptive anchor text that naturally incorporates target keywords
- Ensure category pages link to subcategories and top products
- Add breadcrumb navigation for additional internal link paths
- Link related products to each other within product descriptions
Strategies to Avoid
Some link building tactics are tempting but risky or ineffective:
- Buying links – Violates Google’s guidelines and risks penalties
- Low-quality directories – Mass directory submissions provide little value
- Link exchanges – Reciprocal linking at scale looks unnatural to Google
- PBNs (Private Blog Networks) – High risk of detection and penalties
- Comment spam – Nofollow links that provide no SEO value and damage your brand
Measuring Link Building Success
Track these metrics to evaluate your link building efforts:
- Referring domains – The number of unique websites linking to your site (more important than total link count)
- Domain authority trend – Is your overall domain authority increasing over time?
- Organic traffic to linked pages – Are pages that received links seeing traffic improvements?
- Keyword rankings – Are target keywords moving up as you earn more links?
- Link quality – Are you earning links from relevant, authoritative sites?
Link building is a long-term investment. Results typically take 3-6 months to materialize in rankings and traffic, so maintain consistent effort and track progress over quarters rather than weeks.