Is it worth putting effort into link building to make a positive impact on your eCommerce business? It’s a fact that search traffic is essential if you want to have links back to your website from other relevant sites. This is a crucial aspect of digital marketing, and it’s well worth your time.
What is Link Building?
Link building refers to the act of creating hyperlinks that point back to your site on other websites. It is a vital part of your Miami digital marketing strategy. Link building is how you establish trust and authority.
Why is link building important for eCommerce websites?
Link building is an essential part of your SEO puzzle. These links are a key ranking factor in search engines (Google, Bing, etc.). They are an important factor in driving traffic to your website. Links are a way to show support for one website over another (kinda like voting) and help people who visit a website have a direct route to your site. Link building improves your website’s ranking, drives more traffic, and allows you to sell more products.
What are the Different Types of Links
Understanding the roles of different types of links is as important as understanding their role in your SEO strategy. What are the most important types of links? And what is their role on your site?
Internal Links
Internal links are links linking pages within the same domain. Google will notice if there are a lot of links to one page on your website. This sends a signal to Google that the page’s content is important. You will have links to your main navigation as well as the category pages for eCommerce businesses. Internal links can be built from “related products” feeds that displayed on each product page or through blog content.
Links to external sources
These links point to one website from another. These are links that point to another website. Google recognizes credibility and authenticity when it sees links that point back to your site.
Followed Links
The following links are a sign of trustworthiness and equity. External links can act as votes for your website. Follow links have the same effect and give your site more credibility, which reflects in search engine results.
No-Followed links
It is exactly as it sounds: a no-follow hyperlink tells search engines that the link will not be followed. It can be useful to make some links non-follow for search engine purposes and remove your “vote”. A website should have both no-followed backlinks and followed backlinks.
What is a Link Profile?
Your link profile is the sum of all links on your website. It is your website’s link fingerprint. You want a link profile that is clean and not too forced/manipulated. Your link profile will vary depending on your site’s age, industry, quality of your links, and other factors.
What is Anchor Text?
Anchor text is the clickable portion of a link. It is often easily identified by having blue text and underlining it. It is important because it tells Google about your page. It is important to make sure your anchor text looks natural. It may not make sense and look natural to use exact keywords in your anchor text. Your content should not appear spam to Google and your audience. Therefore, ensure that your anchor text flows naturally.
What are the Different Types Of Anchor Text?
Branded
Branded anchor texts are when you use the name or logo of the brand as your anchor text. If you are talking about Google and want to link back, the anchor text would be “Google”.
The Perfect Match
I recently wrote about keywords being used as anchor text in performing backlink analysis. This is what we call exact match anchor text. Keywords can help you rank higher with Google. Be careful not to use too many exact-match anchor texts. It can be spammy to search engines. To link to our SEO page, you can use the keyword SEO as an example of exact-match anchor text.
Partial Match
Partial match anchor text refers to when you include variations of keywords that are related to your page. Although not exactly matching, it is still a great way to tell Google about your page and drive traffic. A partial match anchor text example is the Kobe Digital paid search words and linking to our PPC Page.
Call to Action (CTA).
A call to action is a statement that encourages readers to take action. It is essential for link building. CTAs are proven to increase click-through rates, which in turn leads to more traffic and greater success for your site. A CTA is used to anchor text. For example, Learn more, and link to our paid social network page. You will need to do some competitive research to determine the type of anchor text that is required to rank for a specific search query. What type of anchor text do your top competitors use? What percentage of your anchor text is an exact match? Branded? CTA? Ahrefs is a tool that allows you to quickly identify patterns and create a suitable anchor text strategy.
What kind of links will move the needle?
Now that we know what backlinks are and what role anchor text plays in link building, how do you implement the right kind of links to get the traffic and success that you want?
Standard Business Directories: Foundational Links
Although there is no exact definition of what a “foundational” link is, information can be gleaned from the title. A foundational link would be one that a company would naturally have such as a LinkedIn page or home page. Directory backlinks are one of these foundational connections. Search engines consider directory listing a ranking factor. Your site will naturally rank higher if you diversify and build your link profile by linking to high-ranking, prominent sources. Made In The USA directories as well as Women In Business directories and Green Company directories are other business directories that offer a powerful punch.
Industry Links: Links from Sites in the Same Space
Link building is a great way to increase your credibility and gain more links from sites that are in the same niche. These links, which provide direct access for users on other sites to your site, are a great way of reaching a wider audience. These links can be incorporated using a variety of resources, including:
- Blog Links/Guest Posts
- Sponsored posts
- Forums
- Groups on Facebook
- Pinterest Boards
- Affiliates
- Coupon sites
- Review sites for products
- Sponsorships
Competitive Links: These are links your competitors have, but you don’t
You’ve probably heard the expression “keep your friends close, keep your enemies near” when trying to identify new opportunities for backlinks. Competitive analysis and finding missing links can help you see the strengths and weaknesses of your competition and help you create a better SEO strategy that will help you rise to the top. The best thing about competitive links is the fact that you can acquire them. Search engines will associate your brand with top competitors, adding credibility you didn’t have previously.
How can you determine if a link is valuable?
Many factors contribute to the validity and value of a hyperlink. How can you tell where your links are?
Is the website indexable?
Indexing a website means adding web pages to Google search. Google must find your website to show it to others. Indexing your website can help speed up this process. The link you want to obtain is likely a good one if the website from which it came is fully indexed. To check if a website has been indexed, open Google and type site:[website URL]. There will be a list of pages that have been indexed. You can scroll through the pages to verify they are indexed.
What is their Domain Rank?
The domain authority is what determines a website’s relevancy to a specific topic or industry. This will impact how Google and other search engines rank your website. When ranking domains, there are many factors to consider. These include the number and quality of the links that point to the site. Ahrefs is a great tool to determine a website’s rank. The higher the rank, the better.
Is the website getting traffic?
If the website ranks well for its target keywords and generates traffic, it is likely to be a good site to link from. A tool such as SEMRush can be used to determine how many keywords a website ranks for and estimate traffic.
It’s all worth it
Your efforts to implement your link-building strategy will pay off in the end. SEO can have a huge impact on your eCommerce website and ultimately lead to more success.
Are you looking for additional guidance in SEO? For more information on SEO, check out our huge SEO guide for eCommerce companies.
Do you need help in link building? Book a consultation today to see how we can help your business. If you are not ready, but still curious about what makes a Kobe Digital client a good one, take a look at our ideal customer description.
