Top Ecommerce Store Design SEO Tip #3: Deploy Off-Site Link Building Techniques

In one of our earlier blogs, Top Five Seo Tips for Yahoo! Ecommerce Storefront Owners,¬† “deploying off-site link building techniques” is listed as a tip to help boost your Yahoo! ecommerce store SEO.

Why link build?

It’s simple: It’s another form of social validation: the more other sites link to your online store site, the more important search engines will think your store site is.

One might assume that good content should be king when it comes to being found through organic search, but that’s not completely true. With so many systems out there auto-generating content, search engines have been forced to find other ways to determine website reputability. One way they do this is by creating an importance rating based on the number of one-way links pointing into any given website. Google’s PageRank scoring system is known around the world. To some experts, achieving a great PageRank score is the primary goal of Search Engine Optimization. In short, the more permanent links pointing into your domain by reputable and relevant sources, the better your Google Pagerank score and the more you improve your organic positioning in general.

How to get other websites to link to your site?

Getting listed on directories

Buying spots on web directories is one of several methods of getting permanent links pointing to your store. But buying your way in isn’t as valuable as it used to be. Over the years, search engines have become more adept at recognizing and ignoring link farms that have no inherent value to visitors. Although this practice still works to some extent, the value just isn’t what it was.

Purchasing a link spot on a relevant local business directory is automatically more relevant than many link farms. Many times, local business directories will list your site at the basic level for free. These directories are legitimate resource sites set up to help consumers find their desired product, service. There may even be a community product/service rating/review system integrated into the directory, which further validates that directory as being legitimate.

Write for newspapers and magazines

These days newspapers and magazines aren’t able to afford writers like they could in the “age of print.” They’re still starving for content, but many times can’t pay freelancers enough to write niche articles. If an expert columnist offers to write a quality piece in exchange for a post-article bio and business link, it is a win on both sides.

Hyperlink your press releases

In today’s media, many things that go in print will first be pasted into the online news section. Make sure to include hyperlinks in your press releases, so any information you send the press can link back to you.

Although there are many other ways to get your links out there that we won’t cover in this blog, it’s important to remember to manage the time you spend building links and updating¬† your store’s content. At the end of the day,¬† if your ecommerce store doesn’t include link-worthy content, you’ll see all your hard earned link referral matrix crumble in a fraction of the time it took to build.

Some final link building reminders:

•    Remember links are more important than large amounts of content, but you won’t get those links without great content. They go hand in hand.
•    Keep in mind the anchor text on your links if you have control over that. For example, if your landing page link is a page all about large argyle socks, try and make sure the text that is actually linked is “large argyle socks” – not something like “click here”.
‚Ä¢¬†¬†¬† Keep up with your competitors’ links by going to Google and typing link:http://www.yourcompetitor.com in the search box.

If all of this information seems daunting, contact the FastPivot.com SEO experts for a custom SEO help solution.

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