I think doing good off-page SEO for eCommerce is a lot like doing a good off-page SEO for any other type of website. It mostly comes down to being good at link building.
I’m going to share with you some great tactics that worked pretty well for my first online store, and you can start applying them right now.
I’ll start with the easiest ones and progress to some harder methods. As you could expect, the difficult ones are where the real SEO juice is, but it doesn’t hurt to do the quick ones, too.
Start by creating an Excel or Google Spreadsheet (I prefer Google if I have to collaborate with colleagues). Name it "Link building campaign" or something similar.
This spreadsheet is going to be your quant-based off-page SEO campaign overview and will aim to give you a bird view of how well you’re doing.
Add the following columns in the spreadsheet:
- Website - the website you want to position a link on
- Contacted - Yes/No; if you need to contact a person to request a link on their site
- Replied - Yes/No. Shows if the person has replied to your email.
- Linking - Yes/No. If the link has been positioned yet.
- Contact details - person’s details for contact if needed.
- Asset type - what you are going to give them in return. The asset is the benefit you offer them. With online stores this could be: A free product. A discount code for their site readers. The “thought leader” tactic - the online store owner shares a relevant experience with the audience.
- Article Name - your article submission for the website if applicable. Applies if you are doing guest-authoring.
Audience - what’s the audience of the website. - Most used keywords - what are the most used keywords on the site. A column with a keyword overview of the site. It gives you a starting point for idea generation if you are going to write an article on the site. You can use this tool to scrap most used words on a page - http://www.online-utility.org/text/frequent_words.jsp
- Backlinks - what other sites are linking to the site where you want your link positioned
- PR - page rank
- PA - page authority
- DA - domain authority. For PA and DA use MozBar free plugin.
- Traffic - traffic that came from that particular link
- Conversion rate - % of successful purchases made by visitors that came from that link
- Number of purchases that a visitor who came from the link made.
That's how my Link Building Campaign Spreadsheet looked for my first online store.
You can also download the spreadsheet template.
Now:
Once you get this done, we can get to the fun stuff that is link building.
You can apply some or most of the techniques I list here. Personally I had best results with guest-blogging and discount/product giveaway to bloggers.
1. Put a link to your online store in your forum profile signature to get some quick links and traffic.
Most message boards use “no-follow” links that don’t bring any SEO juice. They are still worth for the traffic that comes from them.
You can get 5-10 links that way fast.
2. Ask for opinion for your store on message boards or sub reddits
Open a new topic and asks what users think of your online store design, usability, product selection, prices, etc. You don’t want to come out too promotional.
That's how I got my first customer for my online store for novelty gadgets and men’s gifts. I posted a “Let me know what you think of my online store” thread in a web developers’ forum. Is all about targeting the right websites.
Important note:
I was told by a person in another community that this is plain spammy and should get you banned in most forums.
Apparently, I didn't articulate my message well enough. I don't ask you to create a hundred new profiles and start spamming message boards with your store link! It's always about being genuine and contributing to the community first.
In my example above, I'm a member of that forum since 2005th! That was not 10 minutes ago; that's ten years.
So if you plan on using that tactic make sure you contribute to the forum fist. Be very helpful first, answer at least few topics before putting your link anywhere.
3. Submit your online store to business directories.
These links don’t have the greatest SEO profile you’d like, but there’s no reason not to do them. You might try a service like RankCrew or do some manual link submissions.
Be careful:
Don’t submit more than three links per day! With the Penguin algorithm, you might get penalized for that.
4. If your store has a fancy design, don’t underestimate the web design galleries.
Submit your link to a service like http://thecssgallerylist.com/. I had great results with my personal portfolio, and we got more than 1700 views on our first day that came from web design galleries. It can work with an online store if you store has some impressive design and product photography.
5. Share your link on marketplaces
If you sell products on eBay, Etsy and other marketplaces you can include a link to your store in your profile or where acceptable in your product description.
6. Product and discount giveaway.
With product discounts and giveaways, I had greatest results.
With an online store, you have one great advantage, and that is physical products bought on the cheap.
Find authoritative blogs in your niche with a big readers audience. You can track backlinks to your competitors and see what bloggers and sites link to them. To do that use a service like Ahrefs and Open Seo Stats, the former one being free.
Send an email to the blog owner that you’d like to offer a discount for his/hers readers and send them a neat gift.
With my geek gadgets stores, I approached game bloggers, sci-fi enthusiasts, and other nerdy folks. Here’s a template of the email I use.
Hi there,
I’m Kaloyan, co-founder of a new website for unusual gadgets and all other geeky things - mengear.bg
I’m approaching you because I found out that you like the stuff we have. We do have some cool gadgets; it would be awesome if you could check them. As you are a person that's deep into that subculture, it will be useful for us if you have 2 minutes to check our site. Share your opinion about the products we list and the site in general.
Apart from that I'd like to make a small discount for you and your blog’s readers as we believe they’ll enjoy the stuff we offer. Here’s a discount code for 10% OFF: “discountcode”.
Last but not least I’d like you to give us an address where we can send a small gift we’ve prepared for you. We think you’ll like it
Best Regards,
Kalo
He got back to us quickly. Later we sent him an excellent 8-bit glasses with a personalized geeky message:
Check here!
We got more than a 1000 views from his site and a link from a PR4 targeted page. Everything costing us: less than 5 quid.
7. Guest-blogging
This tactic involves approaching bloggers and online magazines with some great content. A natural fit are entrepreneurial and marketing blogs. Try to find the blog owner or chief editor’s email and ask him/her that you are currently writing an in-depth article about X.
And you believe his/her readers will find beneficial.
It’s easy to write something about eCommerce - share what worked and what didn’t for your store. Again don’t be promotional. The point here is to share insightful content. In the “about the author” section you’ll share a link to your store.
Hope this advice helps you get started with doing some strong off-page link building for your store.
What are your best ways of doing off-page SEO for eCommerce?