Link Building Guide for eCommerce – Seven Important Factors for Building Links in 2013

You probably already know that eCommerce or anything Internet Marketing related is not a static atmosphere. The practice of getting links to your website is as old as the internet itself, but the way in which you acquire those links has changed dramatically. 

Throughout this upcoming year webmasters need to come to the realization that obtaining links in what was fashionable not to long ago is putting their sites, or client sites in major jeopardy when it comes to ranking with Google. The methods are different now than they were before, and below are specific strategies that should help to achieve the desired results of top rankings.

The good news when it comes to effective link building in today’s ultra competitive SEO environment; is that less equals more, and quality beats out quantity. Implementing these specific steps can produce more stable results over the long term.

Here’s how to approach link building in 2013 and how to get the most effective use out of linking to your site, let’s take it point by point.

1. (Primary Keyword Anchor Text) – Number one is big, so we will spend the most time on this. First and foremost one of the most important factors to consider is the amount of exact match keywords that you have linking back to your website. For proactive linking campaigns varying your anchor text is crucial. Obviously you don’t have control of how others will ultimately link back to your site, but that is simply a bonus above and beyond what you are trying to do for yourself.

As with anything back link related there are no exact hard and fast numbers, but a maximum of 5% should be considered for primary keyword anchor text. Post Panda and ongoing Penguin updates makes anything more than this a dangerous exercise. Don’t just assume the max on this, however a strategy of somewhere between 1% and 5% is appropriate.

2. (LSI Anchor Text Keywords) – These also include other qualifier keyword phrases and of course many of the long-tail types of keywords as well. A robust variation of these should be in the range of approximately 30%. The important rule for this is the more you can mix it up the better. Basically, it should be difficult to run out of these variations if you drill deep into your keyword research.

3. (Brand or Domain Name Linking) – This follows the rules for natural linking more than anything else. When someone naturally links to a website they typically link to a URL rather than take the time to make a keyword tagged link. This should be almost half of your inbound links, around 40%. Building links that include just your domain name is the way to approach this. Examples include (http://www.yourdomain.com), (www.yourdomain.com) , or (yourdomain.com).

4. (Generic or Universal Keyword Phrases) – Once again this totally follows a natural linking pattern.

Are you starting to see a trend here?

Universal phrases like, “click here” or “click for more information”, are words and phrases that your typical web surfers will use when they find something useful to link to. Using about 25% or so should be a good number as part of an overall approach.

Again these numbers are not static they simply represent a good number as a baseline. Studying your competition in the search engine results will reveal what adjustments should be made to rank highly in the search results.

Now that we’ve talked about what needs to be done as far as keywords and phrases as it pertains to links, the next question is where to put them. The key to knowing what will work best may not always be the simplest.

Essentially, if it’s really easy to get a back link from another website (i.e.) article marketing, blog commenting, link building schemes etc. Then consider your site DOA with Google. I know that sounds harsh but you are playing a dangerous game that you are most likely going to lose. It may take them a while to see what you are up to, but eventually they will, and then say goodbye to your rankings. It’s just a matter of time.

Earning links rather than building links are what the top SEO pros are going to be focusing on in 2013 to achieve and maintain rankings for sites.

5. (Natural Cross Promotion and Partnerships) – The theme of getting natural links is the underlying key to success in 2013. When you are involved in a particular market, developing friendly partnerships with related companies is a natural process. Sharing links in various pieces of content that is exchanged between sites is a natural way of getting links.

This obviously will require that you do some outreach to these types of companies and sites, but the benefits are major. You position your website as a resource that other companies can link to, and become a resource for them. This strategy can take some time but is well worth it.

6. (Offer Original Content to Closely Related Websites) – Getting to know who the other players are in your market can be advantageous to your rankings. Offering them high quality content in exchange for placing a link back to your site is a simple and still effective method. The important key is that it must be a readership destination, not an article directory or mishmash blog of everything under the sun.

7. (Actively Participate in Forums) – Becoming an expert, or great resource for people on forums can motivate them into linking to your site. This is different because rather than say having a signature link that ends up showing up site wide on every post you make, it might be more like a public request asking that people link to your site if they find your postings useful to gain even more information.

Using a natural approach to link building in 2013 should give you the best results for achieving the highest possible rankings. Other factors still play a role in site rankings, but linking to sites is still very much a part of the overall equation and algorithms. “Earning links” should now be the catch phrase, as “Building links” has now become a dirty word in 2013, for now!

 

Author’s biography – Ben Sawyer is an Internet marketer for more than 5 years. Currently he is a SEO strategist for Paramold eCommerce website. Here Ben shared his tips about link building for eCommerce websites.