Creative Ecommerce Link Building Strategies Beyond Cold Emailing

Link building is an essential part of any ecommerce SEO strategy.

However, traditional cold emailing for backlinks can be time-consuming and often yields low results. To stand out in a competitive market, ecommerce businesses need to adopt innovative and value-driven link building tactics.

This guide, inspired by BDOW!’s original article on link building without cold emailing explores several effective link building strategies.

We have to purposely wrote this blog with the intention to help ecommerce founders enhance their online visibility and organic search rankings.

1. Build a Community

Creating a community around your brand offers long-term benefits beyond SEO. User-generated content (UGC) from community members can attract valuable backlinks, as it often appears more genuine and less commercial.

For instance, Apple’s forums and eBay’s knowledge base have amassed millions of backlinks by providing a platform for user interaction and content sharing.

Strategies to build a community:

• Establish a web forum or integrate community features into your support and knowledge base systems.
• Leverage existing communities like subreddits or Slack channels to bridge connections and strengthen your own community.
• Facilitate offline user groups and events, linking back to your site from platforms like Meetup.

2. Use PR Stunts

PR stunts are a powerful way to capture attention and generate backlinks. Creative and memorable PR activities can quickly go viral, attracting media coverage and social shares.

Examples of successful PR stunts:

• Dollar Shave Club’s viral video campaign, which earned thousands of backlinks and millions of views.
• Interactive landing pages with unique visualizations or statistics, like CEWE Photoworld’s Instagram size page.

3. Make Your Products Memorable

Offering unique or surprising products can generate buzz and attract backlinks. Memorable products give people something to talk about and share, driving organic link building.

Examples:

• Warby Parker’s monocle, which gained extensive media coverage and backlinks despite being a low-selling item.
• ThinkGeek’s “canned unicorn meat,” originally an April Fool’s joke, which received thousands of backlinks.

Create Seasonal Landing Pages

Seasonal landing pages capitalize on recurring events and holidays, attracting consistent attention and backlinks year after year. Ensure these pages remain live year-round to accumulate trust and authority over time.

4. Effective seasonal pages:

• Macy’s holiday landing pages, including their Thanksgiving Day Parade page, which collectively garner thousands of backlinks.
• REI’s “OptOutside” campaign, which promotes an anti-Black Friday movement and has attracted over a million backlinks.

5. Newsjacking

Newsjacking involves leveraging trending topics to create timely, relevant content that captures attention. This strategy can lead to significant media coverage and backlinks.

Successful newsjacking examples:

• Oreo’s quick response to the 2013 Super Bowl power outage.
• Warby Parker’s Solar Eclipse contest, which gained hundreds of backlinks.

6. Give Back to Charity

Charity initiatives not only enhance your brand’s image but also attract valuable backlinks from authoritative nonprofit and community websites.

Examples of charity-driven link building:

• Macy’s “Macy’s Gives” page, which has earned over 4,000 backlinks.
• Warby Parker’s “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” campaign, with over 2,500 backlinks from various sources.

7. Develop Sponsorship Programs

Sponsorship programs, such as scholarships and grants, provide significant value and attract backlinks from educational and community organizations.

Notable examples:

• Walmart’s various grants and sponsorship programs, which collectively attract thousands of backlinks.
• AWS’s student and educator programs, earning nearly 2,000 backlinks.

8. Offer Discounts

Providing targeted discounts to specific groups, such as students, veterans, or teachers, can generate backlinks from related organizations and communities.

Examples:

• ASOS’s student discount page, which has nearly 400 backlinks.
• Apple’s higher education discount page, which boasts over 30,000 backlinks.

9. Run Giveaways

Giveaways and contests can drive traffic, engagement, and backlinks. Ensure to host the giveaway on your site and use third-party tools like KingSumo to manage it effectively.

Examples:

• Shoe Palace’s Yeezy raffle page, which collected nearly 200 backlinks.
• Zappos’ various giveaways, attracting high-quality links from reputable sources.

10. Create Useful Guides

Guides are a cornerstone of ecommerce content marketing, offering valuable information that attracts backlinks. They can be buyer guides or tutorial-style guides.

Successful guide examples:

• Mountain Warehouse’s tent buying guide, which has earned over 250 backlinks.
• REI’s comprehensive expert advice section, with nearly 1.5 million backlinks.

11. Build a Blog

A well-executed blog can be a link-building powerhouse. It attracts links, builds a community, and serves as an information hub for your audience.

Examples:

• Dollar Shave Club’s blog, targeted at its core audience, earning thousands of backlinks.
• Lululemon’s blog, focused on yoga and fitness, with over 20,000 backlinks from major publishers.

12. Run a Podcast

Podcasts can enhance your brand’s visibility and attract backlinks. They provide valuable content in audio format, appealing to different audience segments.

Examples:

• AWS’s podcasts, which cover a range of topics and have collectively earned hundreds of backlinks.
• eBay’s “Open for Business” podcast, offering business advice and attracting backlinks.

Create Infographics

Infographics can attract social shares and backlinks if they provide valuable and visually appealing information. However, their success depends heavily on effective outreach and promotion.

13. Develop Tools Such as Calculators and Widgets

Useful tools, such as calculators or widgets, can attract backlinks by providing practical value to users. Ensure these tools are hosted on your site to benefit from the inbound links.

Conclusion

Successful ecommerce link building goes beyond simply acquiring backlinks. It involves creating valuable, engaging content that resonates with your audience and enhances your brand’s overall online presence. By implementing these innovative strategies, ecommerce founders can effectively build links, drive traffic, and boost their search engine rankings without relying on cold emailing.

By adopting these tactics and focusing on providing genuine value, ecommerce businesses can navigate the challenges of link building and achieve sustainable growth in a competitive digital landscape.