How to Make a Link Building Strategy for an Online Store?

Developing a link strategy for an online store is an essential step in SEO optimization. It helps to improve the site’s position in search engines and increase its traffic. Here are a few steps that will help you create an effective link strategy for an online store:

Analysis of Competitors’ Backlink Profiles

Analyzing competitors’ link profiles is an important part of developing an effective website promotion strategy. It allows you to identify the most successful sources of links that your competitors use and leverage them to increase the credibility of your site. Below are the main stages of analyzing the reference profile of competitors.

1. Identify Your Competitors: Before beginning the analysis, determine who your competitors are. These could be both large market players and small online stores targeting your audience.
2. Collect data about the competitor’s backlinks: Use specialized tools such as Ahrefs, Majestic SEO, or SEMrush to gather data on all their external links.
3. Evaluate the Quality of the Links: After collecting the data, assess the quality of these links. Consider key indicators such as site credibility, topic relevance, and content quality, and evaluate each link based on these criteria.
4. Identify the Most Successful Link Sources: Based on your assessment, determine the most successful sources of competitors’ links. These could include various sites, blogs, forums, social networks, etc. Investigate how competitors acquired these links and consider using similar methods to promote your site.
5. Identify Missing Link Sources: Analyze your competitors’ link profiles to identify link sources that you are missing. Find sites linking to your competitors but not to you, and try to obtain links from these resources.

Identify Keywords 

Identify the key queries for which you want your site to rank in search engines. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush to determine the most suitable keywords for your business. Carefully selected keywords can potentially lead to increased traffic and improved search engine rankings. To determine the keywords for the online store, you need to consider:

1. The Subject of Your Store and the Products You Sell: Tailor your keywords to reflect your offerings.
2. Potential Buyers: Understand who may search for these products and what queries they might use.
3. Types of keywords: Consider navigation, informational, or transactional keywords users might use.
4. Keywords Used by Competitors: Analyze competitors’ keywords to understand what drives traffic to their sites.

To begin, you can use keyword selection tools like Google Keyword Planner. Also, analyze the keywords that drive traffic to your competitors’ sites using tools like Ahrefs or Majestic. Remember to consider the types of requests and their intent, such as navigation queries including your store’s name or brand and informational requests relating to product reviews or comparisons.

Search for Relevant Sites to Acquire Links

Explore sites relevant to your niche where you can acquire links. These might include product reviews, guest articles, blog posts, media resources, etc. To find suitable sites to get links, you can use the following methods:

1. Competitor Analysis: Study your competitors’ sites to identify their link sources, which you may also use.
2. Forums and Blogs: Find forums and blogs related to your niche and participate in discussions. You can leave comments and links to your site, but ensure you follow the community rules.
3. Partner Sites: If you have partners or suppliers, ask them to link to your site.
4. Site Directories: Add your site to directories related to your niche.
5. Link Search Services: Use services like Ahrefs, Majestic, or SEMrush to find relevant sites for link acquisition.

Remember, link quality is more important than quantity. Focus on acquiring links from high-quality, relevant sites. You can also hire professionals to create quality backlinks for your specific audience. For example, if you want to reach a U.S. audience, you should hire Link Building Services for USA. They will focus on the relevant audience and help protect your site from Google penalties.

Evaluation of Site Quality 

Evaluate the quality of sites where you plan to post links. These sites should be relevant to your niche, possess high trust levels, and have authority in search engines’ eyes. The higher the quality of the site from which you get links, the more valuable they will be for your site. Evaluation of the quality of the site includes a number of factors, including:

1. Credibility: The site should be well-respected with a high trust rating from users and search engines.
2. Content Quality: The site should have unique, informative, and valuable content.
3. Reputation: The site should have a good online reputation and not be associated with unethical practices.
4. Site Specifications: The site should be well-structured, load quickly, and offer easy navigation.
5. Backlinks: The number and quality of backlinks to the site are also crucial.

Various tools such as Moz Domain Authority, Ahrefs Domain Rating, Majestic Trust Flow and Citation Flow can be used to assess the quality of the site. They will help to determine the trust rating of the site and show its authority. In addition, you can also consider traffic indicators, the use of social networks, the presence of external links to the site and other factors that may affect its quality.

Content Creation

Create high-quality content that can attract the attention of resources and encourage them to link to your site. It can be expert content, product reviews, articles, news, videos, etc. 

The purpose of creating content is to attract the attention of users and increase their brand loyalty. 

To create content, you need to take into account the target audience, its interests, needs and problems. Content can be diverse: it can be texts, photos, videos, infographics, audio, presentations, interactive elements and much more. 

When creating content, it is important to take into account not only the interests of the target audience, but also the peculiarities of search engines. Content should be optimized for key requests and comply with SEO rules. Some tips for creating content:

1. Define the Content’s Purpose: What message do you want to convey to your audience?
2. Study Your Audience: What are the interests and needs of your potential customers?
3. Create Useful and Interesting Content: Ensure your content meets the needs of your audience.
4. Use Various Content Formats: Attract different user groups with diverse content formats.
5. Optimize Content: Ensure your content is optimized for key queries and SEO standards.
6. Stay Current: Follow industry trends and create content that addresses users’ current questions.
7. Continuous Improvement: Regularly improve the quality and relevance of your content.

Search for Quality Directories

Use directories that list sites in your niche. Find directories that offer product reviews and add your site to them. Directories are specialized sites containing lists of web resources sorted by various topics and categories. Including your online store in such directories can improve its search rankings and bring additional traffic.

The following methods can be used to search for quality catalogs:

1. Search Engines: Use search terms like “site directories” or “site list” to explore options.
2. Competitors: Analyze competitors’ sites to identify the directories they use.
3. Specialized Directories: Look for directories specializing in your niche, such as online store directories.
4. Social Networks and Forums: Engage with communities to learn about quality directories.

When you find suitable directories, ensure they meet the following criteria:

• Reputation: Choose reputable directories that are popular with visitors and have high authority in search engines.
• Relevance: Select directories relevant to your niche and site’s theme.
• Authority: Opt for directories with high authority that can transfer weight and trust to your site.
• Ease of Use: Use directories that offer a user-friendly interface.

Once you’ve identified the directories where you want to list your site, create a detailed profile of your company, including essential information about your brand and products, and add links to your site in the appropriate categories.

Creating Profiles on Social Networks

Create social media profiles related to your niche and add links to your site. This could include platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.

Here are a few steps that can help you create social media profiles:

1. Choose the Right Platforms: Determine where your audience is most active and which platforms your competitors use.
2. Create Profiles: Select a suitable username, upload a profile photo, and fill in company and website information.
3. Create Content: Post interesting and valuable content to engage your audience. This could include photos, videos, texts, reviews, and more.
4. Distribute Content: Share your content on other platforms and blogs to attract new users.
5. Engage with the Audience: Respond to comments and messages, ask questions, and conduct surveys to maintain a connection with your audience.
6. Analyze Results: Regularly analyze the performance of your social media profiles to identify what works and what doesn’t. This will help optimize your profiles and improve future results.”