As the eCommerce industry grows, competition to get sales and exposure increases. That’s where link building comes in.

Link building is an effective way to gain more exposure and traffic for your website, but it is also one of the most challenging aspects of SEO.

Here are a few link building tactics you can try on your eCommerce website:

1. Create sharable content. When you have something worth linking to, people will link to it sooner or later. Start with the question “Why would people want to link to me?” – use this to build content for your web store, whether it is product pages, blog, videos, resources, etc. If you are having problems coming up with link-worthy content or sharable resources, consider hosting a giveaway – giveaways are more likely to attract shares and links than plain product pages.

2. If your web store carries products of different brands, you can start by hitting up all those brand websites and see if they have a page to list their retailers.

3. Don’t underestimate the power of videos. Incorporate videos on your web store for product walkthroughs, product descriptions, instructional how-to videos, unboxings, etc.

4. Product review outreach. Invite review bloggers to publish a detailed review of your product by sending them a free product to sample. Every review post is a valuable backlink that can help build you an audience and a brand. Start by identifying your target audience and finding out the key influencers your target audience listens to. You won’t be able to engage with every influencer, but it’s definitely worth doing.

5. Turn your customers into brand advocates. Word of mouth is still, and always will be, the best way to spread the word about your business (and ultimately, build links). By making your product pages shareable/likeable/pin-able, you are making it easy for your customers to share your products and reviews on social media. You can also include customer testimonials and/or feature customer stories on your web store.

6. Partner up with other retailers. If there are other retailers in your industry that provide something similar or complementary to what you sell (of course, without being direct competitors), consider creating a cross-promotional partnership with them.

7. Don’t forget related internal links. Consider linking to related items on your key pages (ie. product page, cart, and checkout). We have all seen the “Customers who bought this item also bought” on Amazon and pretty sure many of us have clicked on a related item or two, too.

8. Look for sponsorship opportunities. There are always events or organizations looking for sponsors. Becoming a sponsor will cost you money, but it’s money well-spent: event organizers and the community will appreciate the good will and will very likely link back to your web store and/or mention your brand in any marketing material.