Previously, we shared link building tips that you can implement in your eCommerce store. Time and again, it has been established how important link building is as a strategy in search engine optimization. For eCommerce merchants, getting their online stores to the top pages of search engines will mean more sales and hopefully a loyal customer base. There are many ethical ways to do link building – press releases, blogs, guest blogging, product reviews, and more. However, there are also quite a few methods that are deemed unethical and can possibly land you on search engines’ penalty box. Here are some of which you should never practice to gain links for your eCommerce store.
1. Forum Spamming – Forums are online communities that are quickly garnering relevance as users tend to research reviews before purchasing products and this is where they head to find just that. Forums allow for discussions, troubleshooting, and opinions posted by consumers. They were not devised for link building. Though forums allow links on a keyword rich anchor text, it is better to include them in your signature if you plan to be a regular on the website. Forum users have an eye for spammers and posting on threads that only allow links or providing irrelevant comments just so you can post a link can easily get you banned from the site.
2. Blog spamming – Similar to forum spamming, blog spamming occurs when you post copy-pasted comments that have nothing to do with the article, yet you still include a link on your post. To get links from blogs, regularly visit blogs and post only on those worth commenting on. Share information, get to know the blog owner, and maybe, just maybe, blog owners will give you a blog roll link or allow you to add a link when you comment.
3. Email spamming – Email marketing is another aspect of internet marketing. Email spamming, however, is an entirely different matter. Using software to send hundreds of emails at a time with no personal message to different emails is spam. If you really want to do link building via email, personally reach out to the site’s owner in such a way that it does not come out as pushy. Include specific information so they know that you have indeed visited the website and personally written the email as well.
4. Link farms – Link farms offer hundreds of links for a certain amount. Not only is this link building tactic bad for your eCommerce store, Google has also red flagged link farms so it’s best to stay away from them.
5. Link exchanges – The reason why link exchanges are classified as spam is because none of the sites who exchange links benefit from doing so. Trading links is done for the sole purpose of search engine optimization, thus making no one benefit from link exchange.
Other methods that you should never practice when it comes to eCommerce include buying links, using the wrong directories, and social spamming. Clearly there are more but if you feel uncomfortable doing so or if you think that a particular method will earn links that are not of great value, then don’t do it. When it comes to eCommerce, having a positive online reputation is very important to maintain credibility as well as earn the trust of your customers.
