Selling online is not getting any easier. Whether you run a small niche store or a large e‑commerce brand, you are competing against marketplaces, big retailers and a long tail of specialist sites. Most of you are targeting the same category and product keywords.
Good technical SEO and smart on‑page work will get you part of the way. But if you want to push key pages into genuinely competitive positions, you need backlinks. Quality ones. From real sites.
Google makes it very clear in the Google Search Central SEO starter guide that links help it understand which pages deserve to rank. For e‑commerce, those signals can be the difference between a page that sits on page 3 and one that drives sales every single day.
In this guide, we will walk through some realistic link building strategies that work particularly well for e‑commerce sites. We will look at products-led digital PR; influencers and creators; improving and promoting category pages; using competitor data to find quick wins; and making the most of seasonal interest
You can pick one to start with or combine them into a more complete strategy.
1. Using Product PR To Earn High Authority Links
E‑commerce brands have something a lot of businesses would love to have. You have products that people can touch, photograph, review and talk about. That makes you perfect for digital PR.
Pitch your products for media coverage
Journalists regularly put together gift guides, ‘best-of’ product roundups, seasonal features, and lifestyle and shopping content , and they are always looking for new items to include. You can find relevant opportunities on platforms like Press Loft, JournoLink and ResponseSource. Many PRs and founders also keep an eye on the #journorequest hashtag on X (Twitter) when journalists are sourcing products at short notice.
When your product is included in an article, the site will often link back to your product or category page. That is a highly relevant, high intent backlink.
If you want to see examples of this in action, have a look at the digital PR content on Search Engine Journal or some of the public relations guides on HubSpot’s marketing blog. They regularly break down campaigns that have driven hundreds of links for brands with fairly simple ideas.
Make your products easy to feature
Journalists are busy. The more work you do for them, the more likely they are to use your product instead of someone else’s. As a minimum, prepare good quality, high resolution product images; a clear description, including materials and key features; retail price and availability; and a short brand or founder quote for individuals to copy and paste.
This is simple, but it truly matters. A journalist choosing between ten similar products will nearly always choose the one with complete, usable information.
2. Build Links Through Influencer and Creator Partnerships
Influencer marketing is usually discussed in the context of awareness and social reach. For e‑commerce, it can also be a very direct way to build links, especially if you work with creators who own their own websites.
Product reviews that live on blogs, not just social
Many creators still maintain blogs, review sites or personal magazines alongside their social channels. When they genuinely like a product, they will often write a full review that includes a contextual link to your homepage or category, one or more links to specific products, and/or images and personal notes that build trust with a key audience.
That kind of long form, editorial link is exactly what you want more of in your backlink profile. Research shared on MarketingWeek and in the guides on Backlinko both highlight how creator content can feed into brand discovery and search performance, rather than sitting in its own silo.
Long term relationships, not one‑off freebies
The strongest links often come from repeat collaborations. If a creator regularly features your brand, you start to build multiple references across different posts, consistent brand mentions, and a more natural link pattern over time.
You do not need to work only with big names. Micro influencers can be brilliant partners, especially in specific niches. They tend to have more engaged audiences and are often more open to detailed written reviews.
If you want ideas for how to approach outreach and collaboration, the team at Ahrefs share plenty of practical examples on their blog.
3. Turn Your Category Pages Into Resources Worth Linking To
For most e‑commerce sites, category pages carry a lot of commercial intent. If you rank well for “women’s hiking boots” or “vegan protein powder”, for example, those visitors are usually ready to buy.
The problem is that many category pages are just a grid of products. That is fine for users who already know exactly what they want, but it gives other sites very little reason to link to you.
Add content that actually helps people choose
You do not need to turn every category into a blog post, but you can build in genuinely useful content around the product listings, such as a short buying guide or quick checklist; size, fit, or material guidance; answers to questions customers regularly ask; and links related to ‘how to’ guides.
This helps users make better decisions and gives editors, bloggers and journalists something more substantial to reference when they link.
Support category pages with helpful content
You can also create articles that sit near your categories in the site structure, then link internally. For example:
“How to choose the right running shoes for beginners” linking to your running shoes category
“What to pack for a European city break” linking to luggage and travel accessories
“Beginner’s guide to skincare ingredients” pointing to your skincare ranges
Internal linking is covered in detail in the Moz Learn SEO hub and on the Semrush blog. The key idea is simple. Helpful content attracts links, and those links can then be passed through to your money pages via smart internal linking.
4. Use Competitor Backlink Data To Find Real Opportunities
You do not have to guess where to build links. Your competitors are already showing you what works.
Work out who you are really competing with in search
Your main SEO competitors are the sites that rank where you want to rank. That might be a marketplace, a DTC brand or a specialist blog. Start by searching for a few of your core category and product terms and make a list of the domains that appear again and again.
Check where their links are coming from
Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz Link Explorer allow you to plug in a domain and see who is linking to it. When you scan that data for a few key competitors, you will often find gift guides that feature their products; “Top 10” style product roundups; niche blogs that review items in your category; resource pages or directories relevant to your industry; and broken links pointing to old or discontinued product pages.
Each one of these is a possible opportunity. If a site has already linked to similar products or brands, there is a reasonable chance they will be open to adding or updating content to feature you too.
For a deeper dive into this kind of research, Backlinko’s content on competitor analysis is a good starting point.
5. Use Seasonal Content To Win Timely, Relevant Links
Retail runs on seasons. Search behaviour does too. People look for different things at Christmas, during Black Friday, in summer, at the start of the school year and so on. If you plan for that, you can put yourself in a strong position when journalists and creators start looking for products to talk about.
Create seasonal pages with a long shelf life
Instead of treating every promotion as a one off, consider building seasonal pages you can update each year, such as:
Christmas gift ideas by price or recipient
Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals
Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gift suggestions
Summer holiday essentials
Back to school checklists
If those pages are well structured, genuinely useful and updated regularly, they can pick up links over multiple years rather than losing everything when a sale ends.
Watch for journalist requests around key dates
Ahead of major events, journalists and freelancers put out a lot of requests for gift ideas, product recommendations, expert quotes, and deal roundups.
You can find some of these on Qwoted, SourceBottle and, again, through the #journorequest thread on X. Responding quickly with a clear pitch, strong imagery and a link to your relevant seasonal page gives you a good chance of being included.
If you want a more formal steer from Google on building useful content that can be refreshed, their guidance on creating helpful content is worth a read.
Final Thoughts
Link building for e‑commerce does not need to be mysterious. It is mostly about putting the right content in front of the right people at the right time.
If you make your products easy to feature in the press; work with creators who publish proper reviews and guides; turn your category pages into helpful resources; learn from the backlinks your competitors already have; and plan for seasonal demand rather than reacting at the last minute, you will naturally build a stronger backlink profile. Over time, that means better rankings, more trust and more sales.You do not have to do everything at once. Start with the tactic that feels most achievable this quarter, get a simple process in place, then layer in other strategies as you
