Linkbuilding
Link building for online stores, aimed at authority that holds up.
Link building is the part of SEO where things go wrong fastest. A whole industry has been built around selling volume, while for Google it's about relevance, not quantity. We build mentions from your own industry, in places your customers actually visit.
The problem
Authority is the slowest part of SEO, and precisely because of that, the part where most shortcuts get offered.
- Packages with a fixed number of links per month say nothing about relevance, and relevance is exactly what it comes down to.
- Links almost always point to the homepage, while it's your category pages that need to rise.
- A high domain score from a tool is a vendor's estimate, not a figure from Google.
- The internal link structure, which you fully control yourself, gets skipped because external links sound more interesting.
The opportunity
For most online stores, the biggest win isn't more links, it's better ones. A mention on a trade publication or supplier site in your industry does more than ten placements on sites about nothing in particular. On top of that, your own site structure is free: link strength currently stuck on your blog can, with a few changes, be steered towards your most commercially important categories. And since AI search engines entered the picture, there's a second reason to work on visibility beyond your site, since brand mentions elsewhere demonstrably correlate with it.
Our approach
How we build your authority.
Slower than buying a package of links, and a lot more durable. We always start with what you already have.
Link profile and competitors
With Ahrefs we look at what links you have, which ones are harmful, and where your competitors are mentioned and you're not. That last list is usually the starting point.
Internal link structure
The part you fully control yourself. Steering link strength to your most important categories through breadcrumbs, related categories and links from content that already draws visitors.
Content that earns links
Research, comparisons, price overviews, or a tool people link to on their own. This is the slowest track and the only one that keeps paying off for years.
Trade media and industry sites
Approaching sites that matter in your industry, with a topic their readers care about. Trade publications, industry associations and suppliers who list their dealers.
Guest articles
Supplying articles to relevant sites ourselves, with a link that fits the content and points to the right page instead of defaulting to the homepage.
Brand mentions beyond links
Being mentioned without a link counts too. Research suggests brand mentions on the web correlate more strongly with AI visibility than backlinks. That's correlation, not proven cause, so we treat it as a direction.
In the Growth System
Stage 04: the longest track of them all.
Within the Growth System, authority is the part that takes the longest, and that's why it's never where we start. The technical work and content need to be solid first, or you're building authority on pages that can't cash it in. Once that's in place, this is the part that makes the difference in categories where everyone already has the basics sorted.
View the full Growth System- 01 Measure
- 02 Discover
- 03 Attract
- 04 Get found
- 05 Scale
Frequently asked questions
What clients usually ask.
Missing a question? Email or call us, the lines are short here.
How many links do I get per month?
We don't work that way, and we'd advise caution with anyone who does. A fixed number per month means links have to be found somewhere, regardless of whether they're relevant. We'd rather agree a direction and a budget, and show in the reporting what it delivered.
What makes a link valuable?
Relevance to your topic, a page that has visitors of its own, and a link that makes sense in context. A mention from a supplier or trade publication in your industry is worth more than a high domain score on a site about everything and nothing.
Do links still matter?
They carry less weight than ten years ago, and Google itself regularly plays that down. In competitive categories, it still tends to be the point where stores set themselves apart, especially once everyone already has the technical work and content sorted.
Can you clean up harmful links?
We map them and assess them. In most cases, Google ignores messy links on its own and a disavow file isn't needed, and can even be harmful. Only with a clear pattern or a manual action do we use one.
How long before I notice anything?
Longer than with the other parts. Expect months before it shows in your rankings, and longer before it shows in revenue. That's also why we're upfront that link building is rarely the first step.
Your competitors have links you could have too.
In the growth session, we put your link profile next to two competitors', and you'll see immediately which sites mention them and not you.
Reply within 24 hours on working days