About Link Earning?

[The_Kiwi_Man]

I own an e-commerce store and I am get started with my SEO strategy. I know content is extremely important when it comes to link building, however for an e-commerce store what can I do as far as content. So far my only idea is blog posts. It's a furniture store so videos are really hard to do. The blog posts relate to home decor and interior design.

• My question is if people are going to be linking to my blog, will this help my website rank for product terms? The blog is part of the website, websitename.com/blog.

[CommT]

I agree with Egol here, build content that your readers want to read. If they want to read it, they'll be more likely to share it (either by a link or via social).

I've been looking at the demographics reports in analytics to find out what my website visitors appear to be interested in. I can then use this to create content tailored to my audience. However, I don't do this for all content, because it'll start to become self-propelling: the more my content matches my audience demographic, the smaller the demographic becomes... If that makes sense? But, I think this is a good start...

Andy also has some great points here (which I see you've marked as 'good answer' so you're clearly taking on board his comments) - infographics can be a great way of sharing knowledge in an easy to digest kind of way. However, be careful about how you create them: make them awesome! Also, you must reference any websites/books etc you get the facts from. If any of these have social media accounts, make sure you share to them, because they are more likely to reshare it for you because it mentions them! Always be careful of copyright infringements though - don't copy word-for-word, even in an infographic or you'll annoy whoever originally wrote that content! (or worse, have a DMCA filed against you - not cool) Also, never just take images from Google image search - buy your images or make sure they are available on a free license (and check it is still free for commercial use though) - so many people fall foul of this. I know it's easy just to take an image from Google image search, but in most cases someone owns that image and the creator of it should get compensation for the use of the image - especially if it's being used for commercial use.

With regard to making your products rank - this can be tricky as the main content is usually available in the form of a blog or articles section (as you have indicated is the case here), not on the product description page. Make sure you link through to relevant products from your blog pages - e.g. blog post talking about children's bedroom furniture could highlight particular products, with links straight to the product(s). If the product becomes unavailable, then the blog post can still work if you make sure you either update the link to a similar product or if you create redirects (my personal preference is the slightly harder way of updating the link rather than redirects but if you have a huge inventory of products that method could become unmanageable very fast).

I found this white board Friday video really useful, you may too: http://moz.com/blog/my-customers-wont-amplify-my-content-whiteboard-friday

Best of luck,

Amelia

[EGOL]

*** My question is if people are going to be linking to my blog, will this help my website rank for product terms? The blog is part of the website, websitename.com/blog.**

The answer to that is "yes".   And, in many cases your content pages will rank higher in search than your product pages... and some people cuss about that... but if they again focus on the visitor they can answer the visitors questions and then get them to a product page where the purchase can be made.   You shift your focus to "advertising your own products" on your content pages in a way that is not chest thumping.  Content pages are not places to promote.  They are places to educate and earn trust.

[EGOL]

My point is... When you focus on your visitors needs and interests you are in a better position to produce content that will be shared widely, convert visitors into buyers, rank high in search and get the links that you are looking for.

When you start building a great website, people will start typing your domain into google search and that is more valuable than links.  When google sees visitors asking for you buy name, that is when you have something.

It is possible to be so focused on "links" that what is really important is ignored.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Forget about links.

I'm not sure you can just dismiss one of the most important ranking signals to Google. Great content will invite links and push people to perform a call to action, but you have to also create outreach to get out there. Content alone will only ever get you so far.

-Andy

[EGOL]

Forget about links.

Instead focus on content that will be useful for your visitor.

An article that explains how to use a product with a nice video, illustrative photos  and clear text will inspire people to buy.  It will also be out there in search and pull in traffic, and some of those people will buy your product.  These types of articles, done well, can serve you in many ways.

Articles that compare products are also good.  Photo tours of product features, articles that calculate costs or savings, histories of product development....  think about all of the popular cooking, home repair, history, even reality programs that are on television.

If people are calling you  or emailing you with questions, your replies to those queries can be a great starting point for articles.

(Note that I am deliberately using the word "articles" instead of "blog posts" because I want to elevate this content to something that is much more substantive and will be fully integrated into your website.   Too many people think of a "blog"  as a caboose on the tail end of their website where they go to slurp coffee, type prattle, and make mindless pages of yada yada stuff without mental effort.  If you want content that works you gotta make something of substance and attitude that can be promoted on your homepage.)

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi,

What you have to remember, is that when looking at 'link earning', you should concentrate on creating a 'wow' factor - although the reality is, you won't be able to do that every single time, so you need to concentrate heavily on quality over quantity. Remember that anyone can write an average blog post.

Infographics still play a very important role in creating visually appealing link assets. They provide short snippets of information that is created in a visual manner for easy digestion. So how can you apply this to your industry? How about something that shows how tastes in furniture have changed in the last 200 years? Or show a photo of a typical bedroom back in the 1800's along with an example of a modern family bedroom today, and overlay it with interesting information snippets?

Or perhaps create a blog post with 10 crazy bathroom designs? You want something that is going to catch the eye to get social shares as well as links back.

*** My question is if people are going to be linking to my blog, will this help my website rank for product terms? The blog is part of the website, websitename.com/blog.**

Well, in a roundabout way it will. The link itself will provide the link juice / authority to fuel your pages, which you will SEO accordingly. Just remember when link building, you don't want to look at keyword rich anchor text - you want a nice neutral link such as your domain, brand or something like 'click here to visit...'

You will also want to focus on internal linking as well, and in this case, you do want keyword rich anchor text.

-Andy