Link Building for Products

Everett Sizemore

Director, SEO Strategy

www.seOverflow.com

@balibones

Linkedin.com/in/everett

http://gplus.to/esizemore

Competing with Amazon and OtherOnline Mega Stores Isn’t Easy!

On The Bright Side…Perceived Difficulty = Opportunity

The BAD News:Building links into product pages can be difficult.

The GOOD News:Building links into product pages is even more difficult for the big guys.

TrustBait / LinkBait on PDPs & Categories

Hypothetical Example:

A store selling helmets could have information in text, infographic or video format educating customers about helmet safety guidelines.

You would then get that page linked to from helmet and bike safety resource lists like the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute: http://www.bhsi.org/links.htm.

* To learn more about Trustbait listen to Jim Boykin.

#1

This guy didn’t read your trustbait.

Trustbait / LinkbaitCrutchfield Self-Selection

Crutchfield removes fear & anxiety from the process by educating consumers about their products in a way that nobody else does.

Visit www.crutchfield.com for more inspiration.

Crowdsourcing.

Getting the most out of it:

• Get links into product or category pages• Grow email list• Get feed subscribers• Gain followers, Fans and customers• Increase traffic• Increase sales with an offer• Improve brand recognition• Improve social SEO signals…

#2

Which skateboard deck price should we take a bite out of?

Campaign goals:

• Increase social media engagement

• Improve brand recognition in this space

• Obtain links into landing pages

• Funnel pagerank into new product pages

Link and brand mentions from:

• MNN.com

• CrazyAboutCompost.com

• Current.com

• ConsumerSearch.com

• WN.com

• Dozens of gardening blogs

• Hundreds of social media shares

CrowdsourcingThe Gaiam Compost-Off

Educational ResourcesThree Ways to Educate Shoppers and Get Links:

1.A separate content area for educational resource materials that funnels page-rank into category and product pages.

2.A blog as the resource area. This is probably the easiest, but sometimes blog posts are less trusted by potential link targets.

3.Put the informational content on your category or product pages.

#3

Features on this page that make it worth linking to:

• Does it fit my car? feature

• Multiple photo views

• Videos

• Extremely in-depth Features tab with product research section, downloadable owners manual and more

• Customer Reviews

• Links to related informational articles in their resource section

• Applicable Accessories for each product

• Price and feature comparisons with similar products

• Ask an Expert toll-free number or online chat

• Related offers and ways to save link

• Wishlist and Email alerts for each product

crutchfield.com/p_105KDHDR44/JVC-KD-HDR44.html

Educational ResourcesCrutchfield’s Resource-Rich PDPs

Resource CentersGaiam Composting Guide

554 Links from 24 domains

Breaks away from eCommerce site and blog design templates (landing page)

Internal linking to funnel page-rank from linkbait resource into product detail pages (PDPs)

Picks up shoppers earlier in the buying cycle while they are still researching

Could be on a subdomain, stand-alone landing page on the main site, or on the composting category page

http://life.gaiam.com/guides/compost-a-z-complete-composting-guide

Product-Specific Coupon Codes

Did You Know…

• Coupon Codes aren’t just for your affiliates.

• Coupons aren’t just for site-wide or category discounts.

• Everyone is looking for something to offer their readers that nobody else is offering.

• Product-specific coupon codes are a great way to get links from frugal-living, personal finance or industry-specific blogs.

#4

Many online retailers only use coupon codes for site-wide or category-level offers.

Many online retailers only use coupon codes for site-wide or category-level offers.

Product-Specific CouponsCombined with Social Outreach

Direct, Followable Link to PDPDirect, Followable Link to PDP

A Code Just for Ashley’s ReadersA Code Just for Ashley’s Readers

Publicly Thanking Ashley on TwitterPublicly Thanking Ashley on Twitter

AshleyAshley

@balibones

Linkedin.com/in/everett

http://gplus.to/esizemore

Driving Ecommerce Retail SalesSMX West, 2012Everett Sizemore

www.seomoz.org/blog/building-deep-links-into-ecommerce-pageswww.esizemore.com/surviving-and-thriving-as-an-ecommerce-seo-professional/

everett@seOverflow.com

Product Link Building TipsEverett Sizemore - SMX West, 2012 – www.seOverflow.com

#1 – Trustbait / Linkbait on category and product pages

#2 – Crowdsource (make them feel invested)

#3 – Create superb educational resources for shoppers

#4 – Product-Specific coupon codes and discounts with blogger outreach

OTHERS:

• Do PR Linkbuilding the right way (see http://www.seomoz.org/blog/92-ways-to-get-and-maximize-press-coverage ).

• Do Sponsorships by donating products to charities and events

• Send Freebies for Product Reviews

• Do Giveaways & Contests/Sweeps

• Evergreen Holiday Landing Pages (Why start holiday linkbuilding from scratch every year? Keep dates OUT of URLs!).

• Keep the links you have (404 reports, products that go out of stock, etc...)

• Link Reclamation: Bloggers will link to a product with the URL from your internal search results (e.g. www.site.com/search/product-name/ ). These pages are often disallowed in the robots.txt file or noindexed in the robots meta tag. Just contact the site and provide the correct link.

• Build external links into external links to boost their power. Some use riskier linkbuilding tactics for these since there is a degree of separation (laundering link juice).

• On-Site Hosted Affiliate Pages with Naked Links (Careful with this one)

• Links from Manufacturer websites

• Do a PDP-Focused Link Analysis on Competitors (Often reveals lots of give-away opportunities)

• Bait N Switch (For whitehats: Redirecting relevant old content with links)

• Source really cool / unique products (toilet-lid sink, gold-plated toothbrush, solar gadgets)

• Put URL into external video descriptions. Include http://www... Many YouTube scrapers will turn that into a followable link.

• Just ASK - If someone links to your home page while discussing a product you sell, email to thank them, and suggest that they link directly to the product page so their visitors won't have to wander around your site hunting for it. Most of the time they'll leave your home page link up in addition to adding the PDP link.

• Make PDPs Shareable with email and social buttons

• Send Freebies for other reasons (Like when SEOMoz sent my son a RogerBot onsie: http://www.esizemore.com/lil-waylon-in-his-mozbot-shirt/ )

• Do guest posts. MyBlogGuest.com is great, but also look into more private relationships outside the constraints of their guidelines (i.e. links inside body copy).

• Find DoFollow blog comment opportunities (Use real name, don’t robo-spam, be useful)

• Get links from profiles on forums, social media and Q&A sites

•Get Local Links (If you sell sporting goods and can get a link from your local fitness center, consider giving them the URL to a specific product instead of your home page Example: Crutchfield http://wpr.org/hd/hd_receivers.cfm)

•Buy links under radar from individuals (not networks). Easy on the anchor text; stay relevant.

• All types of linkbait on external sites or pages, including infographics, tools, resources… can link back to a product page instead of home or category.

@balibones

Linkedin.com/in/everett

http://gplus.to/esizemore

www.seOverflow.com