What is e-commerce link building?

E-commerce link building is the work of earning links from other websites to an online shop, aimed at the category and product pages that compete for buyer searches. It covers editorial placements, contextual insertions, guest contributions and inclusion in gift guides, roundups and comparison content. Because publishers prefer to link to homepages and articles, the skill is in finding placements where a link to a category or product page makes sense to the reader.

Should links point at category pages or product pages?

Mostly category pages. They target broader, higher-demand searches, they stay live while individual products come and go, and internal links pass their authority on to the products within them. Product links make sense for hero products and lines with steady demand, and they often come naturally from reviews and gift guides. We decide page by page, based on where the ranking gap and the revenue opportunity are.

When should we start building links for peak season?

Earlier than most brands do. Authority builds over time, and links placed in the final weeks before a peak have little time to count. We work back from your trading calendar, starting outreach for each peak’s priority categories well in advance and moving on to the next season as one ends. If a peak is already close when we start, we focus on the pages nearest to page one.

Can we send free products to bloggers in return for links?

Google’s spam policies list sending someone a product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link as an example of link spam. Gifting products for reviews is fine, but those links should be qualified with rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow", so they do not pass ranking credit. They can still bring sales and brand awareness. For authority, we rely on editorial placements earned through outreach and on Digital PR.

How does Digital PR fit with e-commerce link building?

They do different jobs. Digital PR earns national coverage through campaigns built on original research and expert commentary, which builds brand-level authority and awareness but rarely links to a category page. Link building is placement-led and targets the specific categories and products that need to rank. Many e-commerce clients run both, planned together and delivered by separate teams, so authority grows at brand level and page level at the same time.

E-commerce Link Building For The Pages That Sell

In e-commerce, much of your organic revenue comes through category and product pages, and those are the pages publishers are least inclined to link to. Our e-commerce link building is planned around them: links aimed at the categories that carry revenue, timed ahead of your seasonal peaks, with Digital PR alongside to build brand-level authority.

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Gareth Hoyle

Managing Director

We’ve Helped Dozens Of Great Brands Grow Their Digital Presence Via Search Marketing

Authority belongs where the revenue is.

Many online retailers build plenty of links and still struggle on their money terms, because those links point at the homepage or a blog post while the category pages competing for buyer searches have very little. Closing that gap is where link building for e-commerce pays back.

We map links to the categories and products that carry revenue, plan outreach around your trading calendar so authority is in place before demand peaks, and run Digital PR alongside for national coverage. Every link is reported against the page it supports and how that page moves.

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Why Choose Us

Category-Led. Seasonally Timed. Every Link Reported.

Built Around Search. Measured on Revenue

Smiling team member in glasses writing notes

Links Planned Around Your Trading Calendar

Authority takes time to build, so links placed in the week before a peak arrive too late to help. We plan outreach against your seasonal calendar, working on the categories that matter for each peak well ahead of it, so the pages that carry the most revenue are as strong as they can be when demand arrives.

Links aimed at the categories that carry revenue
Outreach timed ahead of seasonal peaks
Placements in gift guides and buyer roundups
Every site vetted at page level, not by score
Digital PR alongside for national reach
Every URL, anchor and go-live date reported

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E-commerce Link Building Measured On Revenue

For B2B SaaS, the publication has to be relevant to your category, not just to business in general. A link from a site your buyers would never come across does little, however strong the domain looks.

That’s true whether you’re selling into finance, HR, martech or developer tooling: each has its own trusted publications, and getting placed in the wrong one wastes the outreach even if the domain score looks fine. Getting it right shows up further down the funnel too. A link in front of the right audience brings people already close to the problem your product solves, not just traffic from a general business site that happens to have a good score.

Featured Work

E-commerce Link Building That Grew Revenue

What E-commerce Link Building Delivers For The Business

The aim is more organic revenue from the categories and products that matter most, at the times of year when it counts most.

Revenue From Category Pages

Authority aimed at the category pages competing for buyer searches, where rankings turn most directly into orders.

Ready Before Peak Season

Links built ahead of your trading peaks, so priority categories are as strong as they can be when shoppers start searching.

Less Reliance On Paid Media

Every order that comes through organic search is one you did not pay for with a click or a Shopping ad.

Shoppers From Trusted Sources

Gift guides and roundups send visitors who are already choosing what to buy, alongside the authority they carry.

Brand Authority From Digital PR

National coverage builds the brand-level authority that supports every category, and puts your brand in front of new customers.

Reporting Against Revenue Pages

Every live link reported with its URL, anchor and date, tracked against rankings and organic revenue for the page it supports.

Let's Work Together

Gareth Hoyle

Managing Director

Don’t just take
our word for it

Jamie Evans

Head of E-commerce

“Marketing Signals is our kind of agency: they do what they say they are going to do. The team is responsive and has the ability to pivot onto different priorities throughout the yearly trading cycle. We are well on target to meet our own sales target on the back of their work every single time!”

Rob Hughes

Director, Global SEO

“I've worked with Marketing Signals on a few projects and always had great customer service, fast delivery and reliable quality. Definitely somebody who should be on your potential agency list for any future activity.”

Matthew Miller

Managing Director

“We have been working with Marketing Signals since 2015, after our previous agency had messed up. They helped reduce our average CPC and increase conversions, as well as helping us launch a separate site just for Drug Driving leads. We've never looked back and have referred them to many of our other business contacts.”

Sandra Carosi

Head of Marketing

“As a long-term client of Marketing Signals, I can confidently say their expertise in SEO and PPC is second to none. They deliver consistently good results from SEO and PPC and maintain excellent communication with us.”

David Weaver

Co-founder

“Gareth and the team immediately understood what we were looking for and the type of audience we wanted to attract. Through site changes, content improvements and lots of great PR pieces, we were able to significantly increase the number of leads we got from the organic channel.”

Katie Owen

Founder

“An excellent agency to work with and a perfect choice if you're looking to scale quickly.”

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