Link building ecommerce clients can afford and understand
A webshop owner counts sales, not backlinks. Pitch the retainer in terms of the category pages that earn revenue, and keep the link count in the small print.
Start with the pages, not the domain
Most shops have a few hundred product pages and a handful of categories that matter. Put the links on those categories.
Product pages rarely earn links by themselves, and a link to a page that goes out of stock next season is wasted effort. Category pages and evergreen guides last longer.
Check the platform before you promise anything. Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento handle faceted URLs, canonical tags and pagination differently, and a link to a URL that canonicalises elsewhere passes less value than you hoped. Open the page source first.
Then look at the numbers that matter to the owner. Revenue first. Which categories bring it in, according to Google Analytics or Search Console? Start there, and treat the long tail as a later problem.
Platform notes before you buy a link
| Platform | What to check | Common trap |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Collection URL and canonical tag | Linking to a product URL under /collections/ that canonicalises to /products/ |
| WooCommerce | Category base and pagination | Archive pages with thin text above a long product grid |
| Magento | Layered navigation URLs | Filter combinations that create near-duplicates |
| Marketplace seller | Whether you control the page at all | Linking to a listing you can edit only in part |
A hypothetical month for a small shop
This is an example, not a case. Imagine a shop selling garden furniture with a $400 monthly SEO budget and three category pages that earn most of the revenue.
You might spend about $100 on three placements at roughly $33 each, aimed at the best category page, and keep the rest for content fixes and your own time. The aim is a small, steady stream rather than a burst. Shops that buy fifteen links in one month and nothing for the next five produce a pattern that looks odd and delivers little.
Use Search Console to watch impressions, and log them in the monthly report. Watch impressions on those three pages. Expect noise. A shop's traffic moves with seasons, promotions and stock levels, so give any link at least a few months before judging it.
If the shop has no blog and no buying guides, plan one piece of content first. A placement that links to a thin page rewards nobody.
Three ways to shape the retainer
Category-led
Two to three placements a month aimed at your top categories, with copy that fits the shopper's research stage.
Guide-led
Link to a buying guide on the shop's blog, then link the guide to the categories. Slower, but the guide earns its keep.
Seasonal burst
A short run before a peak period, planned months ahead. Lead time matters, so start well before the sale.
Shops often have small marketing budgets, so the starter package in our margin tables is the realistic one. Resist the urge to pad it with extra tasks. Keep the report on one page, as in the report outline.
Shop owner questions
- How much should a small webshop spend on links?
- There is no fixed amount. Many small shops start with a few placements a month, around $60 to $150 in link cost, and review after a quarter. Work back from margin on sales, not from what a competitor spends.
- Do product page links count?
- They can, but category pages and guides usually hold up better because products come and go. If a hero product is permanent, a link to it is reasonable. Always check the canonical tag first.
- Which anchor text should a shop use?
- Mostly the brand name and the bare URL, with a few descriptive anchors that fit the sentence. Pure exact-match product anchors on every link create a pattern that looks forced.
- What about Shopify apps that promise backlinks?
- Treat promises of automatic links with suspicion. Real placements need real pages and a human decision about relevance. Ask what the app does, where the links appear and how you can inspect them.