Inbound Links for E-Commerce Site

[NetPhr3ak]

Since many sites in my niche (e-commerce site: body jewelry, tattoo supplies) are e-commerce/direct competitors of mine, I'm having a really hard time getting quality inbound links from relevant/related sites (that aren't link pages). Has anyone experienced similar problems with their projects? If so, can you please offer me some advice? I look forward to your response. Thanks!

[Dubbya]

You might consider trading links with similar sites on the other side of the world. They'll be totally related to your site, and if they're well established, highly beneficial.

I've done this myself, with some success. Since I don't ship outside my country, I'm not perceived as a threat to their bottom line, nor are they to mine.

Another thing that you might consider would be partnering with one or two competitors to write articles and distribute them to niche sites, making sure to include links to each other's sites.

Just take turns doing one or two articles a month and see how it goes. It takes some trust and a degree of commitment but can really work well if the articles get featured somewhere.

Blog like a fiend! I'd think that your clientele would have a ton of questions that you might be able to answer. Join and participate in some niche forums, so much the better if they let you post a link in your forum signature.

.02

[dean]

Maybe you need to think outside the niche a little bit, but still be relevant. Who uses the product? Body jewelry and tattoo supplies, I'd look into sites for bikers, movie star wannabes, soccer moms or SEO specialists. Who links to your competitors?

[SemAdvance]

Thinking further outside the box... how many body piercing / tattoo shops in the bricks and mortar business have links??

Most of the organic SERPs are crowded with content based sites littered with Ads.

Where in the Paid Ads section, one typically finds e-comm merchants, who realize business online is transacted no differently than business offline.

I mean a quick look around any stores, banks, car dealers, real estate agency, dry cleaner, etc in your neighborhood, and you will notice none have a silly toolbar on their walls...

;->

Easiest way to get links however is to put out link bait....

Peace!

[incrediblehelp]

Do you have a blog?

[Webnauts]

Another good shot could be to search for relevant to your site niche directories and submit your site there.

[Janna122003]

Originally Posted by NetPhr3ak

Since many sites in my niche (e-commerce site: body jewelry, tattoo supplies) are e-commerce/direct competitors of mine, I'm having a really hard time getting quality inbound links from relevant/related sites (that aren't link pages). Has anyone experienced similar problems with their projects? If so, can you please offer me some advice? I look forward to your response. Thanks!

You can post on fashion forums or jewelry forums since your site has jewelry.

[inertia]

I reckon there's a wealth of opportunities for you out there in the social media market. Setup a facebook/myspace and start groups called "i love tattoos" (or "isn't body jewellery great" - you get the picture!). The good thing about this is that the users will build content for you and if you do well enough you will raise your profile to the point of people linking to you without you even knowing!

You could also create vids and get them on youtube. Maybe create a vid of your mate getting his balls tattooed or something equally attractive to the young online community! Remember the "will it blend" vids? Well how about the "will it tat" series? I'm not saying you should go out and tattoo cats or anything but there is a huge variety of vids you can do!

Hit the tattoo forums but not with the idea of generating links or business just think purely about helping, advising, and asking. Business and links will happen naturally if you do that.

Write articles and blogs which are genuinely interesting/provoking/controversial/funny etc etc.... and they will generate links! Especially if you tell everyone in the "i love tattoos" group on facebook to check it out. Are you starting to see the possibilities???

Sign up for Google alerts and get alerts on all your keywords sent to you everyday. That will give you plenty of places to drop comments on articles and blogs.

Or.... pay me and ill do it for you! (am i allowed to say that?!)

[NetPhr3ak]

Hello everybody!

Wow, what a great response. Thank you all for your feedback! Everyone had a lot of great ideas. Hopefully you'll share a few more once I give a clearer overview of my situation.

Just so you know, anything mentioned in this post is meant aggressively. Sometimes when I ask questions or make statements people think I'm disagreeing with them, so please don't take it that way. I'm just making sure I'm properly informed.

A few more details about bodyempire.com:

Problem 1: Authority Links
My site is four/five years old. I do have inbound links from other sites throughout the world, however they're not from authority sites (PR5+). Excluding direct competitors, very few authority sites exist in the tattoo, body jewelry industry.

JANNA12203 I thought my site would be penalized for having inbound links from unrelated sites (fashion sites, bikers sites, etc.)? I've been told that having links from sites that aren't directly related to my keywords, etc will hurt my rankings (SEMPO Certification). I could be misinformed, has anyone else been told that?

Problem 2: Getting Around the NoFollow Tag
In addition to requesting links from sites in related industries (bikers, etc) I also tried the social media (myspace, facebook) & blogging route (leaving comments on sites with the following keywords: body jewelry, tattoo supplies). That worked well until the infamous nofollow tag was introduced a few years ago. Has anyone figured out a way to receive back links from legitimate comments. I tried to plug a few in this post, however I doubt it will help since the links are from a web development site.

Thanks again!

[Dubbya]

It's always best to try to obtain IBL's from related pages but you can't control who links to you, so it's unlikely that you'd experience any penalties just because you get IBL's from unrelated sites.

Unless you're buying tons of links or listing in blacklisted link farms, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Keep on fighting the good fight. Even if links receive the "nofollow" attribute, they're still likely to generate some traffic and that's what really matters.

Like I said, post some articles and participate in online forums. You might even consider placing swapping some ads in related sites such as ecommerce sites that cater to bikers, musicians, exotic dancers, etc.

Because there are so many low quality sites in your niche, you're going to have your work cut out for you.

I'd try this:

Make a list of your top 10 competitors. Snag their URL's and find out where their inbound links are coming from and try to get listed there as well.

Use the link operator and their URL in Google to make a manual list and knock them off one by one.

For example, enter this in the Google search box:

"link:http://www.competitorsite.com"

Alternatively, you can use a free program like WebCEO to make these lists quite easily. Enter in your competitors URL's then let the software find sites linking to them.

You'll be able to visit the URL's and look for their link exchange or submission form.

It's extremely time consuming but it does work well.

[nuttakorn]

I think we need to get the link from related site , may be you start from association website, community, information website.

[Janna122003]

Originally Posted by NetPhr3ak

JANNA12203 I thought my site would be penalized for having inbound links from unrelated sites (fashion sites, bikers sites, etc.)? I've been told that having links from sites that aren't directly related to my keywords, etc will hurt my rankings. I could be misinformed, has anyone else been told that?

All links from other site are ok but it's better to get links from related sites because it has high value than unrelated sites. Links from unrelated site would not get you penalized it just don't give high value.

[NetPhr3ak]

Thanks Janna

[Peter (IMC)]

Originally Posted by NetPhr3ak

Since many sites in my niche (e-commerce site: body jewelry, tattoo supplies) are e-commerce/direct competitors of mine, I'm having a really hard time getting quality inbound links from relevant/related sites (that aren't link pages). Has anyone experienced similar problems with their projects? If so, can you please offer me some advice? I look forward to your response. Thanks!

You call your site an ecommerce site, but I wouldn't go that far. It's an online catalog, nothing more. Not trying to be mean or anything, just being honest here. Ask your self, if you had an informative site about this niche, would you link to this website? (be really honest to your self,. )

here's 6 Reasons to Stop buying from the Other Guys!
We're a Customer Service Oriented Company!
No Minimum Order!
1000's of Items IN STOCK!
3 Convenient ways to Order- Phone, Fax, Online!
You can buy directly from the Manufacturer...NO MORE MIDDLEMAN!!!!
Competitive Wholesale Prices!

Why do people buy your products? Because there's no minumum order? Or because you have so many items in stock? You think price really is a determining factor? Oh, the customer can order by phone, fax and even online. The "Other Guys" don't have these options?

Notice also that by using the term "Other Guys" you´re saying something about yourself.

Opps! Did you mean to type Body Jewelry? This is terrible.

Jewelry and especially body jewelry is such an emotional product, but it's presented in such a cold way. Here's some tips:

Go to specialized body jewelry stores and take a look around. Don't pay attention to the jewelry it self but look at how they present their products. The design of the store. Ask to talk to the manager and chances are he will love to tell you about why they do things the way they do. Visit at least 3 stores so you get different perspectives.

Then try to work some ideas into your website.

[seiretto]

Originally Posted by Peter (IMC)

You call your site an ecommerce site, but I wouldn't go that far. It's an online catalog, nothing more.

YES IT IS an ecommerce site! Ecommerce (Definition) is just a sale completed on the Internet and this store can do this.

Originally Posted by NetPhr3ak

sites in related industries (bikers, etc)

Wait a minute, I am a biker (have been for 28 years) and I would not go near any of that stuff, sorry.
In the UK you could target women on the mid-life-crisis... all too often we see middle-aged women having tattoos and piercings.

[Peter (IMC)]

Originally Posted by seiretto

YES IT IS an ecommerce site! Ecommerce (Definition) is just a sale completed on the Internet and this store can do this.

Technically you´re right. But that's not what I meant.

[seiretto]

Originally Posted by Peter (IMC)

But that's not what I meant.

OK, but what did you mean???

[Peter (IMC)]

It basically is a site with just products. There are some pages with some articles, but besides that, there is little real content. A catalog is just a book with a whole bunch of product names and pictures. This website is little more than an online version of that.

It's not enough to be a real ecommerce website. You need to be more than a site full of products only. If you're Amazon, that works just fine, then your identity and credibility is achieved in other ways. When you´re unknown, you need to find other ways to be attractive. And being this type of online catalog is not enough.

[seiretto]

Peter,

Completely agree with you now, it is just a selling website with little real content other than products. It probably needs a companion site to promote it that contains articles and other relevant good content.

However, even pure ecommerce sites can sell if its the "right" product and getting your products on Froogle can bolster sales massively, and IMO time spent correctly listing on Froogle will gain more sales than writting articles (that is while Google continues to give away such sales via Froogle... ...long term better to do both then you will not become reliant upon a single sales stream).

[terryfinlay]

Hi All,

These strategies are awesome, i think these strategies applies to all other site, not only to NetPhr3ak's site, Awesome thread guys, thanks a tonne for all the resources...

[NetPhr3ak]

"You call your site an ecommerce site, but I wouldn't go that far. It's an online catalog, nothing more." -Peter (IMC)

Wow, now I'm really confused. Here's my problem, I'm under the impression that the difference between an online catalog and an e-commerce site is, and this may sound cliche, one offers something the other one doesn't - a medium of exchange! While an online catalog pushes the customer through some of the marketing stages, it doesn't push the customer through them all. It fails to provide the customer with a medium for exchange!

Until tonight, I thought that an e-commerce site provided such a medium and that's what separated an online catalog from an e-commerce site. I didn't know that I needed to be like amazon to have a real e-commerce site. Can you please provide me with other examples of "real" e-commerce sites? That way I have something else to aspire to; because after performing a keyword search for body jewelry, I found that the top rated sites just sell products. They didn't provide the user with any "real" content. So what am I doing differently? I'm a little lost.

"Opps! Did you mean to type Body Jewelry? This is terrible" -Peter (IMC)

Wow, I'm surprised that you think using "misspelled words" is a bad idea. Let me ask you something, what is markting? Did you intentionally mean to use that term as your primary keyword on your site or is it just a typo? Not to be mean or anything Peter, but be honest with yourself!

Enough about that, now I would like to answer some of your questions (which are great questions)!

"Why do people buy your products? Because there's no minumum order? Or because you have so many items in stock? You think price really is a determining factor? Oh, the customer can order by phone, fax and even online. The "Other Guys" don't have these options?" -Peter (IMC)

Because there's a minimum order?
Yes, most companies enforce a $100.00 minimum (B2B).

Because you have so many items in stock?
Yes, you never bought something online only to wait weeks for it to come in? If that has happened to anyone, chances are you bought something from a company that uses other companies as drop-shippers.

You think price really is a determining factor?
Yes, was this really a serious question?

Oh, the customer can order by phone, fax and even online. The other guys don't have these options?
When a customer is interested in buying multiple items, they don't want to search through 1,000s of items, they prefer to call it in (which they do). And no, every company doesn't offer such services.

Everybody, thank you very much for your thoughtful feedback. I greatly appreciate it!

[Peter (IMC)]

NetPhr3ak,

Well,.. I couldn't find "markting" on my site, but if there are spelling errors, they're not suppose to be there. The reason I believe we always should go for correct spelling is simple related to being as professional as possible. Besides that, in my opinion, purposely focusing on spelling errors is taking time that could be better spent. Also Google is pretty good at giving you the results for the correct word anyway. It's an ancient technique.

When I asked those questions I was trying to refer more to the emotional side of why people buy. You´re making a point out of that it is easy to buy and you´re providing them with the best service that you can. That is a good thing, a necessity, but to make it the main (only?) sales point is wrong in my opinion. Those points need to be mentioned as side points. People definitely search for this information, but it's not why they buy. These points are important to keep the customer on your site, but they don't convince the customer to buy. They give reasons to not leave. It's not the same thing.


An example: Why do people buy a drill? Because they want a drill? No,.. they buy a drill because they want a hole.

Now you can say that your drills are great and that people can order by fax, fone, internet, have all kinds of advantages, etc. etc. But all you really need to say is that the customer will be able to make perfect holes with less difficulties.

So I ask again, why do people buy body jewelry?

[Peter (IMC)]

You think price really is a determining factor?
Yes, was this really a serious question?

Price hardely ever is a determining factor. People are emotional beings. They buy at your site for many reasons. You could compete only on price, but that just means you make less money. First, only one type of person will buy at your store, the type that doesn't have much money. Second, you sell less. That doesn't add up to a lot of profits.

Thinking that price is a determining factor is shutting down your other creative abilities. That's why I never look at price as a sales point. Doesn't mean you have to be the most expensive in the market though. You need to go with the market of course, but you don't have to be the cheapest one. And if you are, don't make a point out of it. It makes a lot of people leave.

By the way, one of the most important things to do in ecommerce marketing, and I have been ignoring this a bit until now, is..... testing.

Don't apply what I'm suggesting, expecting the world to change. What you need to really do is try stuff out all the time. Build a new home page with a completely different approach. Test it for a week and see what happens. If you can do something more fancy with an alternating home page (make sure to record IP address so that when the same visitor returns to the home page, he'll see the same home page again) to test faster and at the same time.

Out of the 2 sets of result, stick with the best performing page and start over. Make another home page that you'll test against the one that performed best in the previous test.

Actually you can do this with any page and even with the design.

Google Adwords has some nice tools for this kind of testing. But you can also build your own tools of course.

[kronikmedia]

In my personal experience as well link exchange is too time consuming. Also please be aware not to go for mass directory submissions or joining any link exchange programs. I tried this approach unsuccessfully for almost 6 months. My efforts went to waste completely as I spotted some of new websites for which had done no extra optimization rank equally well if not better. Since then I have adopted a differently approach to getting back links i.e via blogs social marketing, press releases and article distribution. Since then my rank has improved significantly. I do not get tens of thousands of its but only about 700 a month. However the traffic is highly targeted and I get few B2b inquiries every month.

[NetPhr3ak]

“Well,.. I couldn't find "markting" on my site, but if there are spelling errors, they're not suppose to be there.”

The information below has been taken from the head of your source code:
<meta name="Keywords" content="markting,internet,cadastro,otimização,div ulgação,site,sites,busca" />

“The reason I believe we always should go for correct spelling is simple related to being as professional as possible.”

I completely agree with you about using correct spelling; it is the professional standard. However, I disagree with you about using misspelled words in the manner in which I am on my site. Using misspelled words in a way that the majority of users would recognize and understand is fine with me. Moreover such practices are encouraged by SEO (white hat, seobook.com) companies’ and supported by Google guidelines. The following quote was taken directly from Google:

Use correct grammar and spelling.

• Your ad text must be in logical sentence or phrase form. This includes using grammatically correct spacing between words and around punctuation.
• Ads must contain correct spelling. The only exceptions are commonly misspelled words or spelling variations that the majority of users would recognize and understand.

Grammar & Spelling (click to validate above quote)

An example: Why do people buy a drill? Because they want a drill? No,.. they buy a drill because they want a hole.

Peter that is a great analogy; however, I don’t think it applies to my situation. I say this with the up most respect, but unless someone has experience marketing in the body modification industry and conducted research, I don’t think they’re qualified to comment on the consumer psyche that’s found throughout the industry.

Last year we conducted market research with a group of 1,183 individuals. We wanted to understand why customers’ bought from a particular site and how loyal they were to that site. The findings were staggering, we found that 86% (1,017 individuals) bought based on price and only 12% (141 individuals) bought from the same site every time.

When we asked the consumer what we could do to make their experience better, they said they wanted the choice to buy over the telephone, internet, and by phone (a lot of companies’ are internet only). They also said that they also wanted to receive the items in a timely fashion, that other sites are notorious for shipping orders weeks later. Since they’re our target audience, we made those the top reasons why customers should buy from us and not the other guys!

I still need to know what a “REAL” e-commerce site is.

[Peter (IMC)]

Originally Posted by NetPhr3ak

Peter that is a great analogy; however, I don’t think it applies to my situation. I say this with the up most respect, but unless someone has experience marketing in the body modification industry and conducted research, I don’t think they’re qualified to comment on the consumer psyche that’s found throughout the industry.

Last year we conducted market research with a group of 1,183 individuals. We wanted to understand why customers’ bought from a particular site and how loyal they were to that site. The findings were staggering, we found that 86% (1,017 individuals) bought based on price and only 12% (141 individuals) bought from the same site every time.

When we asked the consumer what we could do to make their experience better, they said they wanted the choice to buy over the telephone, internet, and by phone (a lot of companies’ are internet only). They also said that they also wanted to receive the items in a timely fashion, that other sites are notorious for shipping orders weeks later. Since they’re our target audience, we made those the top reasons why customers should buy from us and not the other guys!

I still need to know what a “REAL” e-commerce site is.

You´re still not getting it. I'm not talking about whether or not it is good to apply all those sales techniques. They are perfect. You´re doing a great job attending the needs of your clients. No problems there.

The issue I'm focusing on is that you´re turning those points into your main (only?) sales points.

You´re right, I am no expert in body jewelry, nor am I experienced in marketing these kind of products. But that doesn't mean that common sense doesn't exist in your market.

I sincerely doubt that the average partner is going to be like: "D*mn, that over the phone tongue piercing feels much better", or "Hey baby, how do you like my new "no middleman" nipple piercings?

But maybe you´re right, my experience with body piercing goes as far as ear rings I buy for my wife, so maybe I am totally wrong here.

[NetPhr3ak]

I give up. Honestly I understand what you're saying; however, I don't think you understand what I'm saying. Apparently we're talking about two different things but calling them the same.

For those of you I found helpful, I bumped up your reputation. Thanks again for your feedback!

[Peter (IMC)]

Originally Posted by NetPhr3ak

For those of you I found helpful, I bumped up your reputation. Thanks again for your feedback!

pfff, last time I'll waste my time trying to give some different perspectives to you.

[NetPhr3ak]

Wow, you shouldn't assume that you're one of the few I didn't find helpful.

[Peter (IMC)]

haha,. But I was able to check if I was one of them ...

No worries. I'm a nice guy and I don't think you´re a bad person. If that would be the case I'd be silent.

[sherin]

Even I was having some kind of confusion related to Inbound Links for E-commerce Sites... Your thread has provided some informative information regarding the same.... Thank you for the info.....

[mark.smith]

Besides trying all other things suggested by the forum members of the forum, i would like to suggest, you must be create a google base account for all your product. As you can upload important products or all products there at your account while you can target the specific country for your product cell also.
i think this will help you lot ......

thanks...........