Successful Link Building for eCommerce in Japan
When your services or products expand their market into Japan, SEO activities will be one of the challenges your global website will face. Link building with Japanese websites is one of the tactics that in-house SEO teams may struggle with.
In this post you will learn how to use link building to improve SEO for your eCommerce website. We’ll leave you with some intriguing link-building perspectives that may be used for almost any product or service.
Internal links or Inbound Links?
Links are crucial in SEO, statistics demonstrate that they contribute to more than half of a websites SEO results. Internal links are the links which exist within a website. When discussing link building we are referring to links from other websites which link to your website, often known as inbound links. All links are calculated as votes for your website, conveying authority, relevance, and trust.
What is SEO for EC Sites and Companies?
Ecommerce SEO is the procedure of increase the visibility of your online store in search engine result pages (SERPs). You want to rank as high as possible so when people search for a product or service you sell your website will appear, thus gaining you more customers.
Paid searches can get you customers, but SEO is considerably less costly. Plus, Ad Blockers and ad blindness can make sponsored searches less beneficial, so you’ll want to optimize your SEO nonetheless.
For a better search and user experience, eCommerce SEO specifically includes enhancing your headlines, product descriptions, metadata, internal link structure and navigational network. Each product you display should have its own page tailored to draw in more visitors.
However, it would be best if you did not overlook your site’s static, non-product-oriented pages, such as the following:
- Homepage
- About Us
- FAQ
- Resources
- Help Center
- Contact Us
Why SEO is important for EC sites and Companies
When a customer needs a product or service, what do they do? Many people use Google to find information. They may also be seeking alternatives, advice, comparisons, and other data to aid in their decision-making.
If your website fails to show in the SERPs, you will lose essential access to interested eCommerce buyers. Your products may be displayed on the internet, but are they easy to find?
This is where eCommerce SEO enters the picture. It helps you reach your target audience without having to pay for advertisings. Once you’ve attracted visitors to your site, you can wow them with high-quality items, entertaining text, and clear calls to action.
What is Link Building for EC Sites and Companies?
The practice of acquiring links (or votes in Google’s eyes) from one website that points towards a second website is known as link building.
From Google’s perspective, every time your eCommerce website receives a high-quality, relevant link, it’s a vote that your site is trustworthy and authoritative.
Earning links boosts Google traffic, raises brand awareness throughout the internet, and provides targeted referral traffic to your website. Links are perhaps the most significant ranking factor on Google, according to an Ahrefs analysis of over 2 million Google terms.
Impact of backlinks
According to the research, backlinks create a substantially higher impact on SEO than on-page ranking criteria. This indicates that links have a higher significant impact on your Google rating than modifications to your content or website, to put it in layman’s terms.
Why is Link Building Important for EC Sites and Companies?
Link building is critical to the success of an eCommerce business, since it is a key-ranking element in Google’s SEO algorithm. To make revenue, online businesses rely primarily on traffic to their websites – especially if they are drop shipping.
The reason for this is these customers are ready to buy right now, making organic search traffic the highest quality type of traffic for eCommerce businesses.
Imagine buyers who are desperate for Cruiser bikes and are searching the internet for “cruiser bikes for sale” because they need it immediately! Ranking first for buyer keywords like “cruiser bikes for sale” will drive quality traffic straight to your website.
4 Steps to Develop an ECommerce SEO Strategy
ECommerce SEO may seem to be a daunting venture, particularly if you already have a considerable product catalogue on your EC site. Yes, it is bound to take time, but you can rev the entire process up quickly with a strong strategy.
- Prioritize pages:
Which of your website’s pages receive the most significant traffic? Begin with them. Likewise, if you want people to concentrate on a particular product or a flagship product, optimize this product first. - Incorporate all that visitors and search engine need:
SEO necessitates several unique procedures. This area includes selecting keywords, adding metadata, accurately naming your photos, adding alternative image characteristics and combining relevant keywords. - Examine the competition:
Your eCommerce SEO strategy should be built to outsmart the competition. Examine the websites and the SEO efforts of your top rivals. Determine how you can improve yours. - Continue working with CRO:
SEO should be followed by conversion rate optimization (CRO).
14 Best tips for SEO for EC Sites
- Correct Usage of Keywords:
Yes, keywords are still crucial. Don’t crowd keywords into product labels and descriptions, but make sure they are present in the product’s write-up.
Incorporate your primary keyword in the product label, description, meta description, alt tag and sub-headlines. Keywords from the latent semantic index (LSI) must be spread through the entire content. These keywords will be are related to each page’s theme and help Google interpret the page’s context. - Examine the Keyword Search Volume, Cost Per Click, and User Intent:
Do in-depth research on a keyword before using it. Knowing how frequently people search for it (keyword search volume), how competitive it is in the paid advertising arena (cost-per-click, or CPC), and what people seek when they use it are all crucial. - Know your Competitor:
If you don’t know where to begin with on-site SEO for your eCommerce site you can start with your competition. Larger rivals, in particular, have most likely already done the groundwork for optimizing their websites, and much of their ‘behind-the-scenes’ SEO strategies can be found on their websites.
You should concentrate on keywords. Take note of the keywords your competitors use on their homepage and, in particular, on their product pages.
How can you know whether a website is optimizing for a specific keyword? To begin, install the Moz browser plugin and look at the SEO title and description that your rivals use in their title tags. You can also utilize tools such as SEMrush to discover which keywords your competitors are ranking high for in organic and paid searches. Don’t limit your search to product keywords. Examine your rivals’ landing pages, as well, to observe how they optimize their sites using all relevant keywords. - KingPin Homepage SEO:
Most firms expend the majority of their SEO cash and efforts on their homepage. While it is beyond doubt that this is one of the most essential pages of your website to optimize, it is definitely not the only one to focus on.
Having said that, you should optimize your homepage extensively. The following are the main items you can add and optimize. - Tag For The Homepage’s Title:
One of the most influential aspects of on-site search optimization is the SEO title tag. It should contain your company’s branding, as well as the significant keyword phrase you want to target, and contain fewer than seventy characters. It will appear in search results, so make the title tag captivating to entice potential customers. - The Meta Description for the Homepage:
While it is unimportant in terms of keyword rankings the meta description is useful for attracting customers to your product pages. The meta description for your site is a 160-character description about your company that will appear in search beneath the title tag. Write it in a style that will entice potential customers to visit your website. - Content on the Homepage:
Your homepage’s content should help visitors to learn more about your company and the products or services you have to offer. Make it straightforward and concise. Avoid providing too much information to visitors. Consider putting your top points of interests and unique selling proposition on the homepage.
Cluttered homepages can mislead both visitors and search engines. For example, imagine you sell products in a range of different categories. Google will struggle to define your market and who your target audience is, so be precise about what your site offers. - Product Page Optimization:
Because product pages are crucial to your business, you should devote a significant amount of time and effort to improving them. Many eCommerce shop owners only write a few lines of text describing each product and include an image or video on the page.
Additional information on your product pages is advantageous so that Google can easily discover and categorize them. - Name of the Product:
The name of your product is important for achieving good SEO, and in most cases, it is also used in your product page’s SEO title and URL. This is why you should consider attaching a popular search term or keyword phrase to your products title.
For example, if you’re selling Motor Bikes, make sure to include “Bikes” or “Motorbikes” in the product name. As a result, the term will also appear in the SEO title and URL. - Optimization for Image:
Images are an essential component of any product page. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment. Would you be more interested in buying a product from a site that clearly shows the product from every possible angle, a site with zero images, or a site with a small and indecipherable product image?
Images are crucial not just for your consumers but also for search engine optimization. - Incorporate Videos:
By including video on your product page, you can help your customers feel more confident about purchasing from you. The video can contain basic product information (similar to a commercial), a how-to video on utilizing the product to produce results, or testimonials from individuals who have used the product.
Offsite video distribution on networks such as YouTube may be an excellent approach to attract and educate potential clients about your business.
Educational DIY videos, for example, can be used to educate people on how to use your items, making them appear useful and interesting. Customers will be more inclined to buy your products if you can make them excited about working on a project that they will need your product for. - Customer Feedback:
Allowing customers to write reviews and leave feedback is another approach to help build consumer confidence in your product. So if you have a good product, enable reviews.
Terrible reviews, on the other hand, aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Consider this: if you have a costly item with excellent ratings and a lower-cost item with mediocre reviews, customers are more likely to choose the higher-priced item, resulting in increased sales for your company. - Mobile Responsive Interface:
The number of people shopping on their smartphones is increasing yearly. Using a responsive design for your eCommerce website may result in a better user experience and therefore better search results. Mobile-friendliness is used as a ranking indication by Google’s mobile-first index. - Reduce the Page Loading Speed:
Page load speed also determines the ranking factor for desktop and mobile websites. Improve you pages loading speed and Google will reward you with a higher ranking.
How can you lessen the time it takes for a page to load? Concentrate on removing as many redundant items from your website as possible. For example, an extensive background picture that is mostly obscured by a white body column, may not be essential. Try to remove any plugins or add-ons that don’t help your eCommerce business’s bottom line and check the size of website images aren’t too large.
How to develop links for your EC site and company
Let’s look at some of the ways in which you can do link building to grow your EC site or online company.
- Collaborate with influencers who specialize in your industry:
Influencers in a specialized niche have ties with readers that allow them to avoid the “business milieu” and create fundamental interactions with their audience. You may form content alliances with influencers who provide relevant material to your target audience.
For example, you may contribute to their blogs on a regular basis and periodically link to your websites. For two reasons, consumers are more likely to trust links than one or two sponsored posts:
They believe the influencer will only accept contributors who add value and a regular donation from a small company owner/employee is regarded as a direct trustworthy contribution.
Consider Paul Downs, a writer for The New York Times You’re the Boss blog (now discontinued). He founded a bespoke furniture company in 1986 and built it up over the years, all while sharing his knowledge with other small business owners through his column. - Make use of local alliances:
If you’re targeting consumers in a specific geographic region, creating alliances with local groups might provide you with opportunities to obtain backlinks from their websites. In some instances, you may already have existing connections. In which case, all you need to do is contact partner websites to request link placement.
Instead of large conglomerates, look for locally owned franchises and enterprises. Adding to local blogs is another way to mimic the initial link-building technique. Aside from local company blogs, you may also come across official community blogs and local news blogs that accept guest posts.
Another thing you can do is sponsor small business-related activities in your community. You may receive links from the event’s sponsorship page due to this. - Make use of the Skyscraper Method:
The Skyscraper strategy, developed by Brian Dean of Backlinko, streamlines the link-building process by eliminating the need to reinvent the wheel. Rather than coming up with new content ideas week after week, you may simply expand on what works for others (including your rivals!). The skyscraper method consists of three steps:
Step 1: Find the best-performing content in your niche. Every time a particular piece of content has been shared on social media, the quality of links leading to it can be used to identify if it is top-performing material. You can use BuzzSumo to find material that has been successful and Open Site Explorer to assess the quality of its backlinks.
Step 2: How can you improve on the best preforming material you have found in your niche? Perhaps the most helpful information available lacks real examples or case studies. Or maybe it does not go into as much detail as it could. You may add additional value to the same theme by generating more in-depth or comprehensive information on the same subject.
Step 3: Promote your new content. Outreach is a great way to promote your material. Email and social media should be used to contact relevant websites and influencers.
Give them a heads-up about new items, including the most up-to-date information and examples. The skyscraper method is often referred to as “content marketing for link builders.” According to several sources, this strategy has assisted businesses in building organic connections and driving traffic to their websites. - Look for business mentions:
Search for references to your company, on community resource pages, forums, and so on. This is a quick and inexpensive strategy to generate links. When looking for backlink opportunities, in addition to utilizing your brand name, consider additional relevant keywords that could be featured on the website to help refine the search.
BrandMentions, the online mentions database, will help you find mentions of your company and related keywords in the past 24 hours, weeks, and months. Choosing “English” as the desired language narrows the list down even further. BrandMentions may be used in conjunction with Google Alerts to find fresh mentions.
After you’ve clicked on a particular URL, use CTRL+F (the find tool) to look for your brand on the website. You may come across articles that are dedicated to your business or mention it in passing but do not provide a link to your website. Contact the authors of these articles and request that a link is added. - Make a resource page:
Depending on your location, you may build a local resource page that offers essential information for small companies in your region. For instance, if you own a merchandise store in Washington, DC, you may compile a list of the best wholesalers and manufacturers in the area.
Other companies (even rivals) will connect to your resource page, if you give the relevant information. You may collaborate with local experts to produce information-rich resource pages; your efforts will pay off once these sites attract the attention of enterprises in the industry.
A resource page might be acknowledged when engaging in Q&A websites and local business forums. It may even get you interviews and guest appearances (webinars, podcasts, and so on), allowing you to create links from the material you engage in. - Create high-quality content:
Suppose you want backlinks from large magazines and top industry blogs. In this case, you must generate quality content – information that exhibits thought leadership and isn’t simply a compilation of advice or lists from other small business blogs. - Premium material includes the following:
White papers, e-books, resource sites, in-depth blog entries, podcasts, case studies, info-graphics, and co-created guest posts are all examples of content.
While premium content takes more time to create, it has a far better probability of getting linked to than a typical blog article.
Partnering with organizations that are not direct rivals can save expenses while providing a chance for all partners to get authority linkages.
Conclusion
That was all of the most crucial information on SEO and Link Building that we believe would be required by EC sites and Companies. Many EC sites suffer as they fail to build proper links, which affects their SEO success. Links play a huge role in achieving positive profits.
Even though SEO can be easy to achieve with SEO services that are readily available, it still requires immense strategizing to reach top ranks in search engines. So, go ahead and try our tips to achieve successful SEO and link building for your EC company.