Link building for a 'boring' eCommerce site

[ChrisHolgate]

Hey all,

I'm in need of some serious inspiration and I'm hoping one of you generous people can help.

We're looking to do a spot of link building for an eCommerce site which I would describe (without putting it down too much) as 'boring'. This isn't our fault per se as the site sells printer cartridges and there's only a certain amount of excitement such a product can create.

As a result natural linkbuilding is quite tricky, especially when it comes to creating links to anything other than our homepage. For the past couple of years we have focused on creating good content and indeed have a thriving database of hundreds of helpful articles and videos on the site. These are generating decent traffic (and rank #1 for many different help related search terms) but the problem with these articles is that they don’t convert in to sales at all well. I’m also conscious that it will ultimately end in us developing a link profile which would classify us as a printer repair resource rather than cartridge sales website.

I have read numerous guides on Moz but they all tend to focus on products which are a little sexier than those that we sell. Getting someone to share and link to a truly unique product would be incredibly easy compared with asking someone to engage, share and link to the latest Epson cartridge.

I started writing articles on some decent quality business blogs however the links given don’t look particularly natural and the link would always be to our homepage.

We have the staff and the time but we built a whole host of rubbish links back before Penguin and I want to ensure that we are going to head in the right direction before embarking on something new. If you had a site which was really dull how would you devise a link building strategy that was relevant and, most importantly, natural?

Thanks for your help.

Chris

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hey Chris,

I hope all is well? Been some time

As I know your site, I am more than happy to give you a few pointers if you want to shoot me an e-mail over? You might have to visit my new site to send this though as I rebranded last year and pretty sure you wont have it.

Cheers,

Andy

[anthonydnelson]

Linkable Asset Idea: Offer Free Printables (Coloring Sheets, Birthday Cards, etc).

You might not be able to easily get someone to link to your product page, but focus on getting more links to your domain for now. Can you put a linkable asset on your category page?

[ChrisHolgate]

Hey, thanks for getting back in contact.

Yeah, we were contemplating doing that. It does seem to be further diluting the emphasis on people making a purchase however which was our real concern - If someone does a search for a DX4050 printer then it seems relevant to just yield a list of products rather than loads of additional content that is unrelated to their purchase.

I guess pretty much anything we do is going to potentially detract from the user experience in the name of giving the possibility of people linking to us. Making something that is truly relevant and natural while at the same time adding to the user experience and attracting the possibility of external links would appear to be the challenge!