In one sentence
A backlink is a link to your store from another website, like a review roundup or gift guide, and it tells search engines and AI assistants that other sites vouch for your brand.
How backlinks work for ecommerce SEO
When another site links to your store, search engines read that link as a vote. Links from relevant, trusted sites, like a respected review site in your category, count for more than links from random directories.
Backlinks also send visitors directly. A shopper reading a gift guide can click straight through to your product page.
Backlinks vs. brand mentions: what counts for AI
Why backlinks still matter when shoppers ask AI
Many AI assistants run a live web search before they answer, so the pages that rank are often the pages they read. Backlinks help your pages rank.
The pages that link to you matter too. A roundup that names and links your product is exactly the kind of source AI assistants pull from when they recommend brands.
How to earn backlinks to your online store
- Pitch your products to the review roundups and gift guides that already rank for your category.
- Ask suppliers, manufacturers and retail partners to link to you from their stockist pages.
- Publish something worth citing: a sizing guide, a shopper's checklist or original data from your own store.
- Skip paid link schemes. Google's spam policies treat bought links as a violation.
About the author
Jenn Starr, Co-founder, Selix
Jenn has spent 20+ years helping SaaS startups build their marketing and implementation playbooks. She has bootstrapped three marketing agencies and is a 500 Startups alum. At Selix, she leads the work of getting ecommerce brands named in AI answers.
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