How to Optimize Backlink Strategy

Here's something no SEO agency wants to admit: Building backlinks directly to product pages is usually a complete waste of money. Google knows no website owner naturally links to product pages unless they're being paid or have an affiliate deal. These links look manipulative to search engines, so they're often devalued or completely ignored. Yet I constantly see brands spending thousands on backlinks to product pages wondering why they can't crack page one. Through 4+ years of testing with 70+ e-commerce brands, here's the strategy that consistently delivers results: 1. Build 50% of your links to your homepage using branded anchors 2. Build 25% to collection/category pages using relevant keyword anchors 3. Build 25% to informational blog posts that internally link to your money pages This distribution naturally mimics how websites are typically linked to on the internet. For most keywords, you only need 10-20 high-quality, relevant backlinks (not thousands of spammy ones). And don't overpay. Quality backlinks typically run between $100-400 each. If someone's charging you $2K+ for a single link, you're likely getting ripped off. The key is relevance. A DR40 link from a site in your niche is worth infinitely more than a DR80 link from an irrelevant site. This exact strategy helped us take a skincare brand from page 5 to position 2 for their main collection page targeting "organic face moisturizer" with just 12 strategic links. And my #1 piece of advice on backlinks? Always aim for quality over quantity.

Pumped to announce that we've grown our SEO from 0 to 140K daily clicks and 100% health in under 12 Months! - here's the 5 things I learned while doing this. These aren't obvious - and it was a LOT of work to scale at this pace. It's also extra hard because you can't tell what's working immediately/vs what's not. 1- We strategically go after the bottom 99% - not the top 1%. Unlike alllll of our competitors who are chasing just the top 50 merchants - we came up with an insane strategy to build auto crawlers that figured out the bottom 99% of sites we want to target, and we went hard on those. Now, whenever a new niche product blows up (pretty much every other day thanks to tiktok) - we are already ranked super high for it. This was a huuge amount of work though, I get PTSD thinking about the amount of script automation we had to do for this last year. 2 - Leverage your existing partnerships to drive Authority! We tapped into our hundreds of partner merchants to do partnered backlinks to us that actually drove value (users would click on merchant partners to generate their own personalized codes via our site). These are backlinks from massive, trusted sites, that all fit the keywords we were going for. Growth was explosive as soon as we did this. If you don’t look like an expert on a subject, Google won’t rank you like one. 3- Steal Competitor Keywords Hiding in “People Also Ask” - Most people only look at competitor keywords in tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. But Google literally tells you what related questions people are searching for in the “People Also Ask” box. Scrape these, create better answers, and optimize your pages to rank for them. It sounds obvious but so many people don't do this - those are the the phrases that people are actually searching for! You don't need to guess. 4- Make it easy af for the crawler to parse you. No fancy GUIs. Optimize for Zero-Click Searches (Featured Snippets & FAQs). Google is stealing clicks with zero-click results—so take advantage of it. Structure content in clear, skimmable sections with FAQ-style answers. Get rid of fancier react components and just use <h2> and <h3> headers (trust me on this), bullet points, and concise answers to capture featured snippets. Make it easy af for the crawler to parse you. 5 - Internal links go hard - Most people obsess over backlinks but forget how powerful internal linking is for SEO. We built internal link maps that ensure every page passes authority to other relevant pages, keeping users (and crawlers) flowing through our ecosystem. ALSO - people forget but you actually lowkey NEED this so that the crawlers won't consider any of your pages orphaned. Every time we launch a new page, we find 3-5 existing pages to link to (all automated using clustering). This speeds up indexing, distributes link equity, and makes Google really understand what your site is about. If you're not actively managing internal links, you're leaving rankings (and money) on the table.

Client: "We've built 200 backlinks in 6 months. Why is the competitor ranking above us?" Me: "Show me their backlink profile." Them: "They have 12 backlinks total." Me: Checks rankings They're #1. Client is #8. The Confusion: We did everything "right": -Guest posts -Directory submissions -Forum links -Blog comments -200 backlinks built Competitor did "nothing." 12 backlinks only. What We Discovered: We chased quantity. They had quality. Our 200 backlinks: DA 15-30 websites Generic anchor texts Irrelevant industries No referral traffic 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝟭𝟮 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: DA 70+ websites Industry-specific sources Natural anchor texts Actual referral traffic 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: One backlink from Times of India > 50 backlinks from random blogs One mention in an industry publication > 100 directory listings What Actually Mattered: 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘴. 𝘙𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 + 𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝘅: Stopped chasing numbers. Started chasing quality. Got 3 backlinks in 2 months: -Industry association website -Government education portal -Leading education news site Result: Jumped from #8 to #3 in 60 days. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵: 200 mediocre backlinks = Google ignores 10 authoritative backlinks = Google notices 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸: Count your backlinks. Now count how many actually drive traffic. If it's under 10%, you're building wrong links. 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘆. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆. What's your backlink strategy - quality or quantity? #SEO #Backlinks #DigitalMarketing #SEOStrategy #LinkBuilding #GTM_Gyan

How we raised a moving company’s organic website traffic by 40% Last month, I worked with a moving company that was struggling to rank on Google. They had zero backlinks. They knew they needed to build a strong backlink profile, but they didn’t know where to start. That’s where I came in. Here’s how we approached it: 1. Competitor analysis We started by analyzing their top competitors in the area. ◾ Step 1: Identified local movers ranking for keywords like “movers in [city name].” ◾ Step 2: Used tools like Ahrefs to analyze their backlink profiles. ◾ Step 3: Found patterns—most competitors were getting backlinks from: ◽ Local directories. ◽ Industry-specific blogs. ◽ Review sites. From this, we prioritized high-quality, local backlinks that would have the biggest impact. 2. Content creation & outreach Next, we focused on creating content that others would want to link to. ◾ Blog Posts: We created articles like “10 Packing Hacks Every Mover Should Know.” ◾ Infographics: Designed a visual guide on “How to Safely Pack Fragile Items.” ◾ Videos: Produced short videos highlighting the moving company’s services and customer stories. For outreach, we: ◾ Pitched guest blog posts to local websites and moving industry blogs. ◾ Used HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to position the client as an expert for journalists. ◾ Shared content across social media to increase visibility. 3. Local SEO & citations We optimized their local presence with: ◾ A fully updated Google My Business profile (with accurate NAP info and new customer reviews). ◾ Listings on directories like Yelp, Angie’s List, and local chamber of commerce sites. ◾ Consistent online citations across all platforms. 4. Broken link building We identified broken links on local websites and reached out to the site owners. ◾ Suggested their blog posts and guides as replacements. ◾ Secured several quality backlinks through this strategy alone. 5. Building relationships We also helped the client establish local partnerships to generate backlinks: ◾ Collaborated with real estate agents and storage facilities. ◾ Sponsored local community events for exposure and mentions on event websites. Within 3 months, here’s what we achieved: ✔ Added 25 high-quality backlinks from local and industry-specific sites. ✔ Improved their local Google rankings by 2 positions for key keywords. ✔ Increased organic website traffic by 40%. Backlinks aren’t just about volume—they’re about quality, strategy, and relationships. P.S. I’m offering free consultation call (Link in bio) to help you: ◾ Identify backlink opportunities tailored to your niche. ◾ Build a roadmap for sustainable SEO growth. ◾ Start ranking higher and attracting more customers.

Most people think SEO is just about keywords. Rankings. Algorithms. Tools. But here’s the truth: It’s also about awareness. About knowing what your competitors are doing And turning their wins into your roadmap. That’s where Competitor Backlink Analysis becomes your silent superpower. Because every link pointing to your competitor? That’s a door you haven’t knocked on yet. Want to know who’s helping them rank? Want access to proven backlink sources? Want to close the gap and boost your domain authority? Then don’t start from scratch. Start with strategy. Here’s how you do it: 1️⃣ Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz 2️⃣ Run a backlink gap analysis 3️⃣ Filter out high-authority, relevant domains 4️⃣ Create better content and pitch it smart 5️⃣ Track and repeat because SEO never sleeps And the best part? You’re not copying. You’re leveraging. Because real growth doesn’t always mean reinventing the wheel. Sometimes, it’s about rolling smarter with what’s already working. So before you write another blog or send another pitch… 👉 Ask yourself: Are you guessing your next move? ------------------------------------ Or are you letting your competitors show you the way?

In my last post, we discussed whether acquiring backlinks is worth it. Now, let’s dive into how you can make those backlinks work smarter for your site! 👇 Let’s say you’re selling bicycle tires, and you score a backlink from a blog titled “Best Bicycle Tires in 2025.” 🔗 Your first instinct might be to link directly to your product page or collection page- There’s a more strategic approach. 🔗 Why Linking to a Blog First is Better: If you link to a blog post or content asset instead, you’re creating an opportunity to funnel authority to multiple parts of your site. Here's how: 1️⃣ The blog gains authority from the backlink. 2️⃣ You use that blog to internally link to product pages, collection pages, and even other blogs. 3️⃣ Authority diffuses across your site, improving the authority of more than just one page. 📈 To maximize authority flow, build backlinks to: Roundups 🛒 (e.g., "Top 10 Cycling Essentials") How-to Guides 🔧 (e.g., "How to Choose the Right Bicycle Tire") Listicles 📋 (e.g., "Best Bicycle Accessories for 2025") From these blog posts, internally link to: Product pages Collection pages Supporting blogs Also, include internal links to your bestsellers directly from your collection pages, product descriptions, or FAQs. This creates a scalable “authority train” across your site. External site backlinks ➡️ Blogs ➡️ Collections ➡️ Products #backlinks #seo #ecommerce #shopify