Hi all I’m researching a new idea focused on helping small ecommerce brands strengthen their SEO by earning high-quality, relevant backlinks from complementary shops (e.g., a ceramics store linking to a coffee brand they love, a candle brand linking to a home-goods maker, etc.).
I’m looking to chat with a few store owners or managers who think about SEO and organic traffic. I’d love to understand:
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what kinds of link-building you actually trust
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what you avoid
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and whether cross-brand, relevance-based linking feels useful or risky.
Just trying to validate whether this approach truly benefits organic search and what would make it worth trying.
If you’re open to a quick 10-minute conversation, I’d really appreciate it and would be happy to review your sites in return.
Thanks!
This is a great question, link-building is definitely one of the areas where most small ecommerce brands struggle, mostly because so many “SEO services” push low-quality or irrelevant backlinks that do more harm than good.
From the Shopify stores I manage and audit, here’s what I’ve consistently seen:
What store owners trust
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Contextual, relevance-based backlinks (e.g., lifestyle brands linking to each other)
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Editorial mentions, gift guides, and genuine recommendations
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Partnership-based content such as collaborations, co-created blog posts, and “best of” lists
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Backlinks from brands with overlapping audiences, even if their niches differ
This type of linking typically feels natural to Google’s algorithm and contributes positively to organic rankings.
What they avoid
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Automated link-building
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Large backlink “packages” with no relevance
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Low-authority blogs or networks created just for SEO
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Anything that looks like a link exchange ring or manipulation pattern
Shopify sites especially benefit from quality > volume when it comes to backlinks.
On your idea of cross-brand relevance linking
This actually aligns very well with what already works in SEO. Cross-brand backlinks are generally seen as:
The biggest concerns store owners have are:
If your system ensures quality control and editorial-style linking, it could be genuinely valuable.
If you want, feel free to DM me, I routinely help Shopify merchants evaluate backlink strategies, and I can give you some insight into what small brands actually prefer based on real store audits.
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Hello! I seldom go online, and I only check the Shopify Community from time to time if I’m not busy. Please feel free to send follow-up questions, and will answer them when I’m online.
To answer your questions, when advising clients, we focus on the quality over quantity. We suggest naturally embedding editorial links into relevant content. We trust links placed contextually within content that makes sense, and chase links from the same industry sites with high SEO metrics.
We avoid risky link-building tactics like paid links and other related techniques. These are easily detectable, leading to link devaluation. Links from forum sections are one to have, but they must be genuine and helpful in answering other users.