Link building for eCommerce

[YYV]

I have an engraving site where I am looking to increase traffic/ sales. We do local engraving services and sell engraved products via eCommerce.  Perfectindesign.com

It seems to me that locally I can't compete since most search terms are washed over with every local directory in and around the city that are selling there memberships.

So I thought I could compete nationally via the 200 products we carry.

I have used site explorer to go through my competitors links.  My findings show that other then their twitter accounts and dmoz listing most everything else are paid links and lots of them.

Keeping in mind I have 45 root domains with 411 links to my site.

Three competitors links data.  I probably shouldn't name them right?

competitor #1 1k root with 13.9k links

competitor # 2 147 root with 16k links

competitor # 3 427 root with 28k

Should I just start buying these links that range from $10-50 per link or is this a waste of time?

Are these truly my competitors or am I comparing my tiny site to the major leagues?

[kondanx]

I agree with Bradkrussell, don't buy links, i own an eCommerce i have ranked #1 for 5 best keywords in that market and suddenly lost for #1 Goggle for that 5 keywords and lost 30% of my visitor, and now my visitor has normal again even when i still lost my ranks.

I see your website and i found your website hasn't friendly url for example http://www.perfectindesign.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=30 just try Nakul advice visitor not only comes from head keywords, i lost head keywords rank but now my visitor get normal even better than before, just make your website riched with keywords and done with good optimization,

Good luck

[MoosaHemani]

I just don’t believe on this mantra of ‘don’t buy links!’ here is my detailed opinion on your case.

1st Its good to look in to competitor’s links but blindly building foot printing links can be dangerous as may be they just have quantity of links with low quality. I believe quality of links can easily surpass quantity and this is how new websites beat old giants in SERPs.

So I would recommend you to plan and build Free but quality links from high authority websites in your niche. Just by looking into your website I came up with an idea of link bait that can help you attract many links from different high authority domains.

You can design custom cups (or something like that) that target different giant websites (non commercial) websites and contact them to pass the ‘thank you memento’ for providing such an amazing information over the past few years (like Mashable provide amazing information in the search and social industry) and if you do it right they will probably talk about it and pass you a link from their website… in my opinion one link from mashable is way better them links from different lousy websites… (just an idea)

Another thing that can do is to fix your on-page optimization and content, up to the mark so that it works well with search engine as well as users.

You can also buy few links from different reputable paid directories (SEOmoz have the list of it on their website) so, yes! buying links from lousy websites will harm but paid directories is a win win game!

Conclusion words: follow the quality and you will beat your competitors even with less number of links from high authority websites.

[bradkrussell]

Do. Not. Buy. Links.

Develop your own content that deserves to be read/shared, make sure your site is properly optimised (without going over the top) and focus on your own site, not your competitors.

[YYV]

Can you elaborate on building domain authority. Right now I have about 195 products.  I can keep adding product after product but if they are at the bottom of page one or on page 2,3 or 38 it doesn't matter how many products I have.

Thanks

[NakulGoyal]

I would analyze the top 10 competition not just your head keywords but also some long tail keywords and find opportunities.

If you look at your rankings for keywords like, I think it's also about making sure your pages are properly optimized. See your SERP ranking for https://www.google.com/search?q=medical+plaques

I would recommend using the http://pro.seomoz.org/tools/on-page-keyword-optimization/new tool here at SEOMoz to identify some oppurtunities and strengthen your on-page.

As far as Off-page is concerned, I would recommend you to be very careful and do some strategic link building instead of the outright link buying. There's a considerable risk involved. What you need to do is build domain authority, not try to rank via anchor text hyperlinks. Does that make sense ?