Backlinks remain one of the two or three most powerful ranking signals Google uses. A Shopify store with strong links to its domain will outrank technically superior sites with weak link profiles, consistently, across almost every competitive product category. The problem is that most advice on building backlinks either tells you to buy them (a fast path to a Google penalty) or gives you tactics so vague they are useless.

This guide is for merchants who want to build real links that improve rankings over the long term. According to Ahrefs' analysis of their link database, the average page in position one on Google has more than 3.8 times as many backlinks as pages in positions 2 through 10. That gap is not closed by accident.

Why are backlinks still so important for Shopify SEO?

A backlink is a vote of confidence from one website to yours. Google's algorithm was originally built on the premise that if authoritative sites link to you, you are probably worth ranking. That premise is still largely true in 2026, even with all the algorithm updates since.

What matters is not the raw number of links, but the quality. Links from relevant, authoritative domains carry far more weight than dozens of links from low-quality directories or blog comment spam. One link from a major industry publication can move the needle more than a hundred irrelevant directory listings.

For Shopify stores specifically, links to your collection pages and homepage are the highest priority. These pages carry the most commercial keyword targets and benefit most from the authority that backlinks pass.

How do you get links from suppliers and brand partners?

This is the most underused link building tactic for ecommerce merchants, and it is often the easiest.

If you stock other brands' products, many of those brands maintain a "stockists" or "where to buy" page on their own site. A link from the brand's official website to your store is authoritative, relevant, and often available simply by asking.

How to do it:

List every brand you stock.
Visit each brand's website and search for a stockists page.
Email their trade or marketing team with a short request to be listed.
Include your store URL and a sentence about your customer base.

You should expect a 20-40% response rate if you are a genuine stockist. Even 5-10 new links from brand partners can make a measurable difference to your domain authority.

Similarly, if you are a member of any trade associations, industry bodies, or business networks, check whether they have a member directory with links. These tend to be authoritative, relevant domains.

How do you use digital PR to earn backlinks?

Digital PR is the practice of creating content or angles that journalists and bloggers want to cover, then reaching out to relevant publications. Done well, it produces links from high-authority news sites, industry blogs, and regional publications.

For Shopify merchants, the most reliable digital PR angles are:

Original data and research

If you have access to data that tells an interesting story, journalists will write about it and link back to the source. Examples:

Sales data showing seasonal trends ("UK consumers spent 40% more on X in January this year")
Survey results from your customer base
Analysis of your product category

You do not need to be a major brand to do this. Even a survey of 200 customers about their buying habits in your niche is publishable if the results are interesting.

Expert commentary

Many journalists look for expert sources when writing about topics related to your product category. Tools like Quoted (formerly HARO UK), Connectively, and ResponseSource let you monitor journalist requests and respond to relevant ones. A single placement in a national newspaper or industry publication can deliver a link that moves your rankings noticeably.

Newsjacking

When a news story in your product category breaks, you have a window of a few hours to a few days to offer relevant commentary. If you sell cycling equipment and there is a story about cycling infrastructure, a quick-turn comment from your founder can earn a link from the news piece.

How does content marketing generate backlinks for Shopify?

Informational blog content earns links passively over time, because other sites naturally reference useful resources. Product pages almost never earn links organically. Blog posts, guides, and data pieces do.

The types of content that earn the most links in ecommerce:

Comprehensive buying guides: "The Complete Guide to Choosing a Standing Desk" attracts links from bloggers, forum posts, and product review sites.
Data-driven studies: Original data with shareable findings attracts media links.
Tool and calculator pages: A simple calculator (e.g. "How Much Paint Do I Need?") earns links from DIY forums and home improvement blogs.
List articles: "10 Best [Product Category] in the UK" earns links from roundup content and comparison sites.

The key is to write content that is genuinely more useful than what is currently ranking for your target keywords. Thin, generic blog posts do not attract links. Thorough, well-researched content that solves a specific problem does.

See our guide to Shopify blog SEO for how to structure and optimise this content once you have written it.

How do you approach link outreach without being spammy?

Link outreach is the practice of identifying sites that might link to your content and emailing them to suggest it. Most link outreach fails because it is too generic, too obviously self-serving, or sent to completely irrelevant sites.

The rules for effective outreach:

Personalise every email: Reference the specific piece of content on their site that relates to yours. One sentence of genuine personalisation doubles response rates.
Lead with value: Explain why your content is useful to their readers, not why a link would help your SEO.
Target relevance first, authority second: A link from a niche blog with DA 30 is more valuable than a link from a generic site with DA 60.
Follow up once: Send one polite follow-up after 5-7 days. Do not send more.
Keep records: Track who you have contacted, when, and the response. Do not contact the same person twice about the same piece.

A reasonable outreach campaign for a Shopify store might involve contacting 50 relevant sites about a new piece of content and expecting 3-6 links as a result. That conversion rate is normal and the links are worth the effort.

What is broken link building and how does it work for Shopify?

Broken link building involves finding links on other sites that point to pages that no longer exist (404 errors), and suggesting your content as a replacement.

The process:

Use Ahrefs or Check My Links (a Chrome extension) to find broken links on relevant websites in your niche.
Identify which broken link was pointing to content similar to something you have or could create.
Create the content if needed, then reach out to the site owner and let them know their link is broken and your page is a useful replacement.

This tactic works because you are offering the site owner a genuine fix for a problem (a broken link is bad for their users), not just asking them to do you a favour.

What link building tactics should you avoid?

These tactics either do not work or actively risk a Google penalty:

Buying links: Link schemes violate Google's guidelines. If Google detects paid link patterns (and it is getting better at this), the result is a manual penalty that can tank your rankings for months.
Link exchanges: "I'll link to you if you link to me" is a scheme Google specifically calls out. Occasional, natural reciprocal links are fine; systematic exchanges are not.
Low-quality directory submissions: Submitting to hundreds of generic directories provides negligible value and can dilute your link profile.
Comment spam: Leaving links in blog comment sections is ignored by Google and marks your brand as spammy.
Private Blog Networks (PBNs): Networks of sites created specifically to pass links are a serious penalty risk.

How do you measure whether your link building is working?

Track these metrics monthly:

Domain Rating / Domain Authority: Both Ahrefs (DR) and Moz (DA) provide a 0-100 score that reflects overall link profile strength. A rising score over time indicates your link building is working.
Number of referring domains: Total unique domains linking to your store. More important than total backlinks, which can be inflated by one site linking many times.
Organic traffic: The ultimate measure. Rankings and traffic from your target keywords should rise as your link profile strengthens.
Individual keyword positions: Track your target keywords in Ahrefs, Semrush, or a dedicated rank tracker.

Expect a delay of 4-12 weeks between acquiring new links and seeing ranking improvements. Google's crawl and indexation cycle means links take time to influence rankings.

Key actions to take now

Email every brand you stock and ask to be listed on their stockists page. Do this week, before anything else.
Check your trade association and industry body memberships for member directory listings with links.
Write one genuinely comprehensive guide or data piece on your blog, targeting an informational keyword in your product category.
Set up a Quoted or ResponseSource account to receive journalist queries relevant to your niche.
Use Ahrefs Site Explorer on your top two competitors. Find their strongest backlinks and identify which of those link sources you could also approach.
Set up monthly tracking of your Domain Rating and referring domain count.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many backlinks do I need to rank in my product category? There is no universal number because it depends on what your competitors have. Use Ahrefs to check the link profiles of the top 5 pages ranking for your target keyword. That tells you the real benchmark. If the top results have 50-100 referring domains each, that is your target range, not an arbitrary number.

Are links from UK sites better than links from international sites? For ranking in Google UK search results, links from UK-based, UK-relevant sites carry more relevance signals. They are not strictly more powerful in absolute terms, but for local and national UK search intent, UK link sources are preferable. International links from highly authoritative sites (major media, .edu, .gov) are still valuable.

How do I know if a link I have built is actually being counted by Google? Check Google Search Console's Links report. It shows the external sites linking to your store as Google has indexed them. Ahrefs and Semrush also crawl the web independently and report on links they find. Note that Google does not show all links in Search Console, only a representative sample.

Should I disavow any of my existing backlinks? Only if you have a documented history of purchasing links or have received a manual action from Google related to unnatural links. For most Shopify merchants with no history of link schemes, disavowing links is unnecessary and can cause more harm than good by accidentally disavowing legitimate links.

How to Build Backlinks to Your Shopify Store