Backlinks in 2026: what they do, what they don't
Backlinks still matter for SEO. Google still ranks pages partly on the authority signals they receive from other sites linking to them. What has changed: Google has spent a decade learning to ignore the cheap ones, and "link-building services" that promise 50 dofollow backlinks a month are mostly selling you a way to get your site penalised.
The real version of link-building is harder, slower, and more like PR than SEO. Most of the work is earning mentions from places that were going to mention something eventually anyway; your job is making sure that something is you.
This post covers what works now, what to ignore, and the honest answer to "how much should we care about this as an ecommerce brand?"
Which backlinks actually move rankings
Not all links are equal. Google ranks them (approximately) by:
- Authority of the linking domain. A link from NYT is worth many links from a blog nobody reads
- Topical relevance. A link from a running-shoe magazine to your running-shoe brand counts more than one from a random lifestyle blog
- Editorial context. A link embedded in a genuine article counts more than one in a footer, sidebar, or sponsored-post disclosure
- Anchor text. "Best running shoes" linking to your page is different from "click here". Natural mix wins; over-optimised anchor text looks manipulated
- Link freshness. Recent links from active sites carry more weight than old links from abandoned sites
The links that are actually worthless or worse:
- Links from link-farm networks (PBNs). Google detects these at scale
- Paid dofollow links on unrelated blogs
- Links inside footer sitewide lists ("thanks to our partners" with 40 brands)
- Comment spam on blogs
- Links from sites that exist only to host links
- Reciprocal link schemes ("we link to you, you link to us")
If a "link-building service" pitches any of these, the service is selling you a slow SEO penalty.
When backlinks matter most (and least)
Backlinks matter a lot when:
- Your product category has competitive organic search with entrenched incumbents
- You need to outrank content sites (not other ecommerce stores) for informational queries
- You're building long-term brand SEO over years, not months
- You have a long-lived brand that will accumulate links over time
Backlinks matter less when:
- Your customers find you via paid ads, social, or existing audience (links don't influence those channels)
- Your category is small enough that rankings are determined mostly by on-page SEO and direct traffic
- You're at the stage of "0-1,000 orders per month" where fixing the site beats investing in link-building
Most stores under $500k/year should treat link-building as a side activity, not a marketing pillar. Fix the product, the pages, and the paid channels first.
The link-building methods that actually work
Nothing below is a fast path. Link-building is patient compounding work. These are the methods that produce legitimate, ranking-relevant backlinks without inviting a Google penalty.
1. Digital PR / newsjacking
Your brand publishes a surveyed dataset, an opinion on a current industry event, or a comment on a newsworthy story. Journalists cover it; some link back to you.
Examples that work:
- A bedding brand publishes sleep-behaviour data across US states. Covered by lifestyle press with links
- A pet brand comments on a pet-food recall news story. Gets quoted; earns a link
- A fitness brand publishes a study on Zone 2 training adoption. Running magazines link to the study
This is the highest-ROI link-building activity in ecommerce, but it requires you to actually produce the thing worth covering. No shortcut.
2. Expert source registrations (HARO / Qwoted / Connectively / SourceBottle)
Journalists actively looking for expert quotes post requests on these services. You submit quick, specific, quotable responses. If used, you get a citation with a backlink from whatever publication ran the story.
Hit rate: low (5-10% of submissions get used). Volume: high if you submit daily. Over months, a surprising number of legitimate press backlinks accumulate from this alone.
3. Resource and tool creation
Build something genuinely useful on your site that people want to link to:
- A calculator (pricing, sizing, shipping estimate for the category)
- A buyer's guide (honest, not thinly-disguised product promotion)
- A data visualisation or map
- An industry glossary
- A comparison tool
Tools with genuine utility attract links for years. The work is upfront; the backlinks compound.
4. Broken-link building
Find authority pages that link out to resources. Check if any of those linked resources are broken (Ahrefs / SEMrush / Check My Links browser extension can scan for you). Contact the page owner: "Saw you link to X which is now 404. We have a better resource on the same topic, here's the link."
Success rate: 5-15% if your resource is genuinely comparable. Scales with outreach volume.
5. Supplier, partner, and retailer listings
Suppliers, partners, and retailers that stock your product should list you on their site with a link. Most don't by default; a polite "can you add us to your retailers page?" usually works.
This is surprisingly under-used. If you've sold 50 units to a boutique, they likely have an "our brands" page. Ask to be on it.
6. Press and podcast appearances
Every genuine press mention or podcast appearance typically produces a link in the show notes or the published article. The content work is in getting those placements (pitching yourself as a guest on relevant podcasts, pitching journalists with actual stories).
Low-follower podcasts still count; the link quality comes from the host being a real publisher, not from the audience size.
7. Alumni, university, and professional association listings
If you have academic or professional credentials, relevant organisations (your university's alumni page, your industry association's member directory) often list you with a link. These are high-authority domains and the links persist for years.
8. Existing customer mentions
Customers already write about products they love, on their blogs, in reviews, in Reddit threads. When they mention your brand, ask (politely) to be linked. Not all will; some will; those that do add up.
9. Competitor analysis (what's linking to them, not you?)
Use Ahrefs or SEMrush to see which sites link to direct competitors. For each, ask: would a link to us make equal sense? If yes, reach out with a specific, compelling angle. Same-audience sites often link to brands in your space, and your competitors are probably not the only valid option.
10. Brand mentions without links (surprisingly valuable)
Unlinked brand mentions now carry some SEO weight. Google has hinted that brand-name mentions, even without hyperlinks, contribute to authority signals. That means:
- Getting talked about on podcasts (even if the show notes don't link)
- Being named in Reddit / forum discussions
- Press coverage that names you without linking
All of these help. The "is there a link?" fixation in the SEO industry is a decade out of date; mentions alone contribute.
Things not to spend time on
- Fiverr / freelancer-driven link packages. Almost always PBN or comment-spam-based
- "Guest post on 500 sites" services. Low-quality publications; Google often ignores or penalises these patterns
- Reciprocal link exchanges. Detected algorithmically; net neutral or negative
- Directory submissions to generic directories (Yellow Pages Online, etc.). Worthless
- Web 2.0 / article-spinning. A 2010 tactic that got a lot of sites penalised and hasn't worked since
If your time is constrained, the above tactics are time you don't have to waste.
Digital PR at small-brand budgets
You don't need a PR agency to do digital PR. At $0-1k/month:
- Set up HARO / Qwoted / Connectively; submit 2-3 responses per day
- Identify 20 journalists who cover your category; follow their work, pitch once a quarter with something genuinely relevant
- Start a simple data asset (survey 200 of your customers, publish the results on your blog)
- Build one meaningful tool or calculator in your category
- Reach out to 10 podcasts per month as a guest
- Get listed in all retailer / partner directories that should list you
Done monthly, that generates 5-15 legitimate backlinks over a year, plus a dozen unlinked mentions. Enough to matter for SEO in most ecommerce categories.
How long link-building takes to show results
Not fast. Realistic timeline:
- Month 1-3: doing the work, few visible results
- Month 3-6: links start landing; rankings for niche long-tail queries start moving
- Month 6-12: rankings for competitive category queries begin shifting; organic traffic begins climbing
- Year 2+: compounding visible; brand starts ranking for broader queries
Anyone promising faster results is either running a scheme that gets penalised or setting expectations you'll be disappointed by.
What Shoprocket helps with
- SEO-friendly URLs on products, categories, and collection pages
- Automatic sitemap generation + robots.txt + canonical tags
- Product, Offer, and AggregateRating structured data for rich SERP results
- Blog / CMS with multi-language support and full meta control, for publishing the resources worth linking to
- Custom domain + full brand control so every backlink built accrues to your domain, not ours
- Real-time analytics with traffic sources so you can see which backlinks actually drive traffic
<!-- EXAMPLE ONLY. Grab your real snippet from Sales channels → Embeds in your dashboard -->
<script src="https://cdn.shoprocket.io/loader.js" data-pk="pk_yourkey"></script>
<div data-shoprocket="catalog" data-embed-id="emb_xxx"></div>
What Shoprocket doesn't ship natively: backlink analysis / monitoring (use Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz alongside), outreach management (use Pitchbox or Postaga), HARO-style journalist platforms (use Connectively, Qwoted, or SourceBottle directly).
Tip: Before starting link-building, audit what you already have. Use a tool (even Ahrefs' free Webmaster Tools) to see your current backlinks. You may already have legitimate mentions worth amplifying, broken links worth fixing, or unlinked brand mentions worth converting into links with a polite email. Easiest wins first.
TL;DR
- Backlinks still matter, but not all backlinks. Authority + relevance + editorial context + anchor-text naturalness
- Ignore cheap services. Fiverr link packs, mass guest-post services, PBNs, reciprocal schemes: all net negative
- Link-building is digital PR. Survey-driven data, expert quotes via HARO, useful resources, podcast appearances, retailer listings
- Small brands don't need to prioritise this. Fix product + pages + paid channels first; layer in link-building after $500k+ revenue or if you're fighting entrenched incumbents
- Timeline: visible results at 3-6 months; compounding at 12-24 months
- Unlinked brand mentions matter too. Presence > link-only counting
Start a free trial and get the structured data + SEO-friendly URLs + blog + analytics that backlink work depends on. 14 days, no card.
Building ecommerce tools for independent sellers since 2013.
