Looking for some help on the SEO front (specifically link building)
Hi all,
The product I'm working on is https://www.soundshelter.net
*Sound Shelter takes the best parts of an online record store, like curation and quality listening samples, and combines it with a machine learning and a real-time vinyl marketplace that instantly connects you with the records you want, and an independent record store that is selling them. *
I've been working on the site more intensively over the last few months and seeing great results in terms of user engagement and user feedback. I now have several paying customers, record stores paying to be listed on the site, and the site is delivering good results for them but it can be better.
One of the areas the site that I want to improve on is traffic from SEO (the conversion rate from organic traffic to buy a product on Sound Shelter is 30%, compared to 10% from social).
I have followed a lot of the guides in terms of on page optimisation and have a Moz Pro account (nice product @randfish) which is proving very useful.
The part I'm struggling with is link building, specifically outreach to publications and similar-minded sites. When I message producers/record labels on Social (e.g. Your record is one of our staff picks...) they always reply with positivity and generally share a link to their followers. As a lot of producers/labels dont have websites anymore outside Bandcamp. I have contacted several blogs/publications but no joy so far.
What are other IH's experiences with outreach? What's worked for you and what didnt work?
Cheers from Barcelona
The link-building that makes the difference these days looks more and more like content-marketing and traditional PR as time goes by.
Aside from being remarkable as a business as a means of getting people to link to you, creating and facilitating the sharing of remarkable content is the next best step.
I'd recommend using your blog to double-down on trying to get one or two links from higher-authority and more trustworthy sites like big news sites, for example. One link from a site like this is going to be worth hundreds of smaller ones but you need to create some remarkable and/or newsworthy content so that there is value to them in linking to you.
Also consider things that aren't directly related to your end-user. From a technical point of view, there are links to be had from showcase sites relating to the technology you are using and you could even use a software-engineering articles or two on your blog if you've got some interesting tech to talk about.
Can you think of a widget that record stores who use your site might want to use on their sites to display their inventory (obviosuly with links back to the relevant pages on your site)?
Thanks for the reply Jon.
I have thought about a widget but worried about the risk factor associated with it after reading this article https://moz.com/blog/backlinks-maximize-benefits-avoid-problems-whiteboard-friday
From what I understand, a widget that included something like an image and anchor text of "Shop on Sound Shelter" would be ok? What do you think?
If the point of the widget is to link to products on your site and the site owners have voluntarily chosen to include the widget on their websites, I don't understand what the issue is — it's not manupulative and it's not spammy
By over-thinking the non-text links and anchor text you're actually being less natural than if your widget just listed product names and linked to the relevant page on your site
This assumes that it would be a link widget but that makes the most sense to me if you're trying to create links. Regardless, there is nothing wrong with a "powered by Sound Shelter" link at the bottom of any widget you offer