Link Building for Shopify Stores: A Practical, Safe Plan

Who it is for

Stores with content and products worth citing

Time needed

An afternoon to start, then a few hours a month

What you need

Search Console, admin access and a list of partners

Links are the one part of SEO you can't fix inside the Shopify admin. Shopify gives every store canonical tags, a sitemap and a sensible robots.txt by default, and you control titles, content and structure. Whether other websites link to you is up to them. That's why link building attracts so many shortcuts, and why most of them break Google's rules.

This guide is a practical plan for a Shopify store: what Google allows, how to recover links you've already earned, which pages on a store are worth linking to, the tactics that suit stores, and what to avoid. Google's policies are quoted as I checked them on 7 November 2026. I won't promise rankings from any of it, because nobody honest can.

What Google allows and what it calls link spam

Google's spam policies define link spam as creating links mainly to manipulate rankings. These are the examples that matter most to store owners:

• Buying or selling links for ranking. This includes paying money and exchanging goods or services for a link. Sending a blogger a free product on the condition that they link to you counts.
• Excessive link exchanges, or partner pages that exist only to cross-link.
• Automated link building by programs or services.
• Low-quality directories and bookmark sites.
• Optimized anchor text in guest posts or press releases placed on other sites.
• Keyword-rich links in widgets spread across many sites.
• Advertorials or native ads whose links pass ranking credit.

Paid placements aren't banned. They just need to be marked. Google asks for rel="sponsored" on ads and paid placements, accepts rel="nofollow" as well, and recommends rel="ugc" for user-generated links such as comments and forum posts. A sponsored post with a sponsored link is a legitimate marketing channel. It just isn't link building.

Step 1: Recover links you already have

The fastest links to gain are the ones pointing at pages that no longer exist. After a migration, a redesign or a product clear-out, external sites often still link to old URLs that now return a 404. Every one of those is a link you earned and are no longer using.

1. Open the Links report. In Search Console, click Links in the left menu. Under External links, open Top linked pages.
2. Export it. Use Export external links and choose "More sample links" or "Latest links". Exports include up to 100,000 rows. The report is a sample, not every link, but it covers the ones Google has seen.
3. Check each linked URL. Open the target URLs, or run the list through a crawler, and note any that return a 404.
4. Redirect the broken ones. In Shopify, go to Content > Menus, click View URL Redirects, then Create URL redirect. Point each old path at the closest live page. For many URLs, use the CSV import in the same place.
5. Confirm the old URL is really broken. Shopify redirects only work when the old URL no longer loads a page. If it still loads, the redirect is ignored.

Do this after any platform move. Old platforms used different URL patterns, such as /shop/product-name or /index.php?route=product, and Shopify's patterns are fixed as /products/, /collections/, /pages/ and /blogs/, so nothing matches without redirects.

Step 2: Decide which pages deserve links

Most sites won't link to a product page. They link to pages that are useful to their own readers. On a Shopify store, these are the pages that earn links:

When you ask for a link, give the clean URL, such as /collections/merino-sweaters or /products/navy-crew-sweater, not one with tracking parameters or a collection path in front of the product. Then make sure those pages deserve it: unique copy, good photos, clear pricing and fast loading.

Step 3: Pick tactics that fit a store

These are the link sources I use for Shopify stores, roughly in order of effort.

• Suppliers, manufacturers and brands you stock. Many keep a "where to buy" or stockist page. Ask to be listed with a link. If you make your own products, give your stockists a page to link to.
• Unlinked brand mentions. Search for your brand name and product names. Where a site mentions you without linking, a short, polite note asking them to add the link has a fair chance of working, because they already chose to write about you.
• Local press and community. Local news sites, business associations, markets, events you sponsor and charities you support often link to local businesses. If you have a physical shop, this ties into local SEO for Shopify stores.
• Partners and collaborations. A joint product, a shared event or a guest designer gives both sites a real reason to link to each other. One genuine collaboration is fine. A network of swaps isn't.
• Useful content. A sizing guide, a materials explainer or a care guide that's better than anything else on the topic is the kind of page others cite. It takes the longest and lasts the longest.
• Your own data. Aggregated, anonymous trends from your store, such as which colors sell best by season, can make a story for trade press. Never share anything that identifies a customer.
• Reviews and creators. Sending products to reviewers is good marketing. Any link that comes from a gifted or paid arrangement should be marked rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" by the publisher. Don't ask them to leave it unmarked.

Step 4: Run outreach without spamming

1. Build a short list. Twenty relevant sites you've checked by hand beat five hundred scraped emails. Look for sites that already link to similar stores or cover your product category.
2. Find a real reason. A stockist relationship, a mention, a broken link on their page, a guide that fills a gap in their article. No reason, no email.
3. Write a short, specific message. Say who you are, what you noticed on their site, and the exact URL you think helps their readers. Two short paragraphs.
4. Don't dictate anchor text. Let them link with your brand name or whatever fits their sentence. Asking for a keyword anchor is the pattern Google's policies describe.
5. Follow up once, a week or two later. Then move on.
6. Keep a log of who you contacted, when and what happened, so you never email the same site twice by accident.

What to avoid

Most "Shopify link building" packages sold online are some mix of the following. They're cheap because they break Google's rules.

• Link packages with a fixed number of links for a fixed price.
• Private blog networks and sites that exist only to sell posts.
• Bulk directory submissions. A few genuine industry or local listings are fine. Hundreds of generic directories aren't.
• Link swaps with unrelated stores.
• Guest posts written to carry a keyword anchor.
• Footer credits and widget links carrying keywords across many sites.

If you've inherited bad links, don't panic. Google's disavow tool exists, but Google says most sites won't need it. It's meant for a large volume of spammy or paid links that have caused, or will likely cause, a manual action. Check Security & Manual actions in Search Console before you consider it.

Don't forget your own links

Internal links are the links you control completely. Google says every page you care about should have a link from at least one other page on your site, and that links should be in standard <a href> elements so Google can crawl them.

• Menus and collections. Every collection you want found should be reachable from navigation or another collection.
• Blog to products. Link guides to the collections and products they mention, with descriptive anchor text, not "click here".
• Product to product. Related products and "complete the look" blocks spread links across the catalog.
• Outbound links on your blog. Linking to good sources is fine. Mark paid links sponsored and comment links ugc, and don't add nofollow to every external link.

Common mistakes

• Buying a link package because it's cheap and quick.
• Losing old links in a migration by skipping redirects for URLs that had backlinks.
• Asking for links to product pages that have no unique content.
• Gifting products on condition of a followed link.
• Disavowing links without a manual action or a clear spam problem.
• Ignoring internal links while chasing external ones.

Link building checklist

• Search Console Links report exported and top linked pages checked.
• Every linked URL that 404s redirected in Content > Menus > URL redirects.
• Collections, guides and brand pages worth linking to.
• Stockists, suppliers and partners asked for a link.
• Unlinked mentions found and contacted.
• Gifted and paid placements marked sponsored or nofollow.
• No link packages, swaps or bulk directories.
• Every important page linked from at least one other page on the store.
• Outreach log kept.

What to do next

Start with Step 1 this week. Redirecting broken inbound links takes an afternoon and recovers value you already earned. Then list your suppliers, stockists and partners and ask each for a link. Before you ask anyone to link to a page, run it through the free Shopify store checker to make sure it's ready for visitors.

If you'd like help, my Shopify SEO work starts from $200. I don't sell link packages. I fix redirects and internal linking, and build the pages that earn links. Or send me your store for a free review first.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Spam policies for Google web search, Google Search Central
2. Qualify your outbound links to Google, Google Search Central
3. Link best practices for Google, Google Search Central
4. Links report, Google Search Console Help
5. Disavow links to your site, Google Search Console Help
6. URL redirects, Shopify Help Center

Related services and work

Written by Ashraf Siddik

I'm a Shopify developer and CRO specialist. I have built and improved Shopify stores since 2018, completed more than 1,000 projects, and hold a 4.96 average rating across 719 client reviews.

About me · Client reviews