Ecommerce: Generic Content Means Generic Links

[mandy]

Now, link building for a shopping site brings with it a set of challenges and realities that pure content sites will never fully appreciate. I work with both, so I come at this with some practiced perspective. In Vegas, the vibe sent from site owners was what I would call a reluctant and unhappy acceptance that product-only sites don't attract links of any long lasting value. Folks were bordering on miserable that they had to find some way—any way—to attract links so they'd rank well. Is it any surprise then that the tactics these folks use for their generic sites are by now equally generic? Whether you spend $100 or 1 million dollars getting your ecommerce site up and running, if linkworthy content is an afterthought produced grudgingly and only because you haveto, then you are going to fail (see furniture.com's famous $40 million lesson).

And social media is not the answer many "experts" want you to believe it is. You cannot bookmark, tag, stumble, or otherwise digg your way out from the truth that a generic web site with generic products available on fifty other sites is not going to succeed by using the same stale tactics those other fifty sites are using. For every Coke/Mentos success there are a million silent failures...

full article: http://searchengineland.com/070924-114120.php