A backlink is a link from another website pointing to your store. Search engines treat backlinks as votes of confidence — the more quality links you earn from trusted sites, the higher your Shopify store ranks in Google results.

For ecommerce stores, backlinks are especially important because product and collection pages rarely attract links on their own. Publishing helpful articles on external sites (and linking back to your store) is one of the most effective ways to build domain authority and drive organic traffic to your products.

Start with the easiest wins first. Open platforms like Medium, LinkedIn Articles, X, and Substack let you publish content for free — no approval needed. Write a helpful article related to your niche and include a natural link back to your store or a relevant product page.

Next, look at guest posting. Find blogs in your niche that accept guest contributions, pitch a topic their audience would care about, and include one or two links to your store within the article. The directory above lists 26 article posting opportunities sorted by difficulty — start with the ones marked "Easy" and work up from there.

Finally, submit your store to relevant business directories and review platforms. These are quicker wins — most just require filling out a profile and adding your store URL. We've listed 123 directory and profile opportunities above to get you started.

You don't add backlinks to your own store — you earn them from other websites. The process works in reverse: you create content on external sites and include links that point back to your Shopify store.

For example, you might write an article on Medium about "How to Choose the Right Running Shoes" and link to your running shoes collection page. That link from Medium to your store is a backlink. Google sees it, notes that a high-authority site is pointing to you, and gives your store a ranking boost.

The tool above gives you 149+ places where you can publish content or list your store to earn these backlinks.

Domain Rating (DR) is a score from 0 to 100 that measures how strong a website's backlink profile is. The higher the DR of a site linking to you, the more authority that link passes to your store.

A backlink from LinkedIn (DR 98) is worth significantly more than a link from a small blog with DR 15. That's why we show the DR score on every card in this tool — so you can prioritise the highest-value opportunities for your store.

That said, a mix of DR levels looks more natural to Google. Don't only chase high-DR sites — a healthy backlink profile has variety.

Write articles that genuinely help the audience of the site you're posting on. If you sell skincare products, write about skincare routines, ingredient guides, or seasonal skin tips for a beauty blog. If you sell outdoor gear, write trail guides, gear comparison pieces, or adventure tips for outdoor publications.

The key is to make the content useful on its own — not a sales pitch. Include one or two natural links to your store where they add value (e.g. "we recommend a lightweight trail pack" linking to your product). Editors and readers can spot thin promotional content instantly, so lead with value.

There's no magic number. What matters more is consistency and quality. A store with 20 backlinks from relevant, high-DR sites will outrank a store with 200 links from low-quality directories.

A good starting goal for most Shopify stores: aim for 2–4 quality backlinks per month. That means writing one or two guest articles and submitting to a few directories each month. Over a year, that compounds into a strong link profile that keeps working for you long after you publish.

Yes — if you choose the right ones. Every site listed in this tool is free and has been vetted for quality. The open platforms (Medium, LinkedIn, Substack, X) are some of the highest-DR sites on the internet and they cost nothing to publish on.

The key is avoiding spammy, low-quality link farms that can actually hurt your rankings. Stick to sites with real audiences, real editorial standards, and a genuine DR score. If a site exists solely to sell links, avoid it. Everything in this directory is the real deal.