Benjamin Golden

The only linkbuilding strategy that I use in 2024 for my Shopify and SaaS SEO projects…

As you might already know, I’ve been in the SEO game for about 7 years now, and have tried and tested everything under the sun when it comes to linkbuilding.

From useless web 2.0s and “entity stacking” that some people steal swear by to this day (wtf… I literally just had a call with a client of ours, who showed me those were the types of links their previous SEO agency was building)...

to HARO and digital PR links on the other end of the spectrum.

All things considered, at the end of the day, all you’re looking for is the most SEO power, for the best price, and LONGEVITY (how long the link remains live, which is often forgotten about.)

Here’s what I do…

I focus on DR50+ links, placed on the main domain (no subdomains), with at least 10,000 monthly domain traffic, and with the MAJORITY of the traffic coming from our target market.

If we’re trying to rank in the US, I want to see at least 80% of all traffic coming from the US - no ifs or buts about it.

You can get these links through HARO, digital PR campaigns or you can just bribe journalists who work at PR agencies or magazines as in-house writers - which is what we do… :))

On the other hand, I do still see potential in PBNs, and WAIT, give me a minute to explain, before you start raging in the comments.

With PBNs, you get a homepage link…

You can make the site 100% relevant to your niche…

You can make the site look as legit as possible…

And at the end of the day, you have full control over it.

I have SO many active projects that still heavily rely on PBNs, and for some reason haven’t gotten hit by algorithm updates (as long as they have branded search and diversified traffic across multiple channels).

I’m DEFINITELY going to be utilizing PBNs and testing them further with my three Shopify exact-match domain projects, and I’ll keep you posted on the results, so you can apply the lessons to your own projects.

Let’s smash it!

Why am I building all of my Shopify stores on exact match domains? And why do I spend tens of thousands of dollars on those domains?

A few reasons…

First, as you might know, Google’s been really cracking down on sites without branded search, that’s why so many affiliate sites are getting totally nuked.

With an exact match domain, matching a generic term, Google will never really know if people are looking for your brand, or for a generic term - therefore you’re automatically on the safer side.

Pair that with an omni-channel marketing approach, and you’re SUPER SAFE from getting hit by any kind of Google algo update.

Second, by having an exact match domain, you can trick Google into thinking people searching for the “generic keyword” are actually looking for your brand.

Therefore it becomes EXTREMELY easy to rank in the #1 spot, even if it’s a massive keyword with a ton of competitors.

There’s nothing as powerful as an exact match domain, and using the homepage to try and rank for that keyword (the homepage always holds the most link value).

Third, you don’t have to worry about over-optimizing your anchor texts for the exact match keyword ever again…

At the end of the day, your brand is the keyword, therefore you can use it as many times as you want, and you can never get in trouble for over-optimizing your anchor texts.

Fourth, and my favorite…

Due to all of the reasons listed above, you end up saving a TON of budget on linkbuilding, because you have an exact match keyword and branded links, which also act as exact match anchor links - super strong signals for Google.

One last point I want to make…

The EMD SEO strategy really shines when the main root keyword that you target with the domain, has a bunch of subcategories, that you can try and rank for with your collections and product pages.

In fact, I’d say that having those is an absolute must…

The more of those that you can find, the higher the ROI you’ll able to generate.