Hub and Spokes. Your site’s the Hub. Don’t forget the spokes.
As an industrial e-commerce site owner, you’re focused on the quality of your product data, descriptions and images for search engine visibility. So are others in your marketplace, and if they’re going the extra mile by getting inbound links, you can expect to be left out, Don’t miss the party.
Do you know what’s going on in your digital marketplace?
Below is a Marketplace Link Analysis recently done for an electrical distributor client (names changed for confidentiality). We wanted to see what others in the marketplace are doing online. Specifically, the source of traffic for similar companies and the overall quality of inbound links helping their search engine positioning.
Link Building analysis: Competitor 2 actively works on internal and external linking initiatives to win on search engines.
Competitive Link Analysis below shows number of inbound links for electrical distributor web properties we compared (names changed for confidentiality) and where off-site content “signals were coming from. In other words, the content that was sending traffic to companies offering similar products. The raw data supporting this table shows the exact URL source of each competitor’s traffic. Next, we decided if the links made sense for our online business goals.
The Inbound Links table below uses actual numbers from this study (company names removed). Company 5 is considered Best In Class by competitors. Company 5 has been creating content and inbound links for years. Others are playing “catch up”.
Raw Data supporting this Table included precise links sending traffic. Raw data provides actionable, granular detail on how Company 5 has gotten commanding lead.
Hub, Spokes and Content
Ask about a Study. Or call 856.381.7834
Think of your web site as a “Hub”, the sites sending traffic are the “Spokes”. With so much traffic on the Net, search engines measure authority by looking at what sites are sending traffic. The spokes are just as important as the hub. Same with airports! Why not create your own inbound links? By now I’m sure you’ve thought of creating a microsite focused on your 80/20 Products — the 20% of your products that make up 80% of your sales — then link back to these on your main site.
What’s your next move? Focusing only on your web property and taking your eye off of what’s going on in the marketplace is like missing the party.
Director, Business Innovation.
Electrical Marketing, LLC
email: gcarter@electricalmarketing.net
CONTACT US: 856.381.7834
eCommerce | Content Development | Strategy & Execution
