Is whitehat link building still a thing? anyone doing it for US Ecommerce websites?
So I manage SEO for a mid-size ecommerce brand in the US and lately I've been questioning whether proper whitehat link building still moves the needle the way it used to. We're not talking spammy stuff, I mean actual editorial placements, digital PR, getting featured on high-authority sites with real traffic. Our domain authority is decent but we're stuck competing against bigger players who seem to be everywhere on Google AND showing up in AI search results like Perplexity and ChatGPT which is a whole other headache.
I've been using tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to audit our backlink profile and the gap is pretty obvious. The sites ranking above us have DR 70+ links from publications with 25k+ monthly visitors and we just don't have that. I keep reading that link building is dead or that Google doesn't care anymore but our traffic data tells a different story. Has anyone actually hired a full-stack SEO or backlink acquisition agency that specializes in branded backlinks for ecommerce sites in competitive US markets and seen real organic traffic growth from it, would love to hear your thoughts and recommendations.