E-commerce is taking off big-time in the UK right now. Online sales over Christmas were up significantly again on the previous year (helped partly by the weather) and are predicted to grow again this year as more and more people head online to spend their hard earned money.

Unfortunately for retailers however, the growing competition of online stores can make it hard to get noticed, both in the search engine rankings and through social media.

Fortunately, Web Wise Business are here to provide 3 great tips on how you can get more links to your e-commerce website, which will help you get noticed and boost your search engine rankings!

1. Competitions and Give-aways

Not exactly new, but competitions and prize give-aways can be a great way to not only get noticed online - through buzz generated on social media such as Twitter and Facebook, but also to gain links from various forums, blogs and fan/niche websites.

Picking an appropriate prize will ensure that fans and fan website alike will be keen to link to this kind of give-away. Ideally, if you can, aim for a "money can't buy" type of prize or something rare. Think "limited edition Fonzie leather jacket", or "official signed first edition book/album" etc.

2. Fan Sites

As previously mentioned, fan sites (including forums, blogs etc) can be a great way of gaining links to your e-commerce website. Choose a particular type or product or niche to target and search for "(product) fan sites" in Google. Once you have found a few, contact the site administrator to let them know about your great deals on "product x" and why you think it might be worth them promoting this to their community.

You could also investigate whether there is an opportunity to sponsor the fan site. It's an easy and relatively cheap way to endear yourself to a dedicated community of target clients.

3. Exploit Rivalry

Lets face it, people are pretty quick to show their passion for a particular product/opinion on the internet. Be it "which Scottish football team has the best fans?" to "Are Lord of The Rings movies are better than Harry Potter?".

Provide some points for an against and then open it up to a poll for visitors to decide. For example, a football equipment and memorabilia retailer may choose to create a poll posing the question "Which SPL team has the best fans?". The retailer could then have a poll, listing every team in the league on a page where product listings relating to these teams are also visible.

To go the extra mile in promoting this, the retailer could also approach the administrators of the many team fan clubs and fan forums, encouraging them to link to the site. This could be continued as a regular feature relating to various products such as "which team has the best kit?", "which brand make the best football boots?" etc. The possibilities for acquiring links to your e-commerce website are endless!