Definition
Cross-selling in e-commerce recommends complementary or similar products on product pages: 'Customers also bought,' 'Complementary products,' 'Complete the look,' etc. Beyond its commercial impact (increasing average order value by 10-30%), cross-selling is a powerful SEO lever because it creates dense internal linking between product pages, enabling PageRank to flow and bots to discover more pages. This contextual linking between semantically related products strengthens each page's topical relevance. Upselling (suggesting a higher-end product) has a similar effect on internal linking.
Key Points
- Cross-selling creates dense, contextual internal linking
- Increases average order value AND improves SEO simultaneously
- Recommendations must be semantically relevant
Practical Examples
Cross-selling internal linking
A tech site displays 'Compatible accessories' under each smartphone: case, charger, earbuds, screen protector. These internal links create a dense linking network between related products, improving indexation and ranking for each page.
Cross-sell SEO impact
A cosmetics site implements 'Complete your routine' blocks on 2,000 product pages, creating 8,000 additional contextual internal links. Indexed pages increase by 30% and organic traffic to product pages grows by 20%.
Frequently Asked Questions
Between 4 and 8 products is the sweet spot. Fewer than 4 does not create enough linking; more than 8 dilutes PageRank and can overwhelm users. Prioritize genuinely complementary products or most frequently purchased together. Use real cart data rather than random recommendations.
Automated recommendation systems are good for UX, but the generated links are sometimes not semantically relevant. The ideal is to combine automated recommendations (based on purchases) with manually edited links (strategic products to push in SEO).
Go Further with LemmiLink
Discover how LemmiLink can help you put these SEO concepts into practice.
Last updated: 2026-02-07