Keyword Research is probably the first step towards embarking on the journey of performing SEO. Whenever someone wants to optimize their website for the search engine, they start out by enlisting the most potential keywords, their target audience is using to perform Google search.
However, when it comes to finding keywords for an e-commerce website, things can get a bit difficult. Unlike other websites, e-commerce owners need highly targeted traffic, i.e., traffic that actually converts. There’s no point in increasing the website traffic if the majority of the audience are abandoning your site without buying anything.
Furthermore, if an e-commerce website is only serving the local audience, it does not need to target a global audience as it won’t lead to any conversions.
This is the reason why every e-commerce owner must be extra-cautious while performing keyword research for their online shop.
Here’s an in-depth guide to execute effective keyword research for your e-commerce business and attract traffic which is most likely to convert. Whether you’re an existing business or just starting out with your online shop, the following guide will help you find the most potential keywords for your website.
Importance of SEO Keyword Research for an E-commerce Website
Before starting with the actual SEO keyword research process, let’s quickly understand the significance of performing keyword research for an e-commerce website. Keywords are the phrases which customers use to perform a Google search.
For instance, if a customer is looking to buy “MacBook Charger”, he’s most likely to search for “buy MacBook charger” or “Buy charger for MacBook”. Now, if you sell electronic gadgets, MacBook charger specifically, on your online store, you can optimize your product page for the target keyword.
It means that whenever a customer will type in these two keywords into the search engine, your web page (product page for MacBook charger) will appear at the top positions, the place where you want to be, especially when you’re looking to improve your conversions.
Furthermore, targeting these keywords will also make it easy for the search engine crawler to index your web pages and rank them for most suitable search queries.
What Type of Keywords Do You need to Target?
Keywords are categorized into four different categories.
- Informational Keywords.
- Commercial Keywords.
- Navigational Keywords.
- Transactional Keywords.
Informational Keywords:
These are the keywords which depict that user is only looking to gather information on a certain topic. He’s not looking to buy any service or product. “SEO guidelines for 2019” could be a perfect example of transactional keywords as while searching for this keyword, the customer is most likely to read blog posts about SEO guidelines which will work in 2019.
Commercial Keywords:
Commercial Keywords are mainly used to target audience on a global basis. It means that if you’re selling tour packages to a worldwide audience, you can optimize your pages for commercial keywords. However, commercial keywords can get quite competitive as you’ll be competing with your global competitors. So, if you’re a small business or a startup, targeting commercial keywords may not be the most suitable option for your business.
Navigational Keywords:
These are the keywords which customers use when they already know the brand name and only want to gather more information about it. In such scenarios, the keyword is most likely to contain the company/brand name.
Transactional Keywords:
These are the keywords which customers use when they’re looking to buy a certain product or service. In such scenarios, there’s a huge scope for conversion and that’s why these are the keywords which e-commerce businesses must target.
“Buy Nintendo switch” is an example of a transactional keyword as the customer is most certainly looking to buy a Nintendo switch gaming console.
As an e-commerce website, you would want to target transactional keywords as they will help you achieve higher conversion rates.
It is also worth noting that e-commerce websites should target long-tail keywords as well. These are the extended version of the target keyword and clarifies the user-intent in a much precise manner.
For instance, a person searching for “denim shirts for men” (a long-tail form of “denim shirts”) is at the final stage of buying a shirt. It means that you can target this long-tail keyword to appear in search results for people who are looking to buy denim shirts.
How to Do a Keyword Research for Your E-commerce Website?
Now, that you know the keywords you need to target, it’s time to look at the methods to execute an effective SEO keyword research for your e-commerce website.
Visit Amazon
Amazon is the biggest online store and most probably one of your biggest competitors as well. However, one thing that you might not know about Amazon is that it can be used to perform e-commerce keyword research for your website.
To do so, simply visit Amazon and type in a seed keyword (e.g. denim shirts) into the search bar. This will drop down a list all the text phrases customers are using to find products for this seed keyword.
These are the keywords customers are using to buy denim shirts on Amazon. That’s the reason they’re worth targeting. Another benefit of using Amazon is that it displays a list of all the long-tail keywords for the seed keyword.
So, for instance, if you’re selling denim shirts for men on your online store, it is worth optimizing your product pages for keywords such as “denim shirts for men size 4x” and “denim shirts for boys”.
Furthermore, while visiting Amazon, make sure to visit product pages and read the product descriptions. The product descriptions contain several keywords which are also worth targeting.
Use Google Search
Here’s the thing.
There’s no better place to find keywords than Google. Since customers usually start with a Google search to perform online shopping, it makes complete sense to find keywords at Google itself.
All you have to do is type in the seed keyword into the Google search bar and wait for Google to drop down the list of suggestions related to the keyword.
These are the keywords which are worth targeting as Google itself is suggesting them.
Use a Keyword Research Tool
Both Google and Amazon are great places to find keywords for an e-commerce website, however, they don’t display the keyword metrics (unless you’re using an extension like Keywords Everywhere) like Keyword Difficulty, Search Volume, CPC, etc.
This is why it is always advised to pop in the collected keyword ideas into dedicated keyword research tool to execute e-commerce keyword research and cherry-pick the highly potential keywords.
You can use any of the available keyword research tools as all of them show the same accurate results. Some of our favorite e-commerce keyword research tools include:
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the widely used and most accurate keyword research tools. In fact, we personally use it to manage all of our SEO campaigns. In-depth website analysis is one of the major perks of using Ahrefs.
Furthermore, when it comes to performing keyword research, Ahrefs’ highly accurate keyword explorer tool can be extremely useful. Simply insert the seed keyword into Ahrefs’keyword explorer and navigate through the page to analyze different forms of the seed keyword.
Here’s what Ahrefs’ displayed for “denim shirts”.
The keyword has a keyword difficulty of 1 which means it isn’t highly competitive. Moreover, it has a whooping search volume of 2.1k which make it the perfect option to target.
To find more keyword ideas, simply scroll down to the ‘related keywords’ section. Here you’ll find different versions of the seed keyword which you can also include in your e-commerce keyword research report.
SEMRush
SEMRush is yet another effective e-commerce keyword research tool. Like Ahrefs, it provides you with a deep insight into the search volume and keyword competitiveness. Furthermore, the tool also groups similar keyword ideas so that you can easily find related keywords as well.
Basically, you can use any of these two keyword research tools as both are extremely accurate and can help you execute an effective e-commerce keyword research.
Note: Rather than using the exact match keyword, we recommend using it along with the brand name as this will help you direct more targeted traffic to your website. For instance, if you’re selling Levis denim shirts at your online shop, it is better to target “Levis men denim shirts long sleeve” than simply optimizing for “denim shirts long sleeve”.
Analyze Your Competitors and Steal Their Keywords
The truth is your competitors are most likely to already have performed the entire keyword research for their website. As surprising as it may sound, but this is a goldmine opportunity for you as you can simply analyze your competitors and steal the keywords they’re ranking for.
To do so, type in any of the keywords into Google search bar, and look for websites which are selling the same products as you. However, make sure to avoid big brands like Amazon and eBay.
Now, that you have your competitor’s product page URL, simply put it into Ahrefs’ site explorer tool and click on the organic keywords tab in the middle-left corner.
This will display a list of all the organic keywords your competitor is ranking for. Now, all you have to do is add these keywords to your SEO campaign and optimize your landing pages for them.
How to Do Keyword Research for Your E-commerce Blog?
Every online business needs to publish content on their website. This can help the website to improve domain authority and attain top rankings in the search engine results page (SERP). For an e-commerce website, however, publishing blogs have several additional benefits as well.
Some of these benefits include.
- Better scope for internal linking to the product pages.
- Improved domain authority.
- Publishing blogs on your e-commerce website can help you provide valuable information to the customers, which eventually leads to better customer relations.
Like the product pages, it is imperative to perform keyword research for your blog page as well. However, while finding keyword for an e-commerce blog, it is better to target keywords which are in the question form.
For instance, “how to wear long denim shirts” & “what goes with long denim shirts”. This will help you directly answer customer queries. Moreover, you can easily redirect customers to the product page as well.
You can find such keywords inside Ahrefs’ keyword research tool. To do so, scroll down to the keyword ideas section. Here you can find questions which customers want to find answers to.
These are the keywords which you should be targeting through your e-commerce blog.
Wrapping Things Up: E-commerce Keyword Research
E-commerce keyword research is slightly different from traditional keyword research. In the case of e-commerce, you need to target keywords which have the potential to improve the conversion rate of your website.
The above methodologies will help you find high potential keywords for your e-commerce website. However, if you’re just starting out with your e-commerce website, it is better to hire professional search engine optimization expert from SEO Expert Company India who can help you execute an effective e-commerce keyword research.
