Whenever a buyer searches for a product online using a relevant phrase, it refers to an eCommerce keyword. If you want to learn how to choose the keywords for an e-commerce brand, you’re in the right place!
In this blog, you’ll learn the crucial steps to conduct e-commerce keyword research.
eCommerce keyword research refers to searching relevant keywords for search engines to optimize your online store. It helps your eCommerce website rank at the top results in Google and other search engines.
Highlights
- eCommerce keyword research helps in SEO, content marketing, and PPC ad campaigns
- Google Autosuggest, competitor analysis, content gap analysis, and focusing on long-tail keywords are a few ways tactics of eCommerce keyword research
- SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, and Google Keyword Planner are a few keyword research tools
- Navigational, Informational, Commercial, and Transactional are the types of e-commerce keyword search intent
Why is Keyword Research Important for E-commerce Brands?
eCommerce keyword research has many benefits. It’s crucial in various digital marketing approaches, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), paid advertising, content marketing, etc.
For SEO, it helps rank your site on top of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Google understands your business niche easily using the keywords you include in the eCommerce site content.
Potential customers can view your product listing in Google if you optimize them properly. You can also target the right audience using location-based keywords in your SEO strategy.
Moreover, content marketing for your eCommerce brand becomes easier with the right set of keywords. Generating high-quality content for the most popular and relevant keywords builds your credibility in the market.
Including keywords in your website’s product categories and sub-categories enhances its user experience. It helps your potential customers easily find what they need.
eCommerce keyword research also helps optimize your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign. Selecting the right keywords will help display your ads to a larger audience base at a low cost.
How to Choose the Right Keywords for an eCommerce Brand?
Picking the best keywords for your online store is crucial. So, here are the eight keyword research tactics for your eCommerce brand:
1. Brainstorm for Potential Keywords
What keywords come to your mind when you think about your business? For instance, if you’re selling bedsheets, mattresses, and pillows, then the potential keywords might be:
- Bed linen price
- Bed sheet design
- 100 Cotton duvet covers
- Soft furnishings
- Mattress topper
- Egyptian cotton bed sheets
- Where to buy linen cushion pillows
Write down the entire list of relevant keywords that come to your mind. Then, use modifiers to expand the list using your product’s characteristics. For instance, for bed linen, you can write similar ideas like:
- Premium bed linens for hotels
- Trendy bed linens for king-size
- Red Christmas bed linens
- Madallion bed linens
2. Google Autosuggest, Related Searches, and People Also Ask For
You can list out even more keyword ideas using various Google features. For instance, Google Autosuggest displays similar phrases to your initial keyword. ‘Related Searches’ and ‘People Also Ask For’ also display relevant key terms.
If these suggestions are relevant to your products, add them to your list. Remember that until now, you only have initial keyword ideas. You need to check them on keyword research tools before finalizing.
3. Use Keyword Research Tools
Various keyword research tools give detailed analysis of your selected keywords. They provide metrics such as search volume, keyword difficulty, search intent, search trend, Cost-Per-Click (CPC), etc.
Filter out the keywords based on these parameters. Then, research for similar keywords within your niche that score better in these metrics.
Here is a list of the best keyword research tools for your eCommerce brand:
A. SEMrush
Professionals from diverse industries use SEMrush to analyze the best keywords for their brands. They have a large database of 26.1 billion keyword ideas. You’ll get suggestions of up to 20 million similar phrases for a single keyword.
SEMrush lets you filter out the best eCommerce keywords using its domain-specific, AI-powered personalized metrics.
B. Ahrefs
Ahrefs helps you generate keyword ideas with its in-depth analysis. They provide ranking difficulty estimation, search volume trends, and other metrics. For instance, you can get the full history of search ads for any particular query.
C. Helium 10
Helium 10 provides a keyword research platform to identify eCommerce keywords. You can select the traffic-driving keywords most relevant to your product listings.
D. Moz
Moz’s Keyword Explorer provides high-opportunity keyword ideas. They have more than 1.25 billion keyword suggestions in their database. You can sort them out based on relevance, monthly volume, organic Click-Through-Rate (CTR), etc.
E. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keywords Planner helps you find relevant keywords for your PPC ad campaigns. You can also upload your pre-selected key terms and they’ll provide conversion, clicks, impressions, and other predictions based on your spending.
Even if you’re not opting for paid advertisements, this tool still helps in finding the most popular keywords for your eCommerce niche.
4. Analyze Competitors’ Strategy
Your competitors might already rank on the top results for popular keywords of your niche. Competitor analysis is a great way to identify their keyword strategy and rankings.
SEMrush, Ahrefs, and other keyword research tools help in this process. They analyze the strategies of various competitors in your niche and give you insight. With this report, you’ll find out the keywords that you need to add to your strategy.
5. Conduct Content Gap Analysis
Content Gap Analysis refers to analyzing your website for missing content. It helps you find out what posts you need to add to your eCommerce site. Using this tactic, you cater to potential customers on their different stages of buyer’s journeys.
You can implement Content Gap Analysis using various SEO tools. They give you keywords and topic ideas that your target audience is searching for. Adding them to your eCommerce site helps attract them to your platform.
If you resolve all the content gaps in your eCommerce site, you can easily guide your website visitor to the product page. Proper use of keywords in product descriptions will help nudge them to purchase.
6. Focus on Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are those containing three or more words. Such keyword types are descriptive and have a clear intention. If you include them in your strategy, it’ll be easy to target the right set of customers for your eCommerce platform.
Generally, long-tail keywords have lesser traffic than compared to short-tail ones. But, it’s easier to convert website visitors to customers by optimizing for longer key phrases.
For instance, “trendy bed linens for king-size” is a long-tail keyword with clear intention. We can assume that the searcher wants to purchase a specific type of bed linen.
On the contrary, a short-tailed keyword such as “bed linens” is broad and doesn’t give much information. We can’t determine the searcher’s aim regarding this keyword and thus it may not result in higher conversion.
7. Pick Conversational Phrases for Voice Search
Your potential customers are searching for their desired products via voice search.
A study reveals that 71% of consumers prefer using voice searches to research product prices online.
Optimizing your eCommerce brand for these searches requires you to include conversational keywords in your website. Pick question-based long-tail phrases that solve potential customers’ queries regarding their desired product.
8. Balance Search Volume and Competition
After picking certain keywords based on their relevance, you must check their search volume and competition. Optimizing your eCommerce site for a more popular keyword might help you improve your online visibility.
However, it’s not easy to target such high-search-volume keywords. Most of them have higher difficulty levels due to stiff competition.
You need to search for the keywords with higher search volume but lower competition. SEMrush, Ahrefs, and other keyword research tools help you analyze the best options based on the difficulty level.
9. Use Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) provides keyword optimization opportunities to rank higher on organic SERPs. It gives detailed insight including the search queries visitors use to land on your eCommerce website.
You can use the search queries to research several seed keywords branching out to related topics. For instance, if your website ranks for “Egyptian cotton bed sheets”, the seed keyword could be “machine washable bed sheets for queen size”.
10. Implement the Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR)
Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR) refers to a formula for calculating the difficulty level of key phrases. It’ll come in handy when you’ve picked keywords with a search volume of less than 250.
To get this ratio, you insert a phrase in Google’s search bar. Then, you observe the number of search results that include this key phrase in its title tag. Now, divide that number by the monthly search volume for that keyword.
If the KGR is less than 0.25, the keyword is easy to optimize and rank within the first 100 Google results. However, the ratio of more than 1 means it’s harder for that keyword to rank higher on SERPs.
What Are Different eCommerce Keyword Search Intent?
Identifying the keyword intent is essential for aligning your content based on the searcher’s desire. It’ll help you map out your selected list of keywords on the respective pages of your eCommerce site.
Here are the top four keyword search intents for your brand:
1. Navigational
Searchers insert this keyword type to visit a specific web page or a website. For instance, if they want to visit an eCommerce site named “Resonance”, the keyword might be:
- Resonance
- Resonance official site
2. Informational
Your target audience uses informational keywords when they want to learn about a certain product, brand, etc. They’ll use words like “what”, “how”, “where”, and “which” to get their desired information.
Examples of informational keywords are:
- Where to buy bed linens?
- Which pillow is good for health?
3. Commercial
Commercial intent refers to the need to purchase an item soon, after doing some research. The user will search for the top products in the niche, or compare one product with another, and so on.
Here are a few commercial keywords example:
- Best bed cover under $300
- Bed sheet vs comforter
4. Transactional
Your potential customers will use transactional keywords to search for their products when they’re ready to buy. They might use the product’s name with the terms “buy”, “sale”, or “purchase”.
Some examples of transactional keywords are:
- Buy hybrid mattress
- Memory foam pillow on sale
Does Seasonality Matter in eCommerce Keyword Research?
Of course! Seasonality determines what eCommerce keywords you need to target at various times of the year. For instance, for a bedding store, your target audience might search for different keywords during summer and winter.
In warmer months, you can create ad campaigns for keywords, like “thin blankets for summer”, “summer bed blankets”, etc. Whereas, during the chilly season, you can target “heavy winter blankets” or other similar key phrases.
Additionally, the demand for your online store products varies during various festivals of the year. Your customers might search for decoration items or gifts in Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc.
Where to Include Keywords in the eCommerce Website?
After you complete the keyword research process, the next crucial step is to incorporate them into your website. The first place to add them is the title tag, meta description, and other elements of the homepage.
Similarly, you must include them in the category and product page as well. Intro text and product description are some crucial elements that you shouldn’t miss adding these phrases.
Other eCommerce site components to add your keywords are your URL structure, navigation menus, footer links, internal links, etc.
If you want to promote your brand through blogging then these keywords will help you create high-in-demand content. You must add them naturally throughout the post and don’t overdo them.
Are Negative Keywords Necessary for an eCommerce Brand?
Negative keywords are essential to avoid wasted ad spending when running a PPC ad campaign for your eCommerce brand. It helps narrow your ad reach to only the most relevant target customers.
For instance, let’s say someone is searching for your products with modifiers like “free”, or “second-hand”. If you only sell first-hand premium items then you don’t want your brand to appear in these searches.
What Mistakes to Avoid During eCommerce Keyword Research?
Here are some of the common mistakes that you need to avoid during eCommerce keyword research:
- Keyword stuffing in product descriptions, blogs, etc.
- Targetting a lot of keywords for a single page
- Not updating keywords for many months
- Not tracking the keyword performance
Conclusion
An important thing to do after keyword research is to update your strategy once every few months. Updating your keyword strategy regularly helps you stay updated with the latest trends and market changes.
After reading the blog till the end, you must be able to gather the right set of keywords for your eCommerce brand. If you follow all of these tactics, you’ll get the best results while promoting your online store.
