5 Step eCommerce Keyword Research Strategy (Advanced Guide)

Editor’s note: This nonfiction was primitively published successful 2020. It has been updated for accuracy and to bespeak modern practices.

If you privation your eCommerce concern to bushed your competitors successful the hunt motor results, you person to commencement with the close keyword probe strategy.

Getting customers to your tract is astir much than conscionable targeting your apical merchandise names. Your eCommerce keyword probe needs to see low-volume, long-tail, and different keywords to truly thrust postulation and sales.

This broad usher volition amusement you how.

Today, we’re sharing our go-to eCommerce keyword probe strategy, designed and optimized from years of helping online businesses conscionable similar yours execute SEO success. 

Using hunt intent marketing, this process volition amusement you however to find the close keywords to adhd to your website’s:

And, erstwhile you bash it right, your keyword targeting volition pb to higher hunt motor rankings and much hunt postulation for your eCommerce site. 

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• The Secret to Successful eCommerce Keyword Research
• eCommerce Keyword Strategy: Past vs. Present
• Inflow’s 5-Step eCommerce Research Strategy
  • Assign Search Intent to Page Types
  • Brainstorm Keyword Opportunities
  • Start Your Keyword Research
  • Prioritize Your Keyword Targets
  • Confirm Search Intent & Start Optimizing
• Try Out Our Keyword Research Strategy Now

The Secret to Successful eCommerce Keyword Research

Most of the guides astir doing keyword probe for eCommerce screen the aforesaid ground. But hunt motor optimization (SEO) strategies are ever changing — and what works contiguous whitethorn not ever enactment tomorrow.

Rather than simply explaining however to bash keyword probe utilizing tools similar Google’s Keyword Planner (which, by the way, is much effectual for PPC than SEO keywords) oregon recommending you spell aft the highest hunt measurement and CPC presumption (Don’t you deliberation everyone is doing the same?), we’ll instrumentality a antithetic approach.

Instead, we’ll absorption connected the underlying rule of modern keyword research:

User hunt intent.

By identifying and gathering your searcher’s intent for a fixed keyword, your contented is much apt to fertile higher successful the hunt motor results pages (SERPs) and beryllium engaged with by imaginable customers.

With our four-step process, we’ll amusement you however to marque it happen, by helping you:

• Avoid communal keyword probe mistakes rooted successful past techniques that nary longer work.
• Use intent selling to thrust amended rankings and traffic.
• Choose the champion keywords for your eCommerce website content.

eCommerce Keyword Strategy: Past vs. Present

Before we get into the modern mode of doing keyword research, you request to recognize however Google’s algorithm has changed implicit the past fewer years — and wherefore definite misguided tactics proceed to prevail among SEO experts.

Don’t privation the past lesson? Skip to our four-step keyword probe strategy now.

What works for keyword probe contiguous is precise antithetic from what utilized to work.

In the past, it was communal for integer marketers to absorption connected optimizing circumstantial contented and pages for circumstantial keywords. But the “one keyword, 1 page” overlooks however hunt engines truly work.

Today, Google’s algorithm has evolved from a absorption connected keywords to a absorption connected the semantics of content, hunt intent, and topical relevance. The strategy for doing keyword probe has changed close on with it.

Take this example: The keywords “red rubber boots” and “red rainfall boots” person the aforesaid hunt intent, due to the fact that they are applicable to the aforesaid product.

So, it makes much consciousness to optimize a leafage to fertile for both keywords than to make a abstracted leafage designed to people each abstracted keyword.

Why Did Google’s Algorithm Begin to Prioritize Search Intent?

Keyword placement and links utilized to beryllium the superior absorption of Google’s algorithm (and are inactive important components of SEO).

However, radical began to admit and maltreatment the mode Google’s algorithm worked with spammy practices —  similar keyword-stuffed articles with small existent worth and paying for low-quality backlinks to their websites.

The effect was a prevalence of useless, unhelpful contented and websites of dubious prime successful the SERPs. This was successful nonstop contradiction to Google’s extremity arsenic a hunt engine: to amusement users results that they find utile and relevant.

So, Google released a bid of updates to alteration the rules.

1. Panda Update (2011): To compensate for manipulative SEO practices, Panda was released to commencement favoring unique, high-quality contented implicit the ample magnitude of low-quality, bladed contented being produced by “content farms.”
2. Penguin Update (2012): The Penguin update analyzes website backlink profiles to place whether websites that nexus to yours are authoritative (“good” links) oregon spammy (“bad” links).
3. Hummingbird Update (2013): As portion of Google’s effort to lucifer a user’s hunt query with the answers they are looking for, Hummingbird understands the connections betwixt entities and earthy connection search. Namely, the update specializes successful analyzing and ranking contented successful presumption of topics (including subtopics and synonyms) alternatively of exact-match keywords.

Ultimately, here’s what these updates mean for you:

Instead of trying to optimize for exact-match keywords, you request to screen each contented taxable successful item and successful depth.

And that’s wherefore topical optimization and intent-based selling is the champion keyword strategy for eCommerce today.

Inflow’s 5-Step eCommerce Keyword Research Strategy

If you privation your contented to fertile good successful the SERPs, you request to make high-quality content that uses hunt intent selling and topical optimization. 

Here are our 5 steps to making it happen:

Step 1: Assign Search Intent to Page Types

In bid to implicit effectual keyword probe for your online store, you request to recognize the page(s) you’re researching and the searcher’s intent for each page.

First, inquire yourself: Are you doing keyword probe for an existing leafage oregon a caller page?

Existing Page: Perform Competitor Research

Reworking older contented is often much businesslike than generating caller content. Updating your existing pages volition usually amended page/site prime faster (once capable articles are optimized).

When you are optimizing an existing page, you privation to marque your contented much in-depth than your competitors’ contented — portion including the aforesaid keywords.

Skip up to the Content Gap Analysis beneath to find retired which keywords to target.

New Page: Match Page Type to Keyword Intent 

On the different hand, if you’re creating brand-new contented for your eCommerce website, you’ll request to absorption connected keyword hunt intent.

Different leafage types volition often person antithetic types of keywords and hunt intent associated with them:

• Homepage: Keywords describing what the concern is oregon does (e.g. “Flowers and Flower Delivery”).
• Category pages: Mid-funnel keywords that bespeak a idiosyncratic is buying for a benignant of merchandise (e.g. “fresh chopped angiosperm bouquets”). Brand keywords (e.g. “Used Canon DSLR”) and long-tail, broader merchandise names (e.g. “used Canon Rebel T6”) are besides utile here.
• Product pages: Often, users hunt for product-specific modifiers erstwhile they are adjacent to a buying decision. Modifiers similar color, size, oregon point exemplary conscionable attached to the aforesaid class keywords (e.g. “one twelve reddish roses” oregon “used canon eos rebel t6s”).
• Articles and blog pages: These types of pages often fertile for questions and problems that users are searching to lick (e.g. “How to Make Flowers Last Longer”). Unlike home, product, and class pages, this strategical contented usually won’t subordinate with commercialized intent keywords.

Step 2: Brainstorm Keyword Opportunities

To get archetypal keyword ideas, commencement with what you already cognize astir your eCommerce concern and customers.

Ask yourself the pursuing questions:

• What are radical searching for?
• Who is searching for these terms?
• When are radical searching? (Are determination seasonality trends passim the year?)
• How are radical searching?
  • What words bash they use?
  • What questions bash they ask?
  • Are much searches performed connected mobile devices?
• Why are radical searching?
• Where are imaginable customers located — locally, nationally, oregon internationally?

List the answers successful a spreadsheet to enactment applicable hunt intents and topics for your tract to target. Start associating your existing oregon planned pages with each applicable taxable and intent — and past commencement uncovering the keywords that enactment up with each of your web pages.

Step 3: Start Your Keyword Research

Once you person an thought of which keywords to subordinate with your website content, usage a keyword probe instrumentality to commencement making a list.

We recommend:

• Ahrefs
• Semrush
• Ubersuggest

You tin besides usage Google’s ain hunt barroom to presumption suggested long-tail keywords that radical are using.

You tin brace Google’s keyword suggestions with the Keywords Everywhere browser add-on (paid) oregon the Surfer SEO plugin (free) to spot the information successful the screenshot above, including:

• Estimated monthly volume
• CPC
• Keyword difficulty

Keep way of each this keyword probe wrong your dedicated spreadsheet by assigning groups of keywords to their applicable taxable oregon intent.

For much tips connected choosing keywords for each topic, cheque retired these adjuvant guides:

• How to Do Keyword Research for SEO | Ahrefs
• Keyword Research: The Beginner’s Guide to SEO | Moz

Perform a Content Gap Analysis

If you person existing content, you tin reappraisal which keywords your tract is already ranking for (and which further opportunities are available) with a rival contented spread analysis.

Here’s however to bash it:

1. Log successful to Ahrefs oregon Semrush. (In this case, we’re utilizing Ahrefs.)

2. Add your website’s domain oregon leafage URL and click “organic keywords” astatine the apical oregon connected the near sidebar.

3. Filter by presumption 1–10. Click “export” to propulsion each the keywords that are ranking for the domain oregon URL into your spreadsheet:

4. Navigate to the “content gap” study and participate astatine slightest 3 rival URLs. (Find retired who your online competitors are here.)

5. Identify keywords that competitors fertile for and you don’t. Add these to your spreadsheet.

Google Search Console is besides a bully spot to analyse existing content. We often find phrases that our client’s tract mightiness get a fewer clicks for, adjacent if the leafage doesn’t fertile good for those terms.

You tin usage Keywords Everywhere to spot hunt measurement information successful Google Search Console.

Step 4: Prioritize Your Keyword Targets

Now, you should person a database of main keywords and their related long-tail keywords. If you did rival keyword research, you whitethorn person those rival keywords, too.

But, however bash you signifier this information for your adjacent steps?

If you’re starting from scratch, here’s what we recommend:

• Make a database of what each leafage is about.
• Include each kinds of hunt presumption — from generic to highly circumstantial — and enactment them into due “buckets.”
• Input those hunt presumption into SEO tools to find monthly hunt volume, competition, etc.
  • If you’re uncovering excessively galore related keywords with bully hunt measurement that you cognize won’t thrust conversions, get much specific.
  • If you’re not uncovering immoderate keywords with bully hunt volume, input immoderate of the presumption from your database of keywords into Google and bash a elemental hunt to find related keywords that do thrust hunt traffic. 

Note: Good hunt measurement is relative, and you shouldn’t get hung up connected it.

Here’s an example:

One of our clients successful a small, niche marketplace has precise low-volume keywords (10–30 searches per month). However, due to the fact that of the debased contention for those phrases, our lawsuit ranks for galore of them! 

These low-volume keywords besides person a large conversion rate, due to the fact that the pages ranking for them align with hunt intent.

For this client, it’s amended to optimize for highly applicable phrases that person lone 10 searches per period and conscionable idiosyncratic hunt intent than it is to optimize for irrelevant searches that person 500 searches per month.

Organize Your Spreadsheet

Follow the steps beneath to decorativeness organizing your keyword research:

1. Make definite you person a bully premix of caput presumption and long-tail keywords.
2. Remove duplicates.
3. Remove keywords that you person nary accidental of ranking for (highly competitive).
4. Unless they are for buy-intent/product pages, region keywords that won’t determination the needle (low monthly hunt volume).
5. Organize by monthly hunt measurement (the champion indicator of whether the keyword volition thrust traffic).
6. For each page, prime a keyword that has coagulated hunt volume, that is competitory capable for the website to fertile good for, and that fits the leafage contextually.

Now, you’re acceptable to usage that keyword information to optimize your website content.

Step 5: Confirm Search Intent & Start Optimizing

Every astute eCommerce integer marketer is going done the aforesaid keyword probe process arsenic you. So, however bash you marque definite that your contented stands retired from each the others competing for the aforesaid keywords?

Once again, it’s clip to reappraisal hunt intent.

If you bash a emblematic Google hunt for 1 of your people keywords, you’ll rapidly recognize that the hunt results person a batch successful common:

The large happening astir this? You tin look up the intent of immoderate keyword by typing it into Google and analyzing the archetypal leafage of results. Without fail, the top-ranking results are determination due to the fact that they successfully conscionable the user’s intent.

To marque definite that your contented matches the aforesaid intent, you’ll request to a small much research. We urge Clearscope to get started.

Clearscope is simply a neat SEO instrumentality that analyzes top-ranking hunt results for immoderate fixed keyword. Type successful the query you’re targeting, and Clearscope volition springiness you:

• Common keywords utilized successful the on-page copy
• Common questions addressed successful the on-page copy
• Average connection count
• Average speechmaking level

Clearscope volition adjacent delegate a missive people to your leafage transcript based connected your competitors’ content.

Whether you usage a instrumentality similar Clearscope oregon bash it connected your own, reviewing rival contented is incredibly important. It sets up your keyword strategy and leafage optimization for success. 

Remember, Google is looking for semantic connections. The much your contented reflects existing top-ranking contented (without being a nonstop copy!), the higher your contented volition rank.

In summation to your on-page content, you’ll request to make well-written leafage titles, meta descriptions, and header tags that bespeak your keyword research. 

Read done our resources beneath for much guidance connected creating quality, high-ranking content.

• eCommerce SEO Copywriting Guide
• How to Use Commercial Intent Keywords for Increased eCommerce Sales
• Guide to Content Writing for eCommerce Websites
• Developing the Right Content Strategy for eCommerce Websites

Bonus Strategy: Use Structured Data

Want to further amended your chances of ranking highly successful the SERPs?

Some hunt results show eye-catching featured snippets, specified arsenic a cognition graph box, instant answer, oregon “People Also Ask” dropdown. These features fertile supra integrated hunt results.

To summation the likelihood of winning this existent property for yourself, don’t hide to implicit keyword probe for featured snippets and use structured data connected the leafage for which you’re trying to rank.

Consistently utilizing structured information successful your contented is an SEO champion practice. To bargain the existent featured snippet for immoderate fixed topic, marque your leafage contented akin successful operation and scope (but better!) than the existent ranking content. 

Try Out Our Keyword Research Strategy Now

Search intent selling and topical optimization are eCommerce keyword probe strategies we person seen triumph clip and clip again.

In precocious 2019, we helped a lawsuit find and optimize the underperforming blog articles connected their site. One of these articles had lone 59 integrated sessions full since it was published successful October 2018:

During this article’s champion period successful February, determination were lone 12 integrated visitors from Google (and lone 59 full since October 2018).

We utilized our eCommerce keyword probe process to find missing keywords and edited the nonfiction to see them.

After we implemented our optimizations to the article, it began ranking #1 successful Google for respective of our people keywords. At the aforesaid time, further people keywords moved up successful the hunt motor rankings, too.

As a result, integrated postulation skyrocketed to 2,030 sessions implicit respective days unsocial (Dec. 1–4, 2019) — proving that our strategy does (and continues to) work.

After implementing our keyword research, the article’s postulation accrued dramatically to 2,030 integrated sessions wrong respective days.

eCommerce keyword probe tin beryllium overwhelming astatine first. But, erstwhile you observe the keywords radical are searching for erstwhile they privation what you offer, it becomes a batch much straightforward.

That said, we cognize that galore eCommerce selling teams are excessively overextended to give the clip needed to optimize their website SEO and prosecute successful content marketing. Whether you’re successful that boat, oregon are simply looking for a caller attack to your eCommerce keyword research, Inflow tin help.

Request a escaped proposal from our eCommerce SEO experts anytime. We’ll audit your website, present an actionable strategy designed to thrust gross and growth, and, erstwhile you’re ready, grip each of the enactment for you.

Until then, champion of luck with your caller eCommerce keyword probe strategy!