As we approach the year 2021, Ecommerce has seen a huge boom in growth in part as a result of the pandemic.
This means that eCommerce keyword research best practices will change and evolve over time to keep up with this growth.
Ecommerce stores have to work harder than brick-and-mortar store-owners because their competition is always online.
That said, eCommerce keyword research best practices are essential for E-commerce who want to stay competitive in the marketplace.
If you’re not utilizing eCommerce keyword research best practices, then your competition is getting ahead of you and will be stealing all of your customers!
This blog post discusses 5 Ecommerce Keyword Research Best Practices that can be used in 2021 to help stay ahead of the game.
What is Keyword Research & Why is Keyword Research Important for an online Shop?
Keyword research is the process of finding keywords and phrases that your potential customers use when looking for products to buy online.
It will help you better understand what people in your niche are typing into search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo! It can also tell you how much competition there may be on a certain phrase – this way you’re able to see if it’s worth going after that keyword or not.
For example, let’s pretend we own an eCommerce store selling dog leashes & collars:
If we did some eCommerce Keyword Research, we would find out stuff such as: How many average monthly searches each month someone types “dog leash” into google (on average) What percentage of those searchers click on the first result that pops up (this is called the “click-through rate”) How much money people are spending when they click on a search ad related to dog leashes.
Now, if we look at what our competition looks like – which would be any other eCommerce store selling dog leashes online or offline – then we can find out how many employees each of these stores have.
If there are several hundred competing eCommerce businesses all vying for this one keyword phrase, it means you’ll have stiff competition and will need to either join them in their fight for traffic OR come up with another less competitive but still high converting keyword.
This might not seem important to do right now, but by 2022 having an understanding of eCommerce Keyword Research Best Practices will be a necessity for any online business.
What are the Different Types of Keyword Research?
Broad Match: This is when you do not put a ” + ” symbol in front of your keyword phrase and instead just type in what you’re looking for.
For example, if I typed into Google [best dog leash], it would give me results back based on that exact search term – this is called Broad Match or Exact Match.
If I did [the best dog leashes] then all sorts of different variations might show up such as “good quality dog leashes” or even things like “[what’s going to happen today?]”.
That means there’s probably no direct competition out at the moment because everyone else is competing for the exact keywords that you are.
Long Tail Keywords: These are “longer” keyword phrases, usually with three or more words in them.
Long-tail keywords tend to turn up fewer results when looking at Google Adword’s Search Term Report because there aren’t as many people typing these kinds of phrases into search engines on a daily basis compared to shorter two-word key phrases.
That said, long-tail keywords work well because they’re much easier to rank for and convert better than broad match terms over time (at least according to Moz).
Depending on your niche & how competitive it is – this might be something worth exploring further!
Google Trends: This is a great way to see what’s popular now and using this data you can go back in time as well!
For example, let’s pretend I wanted to start selling “doggie clothes” – if we check out Google Trends for the search term [dog clothing] which was first recorded in September of 2015 we’ll see that it has been steadily rising since then.
If we look at results from February 2011, however, we’ll notice that there were hardly any searches compared to where they are today (which is why doing keyword research years before 2021 will be beneficial!)
5 Best practices for eCommerce Keyword Research
Examine the Search Intent for your Keywords:
Just because someone types a word or phrase into Google doesn’t mean they will be looking for the same thing as you.
For example, if we searched [dog leash] it means we want to buy one and need some help finding the best option out there.
If however, I typed in [where can I get a dog leash?] then that’s probably an intent of “researching” – which is why using different tools such as Answer The Public (which shows searches related to what people are thinking about at any given moment) would be beneficial here!
There isn’t just one tool out there capable of giving us all our keyword research needs so make sure to use multiple sources when doing your research. For example, Answer The Public is great for finding out what people are thinking about but it doesn’t show search volume – which means we’ll need to use Google Keyword Planner (or another tool like SEMRush) if we want more details.
Include Long-tail Keywords:
Not all of your keywords should be one word!
Include some long-tail phrases as well like: “[best dog leash]” and “[dog collar reviews]”.
These will help you rank for more specific terms which means higher conversion rates.
Long-tail keywords are less competitive, cheaper to bid on, and easier to rank.
A lot of people tend to overlook the less popular keywords when they are trying to find something on Google search, but these little-known searches often lead them right over what they’re looking for.
For example, if you’re wondering where can I buy shoes in my size (or any other specific measurements) then try searching with “size 7 red women’s running”.
You might be surprised at all sorts of results that show up!
You can find great lists of long-tail keyword phrases to target in Google’s Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, and other tools.
Adding these terms into your Shopify product pages is helpful as well because this helps with SEO ranking for both products and blog posts so it may have two benefits!
Choose the appropriate keyword and avoid keyword stuffing:
You don’t want to create a page that is filled with keywords because this isn’t natural.
People like reading articles and blog posts which means they’ll be turned off if the content seems spammy or doesn’t make sense (because it’s too keyword heavy).
Instead, aim for writing naturally by using fewer phrases while still getting your point across!
A keyword stuffing example is a website that aims to rank for the term “best laptop bag” and includes the following text:
“Look no farther for the best laptop bag on the market. Our brand provides the best laptop bag available for business or pleasure. This is the best laptop bag for travelling or school, with padding in our compartments and a special pocket for your charger.”
Find Semantically Related Keywords to use in your content:
Using keywords in your content is one thing but having words and phrases that are related to what you’re trying to rank for will help with the click-through rate (CTR) even more.
For example, if I was writing a blog post about “keyword research” then it would be helpful to include terms like search volume, how many searches people do every month, SEO ranking, directories such as Google or Bing.
These phrases can also appear on their own which means they’ll get picked up by Google’s algorithms faster!
Semantically related keywords (or LSI keywords) are a great way to make your content more relevant and interesting for search engines.
Semantic relate means that the words have similar meanings or connotations, which makes them easier as well as quicker on Google’s part when they come up with results from their searches.
The use of these will also help you rank higher in local listings than those without any added enhancement – so if there is one thing we’ve learned about SEO over this last decade at least it would seem like implementing some good old fashioned synonyms into our writing helps us achieve just what we’re aiming for!
Advanced keyword research tips
- Find seed keywords:
You can start by brainstorming a list of relevant seed keywords related to your niche before you even begin.
This is really helpful because it helps with the process and makes sure that we’re not missing anything along the way!
It also gives us an idea about what other words or phrases people are searching for which might help out as well since those long-tail searches tend to be popular.
There are several free tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest (which I mentioned earlier), Thesaurus, and others that allow users to find these kinds of suggestions right away without having to do much legwork at all.
- Keep checking for trending keywords:
Remember that this isn’t just about finding the words and phrases you think people are searching for – it’s also important to keep an eye on them over time!
If a word or phrase is trending upwards then it means there is more search volume happening which can help your rankings even further.
A great example of one such tool would be Google Trends (which I mentioned earlier) where we can see what sorts of searches happen at any given time by region, keyword type, etc.
This information will provide us with some insight into whether or not our SEO efforts are successful because if they aren’t working well then perhaps another strategy should be implemented instead.
- Gauge the “business potential”:
The ‘value’ of keywords is determined by mapping them to the buyer’s journey, according to many content marketers and SEOs. That’s how consumers progress through in order to make a purchase. The conventional notion is that people who enter their search later are more likely to buy.
How is this done? The most popular technique to do so is to divide keyword ideas into three categories: TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU.
Here are some examples of TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU keywords for Ahrefs:
- Top of the Funnel (TOFU): Camera Gears, How to become a photographer, Wedding Photography.
- Middle of the Funnel (MOFU): Best mirrorless cameras, How to take low light photos, What is lighting gears.
- Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU): Sony zv1 review, canon eos 80d vs Nikon d7500, Which camera is the best for street photography.
In general, TOFU keywords have the most traffic potential, but they aren’t yet looking to purchase anything.
Although MOFU and BOFU keywords will deliver you less traffic, they are more likely to become your consumers.
Wrapping Up
That’s it! We hope you enjoyed this article and that all of the best practices are helpful in your next eCommerce keyword research.
Did we miss anything? What do you think about these best practices?
Is there something else that should be added to our list, or a better way to implement them into an SEO strategy for eCommerce brands?
Please let us know in the comments below so we can keep improving this post over time.
Thank you again for reading, have a great day!