How To Effectively Perform Keyword Research For eCommerce?

Paul Wynter
July 31, 2020

Keyword research is a fundamental part of every SEO campaign, be it for a blog or for an eCommerce website. It can be considered as the foundational step for every SEO strategy. It provides you an idea of the kind of content your website should be aiming for. But keyword research for a blog differs widely for that of an eCommerce website. eCommerce keyword research provides you information about what things we need to consider while searching for keywords that can be targeted in your product categories or eCommerce blogs.

eCommerce and SEO

The primary objective of running an eCommerce website is to boost sales. This is where the fundamental difference between any other website begins. When others are merely concerned about bringing in more traffic, the eCommerce website has to ensure more sales as well. For doing that, eCommerce sites need targeted traffic and especially the ones that convert. Proper keyword research might be the starting point of the entire SEO campaign, which might result in better conversion rates and improved sales.

Why is keyword research important for eCommerce sites?

eCommerce websites could primarily benefit from learning what their visitors are most interested in. Proper keyword research provides eCommerce website owners both the chance to use the right keyword against the right products and hence help these products rank higher in their searches. Higher rankings equal more traffic, which in turn can increase the conversion rate for your eCommerce website. The time you spend on performing any keyword research for your online business will eventually pay off in the future in the form of enhanced sales.

Keywords that boost eCommerce websites

The critical trick while performing keyword research for your eCommerce website here is to recognize which keywords work for a general-purpose and which ones for commercial intent. General-purpose keywords work well for high traffic but aren't usually associated with a specific objective. For instance, when someone searches your website for "wallets," he or she is probably just beginning the buying cycle. The buyer is just looking for an overview of the website's products and availability.

How do long-tail keywords help?

On the other hand, long-tail keywords provide more precision. The same search, when performed through the phrase "brown wallets for men," gives the impression that the search is more vivid and precise. Hence, while you optimize the product pages, you must consider the user's intent as well. Most people make the mistake of only going for popular search volume keywords. That doesn't always deliver the desired results. The end objective is to increase sales, and that can only be achieved with increased visits from customers who have gone through the initial stages of the buyer's cycle and are ready to proceed further. We should be targeting these specific keywords.

Best tips for useful keyword research
1. Dig through your shopping feeds

The majority of the clients that your eCommerce website will inherit are likely to already have started a shopping campaign elsewhere. Hence, the shopping feeds that manage such campaigns can work as treasure troves of searching the best keywords. The top products in their shopping feeds will then form the list that you need to be concerned about. All you need to do is plug them in AdWords keyword planner, which will provide you a clear picture of the search volumes these items generate. You must make sure to set the geotargeting for each of these searches so that the traffic estimates are accurate.

2. Take help from shopping search query reports

We would always advise you to pay extra heed to the search queries for your shopping campaigns when it comes to keyword research for your eCommerce. We must remember that shopping campaigns operate entirely on the basis of product feed and not on keyword groupings. Yet, Google keeps track of all the queries which triggered these ads through a list. You must perform regular checks of this list and try to identify which of the search queries are performing best. Once that is achieved, plug-in those terms into the Keyword Planner to get confirmation that they are supported by sufficient volumes. Hence you will have an idea if they are eligible for adding to your ad groups.

3. Keep track of your competitors

Healthy spying never hurts anyone. Instead, it benefits eCommerce keyword research extensively. There are some smooth processes through which one can pick out eCommerce terms that their competitors are bidding on. The Keyword planner provides a feature that allows you to enter an URL and get a list of search terms used to get to that site. Getting to know what your competitors are bidding on helps your keyword research immensely.

Conclusion

Keyword research forms an indispensable part of any SEO campaign. But when it comes to the eCommerce website, the research needs to be performed a bit differently. The guidelines provided above might be of use if you are planning to get your eCommerce keyword research sorted.