If you are running an ecommerce store then basically your main goal is to generate more sales. In order to achieve this, you need traffic from targeted audiences so that they can be converted into your customers.
Keywords are the foundation of a SEO strategy. It is essential to reach the potential customers who are looking for your products. This can be only done with the help of right keywords.
Why is Keyword research important?
First of all, you must be aware about the term “Keyword”. Keywords are defined as the words or phrases that users use to find something on the search engine. It is also known as “Search Queries”.
Everytime when someone does a search, then the search engine decides which results to show to its users. We all know that the topmost priority of a search engine is to display the best results to its users.
To do that, the search engines update its algorithms from time to time so that it can determine the relevant results for every search query. That is why, it is vital to choose the keywords wisely.


When a user triggers a query then the search engine finds the best result from its database by matching the user searched keyword with the web pages that include the keyword and display it to its user.
It is essential to use the right keywords on the webpages of your website so that you can rank at the top position of SERP for the relevant search terms. By ranking at the top position on SERP, you can see a big difference in your traffic.
Before starting to do keyword research, you must be aware of some essential terms like search volume, long tail keyword, and competition.
Long Tail Keywords:They are simply keywords that include three or more than three words. It is a good practice to use long tail keywords because they have the intent to convert better as compared to short keywords.
These keywords have the better conversion rate because they help you to find people who are specifically looking for those products/services that you are offering. Through these keywords, you can basically reach your targeted audience.
Search Volume: It is also known as avg. monthly search volume because it is usually measured on the monthly basis. It is defined as the total number of searches for each keyword per month. Ideally, you should look for the keywords that have high search volume.
If a keyword has a high search volume then it means that it will be searched by the larger number of people. By targeting such keywords, you will get more potential traffic and conversion to your store.
Competition: While finding the best keywords, it is vital to consider the competition of the keywords. It is equally important like search volume. It defines the level of difficulty that a keyword has for ranking on the search engine. Ideally, you should choose those keywords that have high search volume & low competition.
You can use various tools like ahrefs.com, Google Keyword Planner, Keywords everywhere, SEMrush, ubersuggest for doing effective keyword research.
Essential Steps For Ecommerce SEO Keyword Research
1. Understand your target audience i.e, check what they are searching.
2. Use keyword research tools to find out the best & relevant keywords.
3. Choose those keywords that will convert the audience to permanent users.
4. Choose 3 to 4 keywords for each category that you have.
5. Try to choose the keywords that have low competition and high search volume.
6. Understand your business and then choose the keywords accordingly.
Different ways of finding relevant keywords for ecommerce product & category pages:
(A) Via Amazon
We all know that Amazon is a giant ecommerce website. It is one of the most popular ecommerce websites and studies have shown that most of the people visit Amazon in order to buy any product.
Let’s see how this works?
When you go on Amazon and type the keyword that describes the product you want to buy. Amazon will immediately show you the searches that people are using to find the similar product.
For example, you are looking for a “Women’s bag”. When you will type this search query on Amazon then it will show you more search terms related to your query. From here, you can choose those keywords that will be helpful for you. Choose those keywords and add to your list of keywords.


Also, if you are selling different categories of women’s bags like tote bags, shoulder bags, etc then you can choose the category in Amazon and find out the category related keywords easily.
This process will help you to find out the keywords for the category pages. But how will you use Amazon for finding keywords for the product pages?
To do that, you have to visit the bestseller amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/bestsellers
When you visit this page, you can navigate to the appropriate pages and find out the keywords & add it to the list.
(B) Via Google Search
After taking the idea of keywords from Amazon, it’s the time to start your research on Google by visiting www.google.com
Google has a great feature known as “Google Suggest” that will help you in finding the most relevant keywords. Lets see how this works?
Suppose you are searching a keyword “women’s bag” on Google. Once you will write your search query, Google will show you some of the keywords that people are using to search. Have a look at the below-attached screenshot. This feature is known as Google suggests.


You will also get the idea of more relevant keywords at the bottom of the SERP.


Check the monthly search volume and competition of the keywords and add them on the sheet.
(C) Via Keyword Research Tools
After following the above two steps, now you have enough keywords data. You can use that data while finding keywords by using tools.
As there are numerous tools available for doing keyword research, it is important to choose an ideal one. An ideal keyword research tool is one that will give you the better insights about the search terms, monthly search volume, and the competition. You can also use more than one tool to find out the best & relevant keywords.
Pro Tip: Include more long tail keywords (that includes 4 to 5 words) in your list as such keywords are easier to rank.
(D) Spy on your Competitors Keywords
This is the easiest way to find the keywords that will work really well for your niche. Now, let’s understand how you can do this.
Step1: Go to Google and search your target keywords.
Step2: You can see a number of websites on SERP. Now, you have to filter the websites that are selling the similar products.
Step3: Go to SEMrush or ahrefs, enter the competitor’s website URL and check the list of keywords for which they are ranking.


Click on the “Organic Keywords Details” and export the keywords data.


Wrapping up:
For building an ecommerce SEO strategy, keyword research is one of the initial & important steps. Use two different approaches to find the keyword: first approach is to start from nothing to collect a list of keywords data & then move on to the next approach i.e., to spy on the competitors keywords.