SEO is vital to every online business, but finding the right eCommerce keywords to focus on can to be difficult to say the least. With limited insight into Google’s ranking algorithm, and keyword tools that are either expensive or difficult to use, most marketers rely on a combination of guesswork and luck when identifying relevant search conditions they to want rank no. When you optimize a large e-commerce website For SEOrevealing “low hanging fruit» SEO can help you simplify this process, higher rank, and drive more traffic to your website. In this blockiswe‘I will outline the factors to consider when building your SEO keyword: strategy, discovery keyword opportunities that your competitors may be missing.
How to start your keyword strategy. go wide
Before diving into keyword research, it’s important to understand your business’s unique selling points and the real-world questions your customers might be searching for. A good idea is to start very broad. think about general product categories, brands, and key use cases. For example, if you sell auto parts for a specific make and model, broad searches that might lead buyers to your site might be “Ford F-150 auto parts” or “Subaru Outback tires.” An even more general search might just be “auto parts”.
This will be a relevant and accurate search term for this business that many buyers are looking for, with just one problem. all of these terms are so broad and so well searched that every major auto brand and parts supplier probably already spends. considerable resources to classify them. As an independent marketer, you may not have the bandwidth to compete against the marketing departments of megabrands. So we need to consider some additional factors to help us narrow down the search terms and find high value, low competition keywords.
Where can I find more detailed information about keywords?
Popular SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMRush, and Moz can help you start the keyword identification process and see all the criteria mentioned in this blog. Each of these services offers some free features to get started with keyword research, with premium plans for more sophisticated data.
What is the purpose of keyword research?
The purpose of the search describes the overall reason why? a person is searching, and understanding this is important when developing an SEO strategy. There are four types of search goals:
- informational
- navigational
- transactional
- commercial
For e-commerce sites, the last two are especially important. Customers with transactional intent are ready to buy, while those with commercial intent believe they compare products before making a purchase. Informational intent can indicate a user who wants to define terminology, get instructions, or discover the latest news on a topic. These intentions can also lead to e-commerce purchases. If you know the purpose of the search, you can start to separate people who are looking at general information and those who are more likely to make a purchase. If you had to choose between these two goals, which would be more valuable to your business?
Most popular keyword research tools identify the intent associated with a given keyword search, usually identified as the first capital letter of each intent. Look for the symbol (I) for information, (C) for commercial, etc. Knowing the search traffic goal for any given keyword can help you prioritize or remove that keyword in your overall keyword strategy.
Understanding keyword volume and difficulty
Keyword volume refers to the number of searches a keyword received during a given period. This is usually noted at 30 day intervals. A keyword volume of 500 would indicate that there are an average of 500 searches per month for that keyword. Very popular search terms can have tens of thousands of search volumes, but more specialized keywords tend to have much lower volumes, from 20 searches to a few hundred per month.
What is the optimal search volume? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer – obviously a better search term is desirable, so we want the highest search volume possible. However, as we’ll see, higher search volumes also make keywords more competitive for rankings. Balancing keyword search volume with their “difficulty” can help you identify keywords that are well-traveled but still rankable.
Keyword difficulty estimates how difficult it will be to rank for a keyword. This is expressed as a numerical value from 1 to 100, with 100 being the most difficult. Under 30 is generally considered easy to sort, 30 to 70 is difficult to sort, and over 70 is very difficult. In general, the greater the search volume, the greater the difficulty of ranking, as businesses tend to compete for the largest search traffic possible. However, this does not mean that all high volume keywords are also high difficulty. Sometimes search terms with good volume are still too specialized to be widely desirable for many businesses and have a low difficulty rating. These types of keywords are generally excellent for targeting because they are high value but low competition. A search term that isn’t valuable to another business may be valuable to you
We would call these “low hanging fruit keywords”. These can become quick SEO wins and are a great way to rank pages from your site.
Related keywords:
If your first keyword ideas are too competitive, “related keywords” can reveal options that are similar but less common. All SEO research tools offer lists of relevant keywords for any given search term. Related words can use different spellings, add more descriptive terms, or present the search as a question. For example, a general group of people looking for auto parts may also frequently search for auto repair shops, and related keywords will reflect that.
Look for related keywords that complement your main keywords, add much more specific details that directly relate to your product or business, and that sound like common sense searches that a customer interested in your main keyword might perform. Google’s “People Also Ask” and “Related Searches” features can also help you find good ideas for related keywords. Then check the volume and difficulty of related keywords to assess how competitive and valuable they are to your business.
Keyword ranking comparison against competitors
The next factor to consider is how your direct competitors are ranking for a given keyword. If you are in a crowded field, you may find that the most popular keywords are already dominated by your competitors with very high rankings. These words may not be worth your attention, especially if the difficulty is high. Keyword Gap describes the relative difference in keyword ranking between your site and any other site.
Look for specific keywords that competitors don’t rank highly for. You can often find good ideas by getting more specific and adding additional adjectives or question words to a popular keyword. To continue our previous example, if the keyword “auto parts” is extremely competitive (currently rated at 300,000 monthly searches, with a difficulty of 100), you may find that a more specific phrase is more accessible. “Dodge Challenger auto parts” only gets 20 searches per month, but it has zero difficulty. With such low volume, your competitors are likely not spending a lot of resources to rank for such a search, and it may be worth targeting those 20 searches to capture business.
Looking at the top SERPs
Analyzing the top search engine results pages (SERPs) for your main keywords can also provide valuable insights and ideas for good eCommerce keywords. You can quickly check this quite easily by simply searching for the term you want on google and seeing which pages appear first in the results (to see the organic ranking, scroll down past the first sponsored results).
Look at the content and structure of the ranking pages. What related keywords are they using? How do they organize their content? This can help you understand what Google considers relevant for these keywords and how you can better optimize your content to attract similar audiences. Some SEO tools allow you to find out exactly which search terms any web page is ranking for. Looking at these lists can give you insights into which keywords are most important to your web traffic.
Finding the right eCommerce keywords doesn’t have to rely on luck
Keyword research can be difficult to navigate, but by understanding these competitive factors, you can sift through the options to discover the most promising keywords for your business. Finding that “low-hanging fruit” of great ecommerce keywords that your competitors are missing requires understanding your business, search intent, and the dynamics of keyword volume and difficulty. In most cases, you need to find a balance between search terms that are common enough to generate searches, but not so broad or well-searched that the competition is too difficult. Finding the right balance and then taking advantage of the opportunities you find is the art of great SEO.
In Part II of this blog, we’ll talk about how to use your chosen keywords in ranked content.
About the writer
Kathy Elquist
Cathy Elquist, Digital Marketing Strategist at Miva, is an accomplished writer, marketer and social media analyst who has created complex content campaigns for a wide range of professional clients. He brings to Miva a sophisticated understanding of e-commerce trends and techniques based on extensive digital agency experience and a primary role as the direct liaison to Miva’s top accounts. Katie is a regular contributor to the Miva blog, covering key e-commerce topics such as design and development strategy, website optimization, and omnichannel sales, with the goal of growing the existing knowledge base of the entire Miva community.