Ecommerce keyword research follows much of the same processes as regular keyword research. But there are a few key differences.
Differences that can make or break your overall SEO strategy.
Our free ecommerce keyword research tool is built with these nuances in mind. This ensures you can find relevant keywords for your ecommerce store that are actually likely to drive results for your business.
To use the tool, just enter a broad keyword related to what you sell and click “Find Keywords.”
You’ll then get a list of keyword ideas related to your seed term.
All of these could be relevant keywords to target, but to understand which ones are best for your business specifically, pay attention to the metrics they provide:
Volume: This tells you how many people search for that keyword each month
KD %: This is the keyword difficulty, a measure of how tough it would be to rank in the top 10 for that keyword
CPC: This is the cost per click that advertisers pay for this keyword
# of results: This tells you how many organic (unpaid) search results appear for this keyword
Search trend: This indicates the popularity of each search term over time
What should you look for?
Search Volume
First, you want to see some sort of search volume. If nobody is searching for your target keyword, it won’t drive any traffic (or sales).
What a “good” search volume is will depend on your business and industry.
If 10K people search for “organic coffee grounds” per month, that might be a great keyword to target. You’re likely offering a somewhat low-priced product that lots of people are interested in.
But if only 500 people search for “professional coffee machine” that could still be a viable keyword to target.
Even though a much smaller number of people search for it, your product is likely valuable enough that a smaller total number of conversions can still make the keyword worth it.
Keyword Difficulty
You need to balance search volume with the other metrics our tool shows you. For example, high-volume keywords typically also have a high keyword difficulty.
So, 50K people might search for the keyword every month, but that won’t matter if it’s too hard for your site to rank and get any of that traffic.
Cost per Click (CPC)
If you’re running ads for these keywords, you’ll want to pay attention to the CPC. This tells you roughly how much each click will cost if you rank for that keyword with a PPC ad in search results.
This is valuable data for forming ad campaigns. But it can also be useful for organic keyword research, as a high cost per click could indicate the keyword is super valuable (but also likely competitive).
So while it’s not always the most useful metric on its own, it can be helpful when you take it into account alongside other metrics.
Search Trend
The search trend can indicate whether the keyword is seasonal, or if it’s rising in popularity. This can be super important for seasonal ecommerce stores in particular.
Search Intent
Another metric you’ll want to consider is the search intent. I’ll talk a bit more about this in the next section, but you should know that our ecommerce keyword tool automatically filters for commercial and transactional keywords.
What does this mean?
You’ll only see keywords that people are searching for when they’re ready or close to making a purchase. This ensures you focus on keywords that are more likely to lead to a conversion.
With that in mind, it’s worth discussing the most important differences between ecommerce keyword research and “traditional” keyword research.
What Makes Ecommerce Keyword Research Different?
Unique Commercial Intent
Search intent is essentially the reason behind a given search. There are four main types:
Informational: The searcher is looking to learn more about something
Navigational: The searcher is looking for a specific page or website
Commercial: The searcher is looking for more information about a product (or products)
Transactional: The searcher is looking to make a purchase
As I mentioned above, you want to focus on commercial and transactional intent for ecommerce keyword research.
That’s because you’re trying to sell products to your audience. Focusing on terms people search for when they’re closer to making a purchase can help you get your products in front of users who are more likely to convert into customers.
That’s not to say you should never worry about informational or navigational terms.
Informational keywords can help your potential customers learn more about your business and what you offer, and they’re useful for blog posts too.
And navigational keywords can take users to specific areas of your site (like login or policy pages).
But for the most part, you’ll want to focus on commercial and transactional intent when it comes to finding ecommerce keywords.
Product-Specific Considerations
Another aspect of ecommerce keyword research that many other website owners don’t have to worry about is the large-scale nature of many stores’ product catalogs.
Dealing with countless product variations, models, and specifications can make it tough to keep track of your keyword research efforts. And it can be a challenge to prioritize your keywords as well.
Your ecommerce store might have different:
Categories (like men and women’s shoes)
Styles
Sizes
Colors
Use cases
And more.
This can lead to millions of potential keyword iterations, making prioritizing and filtering essential to managing your efforts and resources.
Seasonal and Trend Factors
You don’t need to operate a Christmas shop to feel the impact of seasonality. Pretty much every ecommerce store will feel it at some point.
Whether it’s a rush of sales around Black Friday or a drought after Christmas, there are peaks and valleys in every industry.
This is, of course, an issue with non-ecommerce keyword research too. But with sales on the line, its impact is often stronger in the ecom world.
Focusing on the right keywords at the right times therefore, becomes a priority. This could mean pushing your seasonal items in the lead up to the holiday season, or capitalizing on the Cyber Monday buzz by focusing on keywords containing “discount,” “sale,” or “special offer.”
(This is why our ecommerce keyword tool shows you each keyword’s search trend over the past 12 months.)
Product Pages vs. Blog Pages
I’ve already explained why search intent is so important for ecommerce stores. But this also comes into play when you’re choosing what kind of content to create for your target keywords.
For example, you might want to create a blog post all about organic coffee to tell people about your products.
But when you type “organic coffee” into Google, you see this kind of search result:
It’s a special type of search result focused on products, with lots of ads at the top and rows of popular products below them.
Not a blog post in sight.
For this specific keyword, it’s probably best to optimize your product or category pages instead, rather than putting a lot of time and effort into a blog post that might never rank.
How to Do Keyword Research for an Ecommerce Store
Method 1: Mine Amazon’s Autocomplete
Unlike Google’s suggestions, Amazon’s autocomplete is based on what people actually buy. So it can provide you with lots of ideas and keyword variations for your product pages (and comparison blog posts).
To use this technique, just type your main product keyword into Amazon’s search bar. Add modifiers like “with,” “for,” and each letter of the alphabet to uncover buyer-focused keywords.
Pro tip: Pay special attention to specific feature requests (like “bluetooth headphones with noise cancelling”). Or specific use cases (like “ground coffee for moka pot).
These often convert well, as the searcher is looking for a solution to a very specific problem.
Method 2: Use the “Completed Items” Hack
eBay’s completed listings are a goldmine for converting keywords.
Why?
They show you exactly what search terms led to actual sales.
Just go to eBay’s advanced search (next to the search button at the top right). Then check the “Completed items” and “Sold items” boxes.
When you hit “Search” at the bottom, you’ll be taken to search results showing items related to your target keyword that were previously sold on the platform.
Look at the terms used in the titles to understand what users on the platform might be specifically searching for when looking for these products.
Use these variations in your own product page titles, content, and elsewhere.
Method 3: Use a Dedicated Ecommerce Keyword Research App
Using a dedicated ecommerce keyword research tool or app is an efficient way to find the search terms your potential customers are using. And it can provide you with lots of useful competitor data too.
One example is Semrush’s Ecommerce Keyword Analytics app. It lets you compare the metrics for different keywords, including:
Number of clicks
Number of search requests
How many people add those products to their baskets
Orders placed for each product
You can also compare the top domains for different keywords:
And you can see detailed metrics for individual ecommerce keywords:
