The Lazy Way to Find SEO Keywords for Your E-commerce Website
E-commerce website SEO can be challenging. You may think of it as a long, winding road with no end whatsoever. But SEO strategy for e-commerce websites is more of a maze, with a definite point for an exit. Entrance? The keywords for your e-commerce website.
You must choose the right keywords for your e-commerce website to bring sales. When the research is done right, your target customers can find your online store.
In this article, you'll get the step-by-step process to get ideal SEO keywords for e-commerce stores. You'll also find SEO tips for e-commerce websites and what mistakes you must avoid.
Let's begin.
Why is e-commerce keyword research necessary?
Search engines decide what to show in the results whenever people search for something. The bots filter and sort the most relevant sites (or pages) according to the search query.
And by performing detailed keyword research, you understand the proper keywords needed for your online store. Search engines can display your website among the most relevant results when you have the desired keywords in your site's content.
But just ranking on relevant keywords won't do the job. It's equally important to rank near the top, on the first page. The closer to the top you are, the more views and sales you'll get. That's why it's important to choose your keywords carefully.
So, in short, keyword research is essential for your customers to find your e-commerce store.
Five steps to get SEO keywords for e-commerce store
Following is the 5-step process to find the ideal SEO keywords for your e-commerce store:
1- Ideate an initial list of keywords
The first step is to take a pen and paper (or a notes app) and brainstorm. You need to create a list of search terms you think are relevant, which you might use to search for your products. And that list would be your initial list of keywords.
List keywords which are of 2-3 words, at least. Also, have a bunch of keywords that are 4-5 words long or even longer.
You can even ask your friends and family members for help. Try to get them to search for your products and list the terms they're searching for. Also, note the links they click. You can study those links later to shortlist more relevant keywords.
While building the list, just focus on keeping your keywords as related to your store or products as possible.
2- Research with Google Keyword Planner
Once you have your basic set of keywords, use Google Keyword Planner to streamline your list. It helps you find monthly search volumes and the competition for the keywords you've picked. With Keyword Planner, you can also find other related search terms.
What you need to do is to sign up for a free Google Ads account and set it up.
Next, log into the account and click Tools & Settings on the top menu. From the list that opens, click on Planning and then select Keyword Planner. And there, you have all the tools to filter and curate your list of SEO keywords.
Other tools to help you with keyword research are Ubersuggest, SEMrush and Ahrefs. Keywordtool.io also comes in handy for keyword research.
3- Emphasise the relevance of keywords
Another thing to keep in mind is to focus on the relevance of the keywords. Keyword Planner and other tools can provide you with thousands of keywords to use. But not all those keywords are valuable for e-commerce purposes.
The reason? Well, the only goal of an e-commerce store is to make more sales. You want to entertain only those users who are searching for something to buy.
And for that, you need to look for commercial intent keywords. Just glance over the keywords' CPC (cost per click) metric in your keyword research tool. The keywords with a higher CPC indicate higher buying intent. Long-tail keywords might also have a commercial intent.
Amazon can also help you with keyword research. When you search for a product similar to yours, Amazon lists search terms that (in many cases) represent high buying intent.
4- Narrow down with competitive research
Now, you need to narrow down the list by researching your competitors. You've to outrank your competitors in the search results to grow your sales.
It helps you understand what you need to do to come out on top. Most importantly, it enables you to mine the specific keywords used by your competitors.
By spying on them, you can also get ideas to decide about your own keyword research.
With competitor research, you can find their page authority (PA) and domain authority (DA), along with their website backlinks. And once you have the information, you too can approach those sources and get high-authority, niche backlinks for your website.
5- Refine and finalise keywords list
Now that you have a list of relevant keywords, your hard work is almost complete. You just have to double-check and refine your keywords list.
Sometimes, you pick keywords that aren't accurately related to your store or products. So, it's best to test all those keywords. Notice if you're getting the results you desired.
If a keyword doesn't bring relevant results, drop it off your list.
Ideally, you need only a handful of keywords (say, 5-7) to optimise your e-commerce store. But it's also good to have a few more (around 15-20) to use as you grow.
Common e-commerce keyword research mistakes
And while you're at optimising your e-commerce store's SEO, here are a few things to stay away from:
1- Ignoring audience intent
Ignoring your audience is a costly mistake in e-commerce SEO. You can't just set the store the way you want. You need to understand the psychology of your target audience to optimise the store in the best way possible. And when you understand users' intent, you can pick the right keywords easily.
2- Overstuffing website content
Keyword stuffing, as it is called, is another mistake you need to avoid. It happens when you fill your website with too many keywords in the hope of ranking higher. But overstuffing website content with keywords harms the search engine rankings. It affects the user experience of website visitors, which in turn affects your sales.
3- Skipping keywords in URLs
Missing keywords in URLs is also a common mistake to take care of. Why? Actually, for search engines, URLs help them understand what a website is about. Users also try to gauge the content of a website from URLs itself. And random URLs might reduce the trustworthiness of your store.
4- Not using image Alt-text
Missing Alt-text in images might also cost you a few ranking points. Alt-text is the only way for search engines to understand the context of the photos and other multimedia content. And if search engine bots don't understand the context of the content, your search engine rankings might be affected.
Wrapping it up
SEO strategy for e-commerce websites starts with finding the right keywords. You need to research and refine keywords based on their relevance to the audience. And now that you know how to do it, hoping it's easy for you to find the right SEO keywords for your e-commerce website.
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