Ecommerce SEO has a lot in common with standard SEO. But it also has some unique characteristics as well. Those characteristics include how keyword research is conducted. Keywords perform the same function in ecommerce, but the way you research them is different.
Keyword research is necessary because keywords are the fuel that drives search engines. Whether you are talking Google, Bing, or even Amazon’s on-site search engine, searches can only be conducted using keywords. SEO providers conduct research in order to figure out which keywords would be most effective for a given scenario.
Product vs. Informational Searches
The starting point for the rest of this discussion is the main difference between product and informational searches. In ecommerce SEO, it is all about product searches. Keyword research for ecommerce must be done with that in mind.
To make this more understandable, think about a non-ecommerce search you might run on Google. You might want to know how to change the oil in your car. To that end you are looking for information on a particular topic. The same goes if you are searching for the capital of Argentina or the amount of time it takes to travel from New York to Los Angeles.
Informational keywords are broader in their application. In an ecommerce setting though, users are looking for specific products. They might be searching for plastic cell phone cases or lithium-ion batteries. According to the ecommerce SEO experts at Webtek Digital Marketing, this dictates that ecommerce research be conducted with the mindset of trying to understand how shoppers search for your products. You want to understand the keywords they are most likely to rely on.
Amazon Offers a Free Tool
The easiest way to conduct ecommerce keyword research, at least if you are a beginner, is to go to the Amazon website. They offer a free tool in Amazon Suggest. What is Amazon Suggest? Start typing terms into their on-site search engine and see what pops up underneath. That is Amazon Suggest.
Amazon bases their suggestions on their own customer data. They know what shoppers are looking for with just a few keywords. Likewise, you can figure out how shoppers would look for your products by typing in keywords until you hit on the right combinations that are most closely associated with what you are selling.
Just understand that what Amazon Suggest comes up with will typically be the most competitive keywords for your products. You can still use those keywords, but you are going to need to find some others as well.
Wikipedia Is a Free Tool, As Well
Believe it or not, you can use Wikipedia for keyword research as well. Remember that Wikipedia articles are compiled by regular people, people who shop online for all sorts of products. It is easy to take advantage of all the free info on Wikipedia.
Navigate to the site and type in a keyword or category pertaining to your products. When Wikipedia brings up an article, scan that article for other words you might be able to utilize. For example, you might find an article on backpacks. The first few paragraphs of that article could be a gold mine of additional keywords including knapsack, rucksack, and hikers.
There are tons of free and paid tools you could use to do keyword research for ecommerce SEO. Here is the number one thing to remember: think like a shopper. When you shop online, what types of keywords do you try? How do you find products on Amazon and other retail sites? If you can plug that thinking into your keyword research, you will be researching like a champ.