Welcome to our blog post on keyword research for ecommerce stores! If you’re an ecommerce business owner, you know that search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for increasing visibility and attracting relevant traffic to your website.
That’s where keyword research comes in. It’s an essential part of any SEO strategy, and it’s all about finding the right words and phrases that your target audience is searching for.
In this blog post, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide on how to do keyword research for your ecommerce store.
PS. We’ll also share some tips and techniques to help you get the most out of your keyword strategy.
So, let’s get started!
The Steps to Keyword Research for Ecommerce Stores
Here you’ll get a quick overview of the different steps to successfully conduct keyword selection for your ecommerce store:
- Your Target Audience
- Conduct Competitor Research
- Analyze Popular Searches Related to Your Niche
- Utilize Online Tools & Resources
- Craft Long Tail Keywords
- Monitor Results with Analytics Tools
- Test & Refine Your Strategy Regularly
Now let’s take a closer look at each step.
Step 1: Identify Your Target Audience
Before you can start doing keyword research, you need to know who you’re targeting. This is where creating a customer avatar is useful.
A customer avatar is a detailed profile of your ideal customer which outlines their age, gender, location, interests, and concerns.
By creating a customer avatar, you’ll have a better understanding of the types of people who are most likely to purchase from your store.
There are several other ways you can identify your target audience as well. You can ask your current customers for feedback to get an idea of who they are and what they need from your store.
You can also monitor your competition and study their audience to see what marketing strategies they’re using to engage with them. (we decided to write this guide for you based on one of our competitors, for example)
And don’t forget about market research and demographic analysis.
Why is defining your audience is necessary
Simply put. By performing these actions, your ecommerce store can gain invaluable insights into your target customer.
Crafting a detailed customer avatar helps you understand the types of people who are most likely to purchase from your store.
Asking current customers for feedback provides deeper insight into what customers need and expect from your store as well.
Another important aspect is monitoring your competition and studying their audience gives an idea of the strategies they are using to engage with them.
Lastly, performing market research and demographic analysis in combination with using social listening tools allows the store to identify potential customers and develop appropriate marketing campaigns accordingly.
This process enables you to create effective marketing strategies that ensure a good return on investment.
Ideal Customer Sheet Template
If you’re in need of a proper template to help get you started mapping out and determining your customer base. We created an ideal customer profile template that you can fill in. Click the button below to grab it.
Note: Once you’ve clicked the button, you can go to File > Make a copy to copy over it to your Google Drive.
Conduct Competitor Research
Once you know who your target audience is, it’s time to start looking at your competition.
Use online tools to conduct a competitive analysis and focus on the competitors who have been successful in your industry (SEMrush, Ahrefs, Ubersuggest are good examples of tools).
Study their keywords and see which ones they’re using in their advertisements, organic search, and other campaigns. Take a closer look at their content strategy as well.
What types of content and topics are resonating with their target audience?
Also, don’t forget to evaluate their pricing strategy and product offerings. You want to make sure you’re competitive in the market, so you’ll need to know what your competitors are offering and at what price.
And while you’re at it, check out their social media activities. How are they interacting with their customers and what type of content are they posting?
All of this information can help you improve your own keyword strategy.
Example on why competition analysis is important
By performing the actions listed above, an ecommerce store can gain valuable insights into their competition and ultimately improve their own strategy.
They can identify relevant keywords as well as monitor how competitors are using them in advertisements, organic search and other campaigns.
Additionally, studying their content strategy helps one stay current with what content topics are resonating with their target audience.
Looking into social activities also allows one to understand how to properly interact with their consumers, while evaluating the pricing strategy and product offerings of competitors helps them remain competitive in the market.
Overall, this process streamlines the research needed to develop a successful marketing plan.
Analyze Popular Searches Related to Your Niche
Now it’s time to start looking at the keywords and phrases that are relevant to your niche. There are several online tools and resources you can use to identify popular searches, such as Google’s Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and SEMrush.
These tools allow you to see how often certain keywords are being searched for and how competitive they are.
Utilize Online Tools & Resources
In addition to keyword research tools, there are other online resources you can use to help with your keyword strategy.
For example, you can use Google’s Autocomplete feature to see what people are searching for when they start typing in a particular keyword.
This can give you ideas for long tail keywords (more on that in a minute). Craft Long Tail Keywords In addition to popular keywords, it’s also important to consider long tail keywords.
These are longer, more specific phrases that are less competitive and often have higher conversion rates. For example, “women’s red high heels” is a long tail keyword, while “high heels” is a shorter, more general keyword.
Example: By following this process, a made-up ecommerce store can be sure to stay ahead of the competition and optimize their content for maximum visibility. By targeting specific keywords, the store can attract more customers and increase brand awareness without a ton of competition. Strategically placed ads or sponsored posts on these long-tail keywords can result in increased website traffic and even lead to an increase in conversions because they are so specific. The use of monitoring tools will also ensure that the store is aware of changes in popular search terms so you can quickly adjust their strategy accordingly.
To craft long tail keywords, you can use tools like Google’s Autocomplete and Answer the Public, as well as your customer avatar and customer feedback. Look for the specific needs and pain points of your target audience, and create long tail keywords that address those issues.
Example: If an ecommerce store follows this list of processes regularly, they can stay up to date with the most popular searches related to their niche. By researching and analyzing relevant keywords, analyzing search volumes and trends, reviewing competition levels, tracking search outcomes, and utilizing monitoring tools, the store can gain a better understanding of which keywords are likely to yield the best results. This process can result in increased website traffic, improved ranking in SERPs, greater visibility for their products or services and ultimately higher conversions. Monitor Results with Analytics Tools Once you have your keyword strategy in place, it’s important to monitor the results. Use analytics tools like Google Analytics to see how your keywords are performing and which ones are driving the most traffic to your website. This will help you identify which keywords are working and which ones may need to be refined or replaced.
For example, a made-up ecommerce store might use their analytics tools to track the number of sales they make each month and analyze user behavior to gain insights on product preferences. They could use this data to refine their current marketing strategies or adjust pricing structures in order to maximize sales. Additionally, by monitoring customer feedback and using it to improve their products and services, they could further increase customer engagement and loyalty, resulting in a higher rate of repeat customers over time. Test & Refine Your Strategy Regularly Keyword research is an ongoing process. As your business grows and changes, your keyword strategy will need to evolve as well. Be sure to regularly test and refine your strategy to ensure it’s still relevant and effective.
Example: For example, a made-up ecommerce store might track the number of visitors to the site, the average time spent on the site, and which products are being viewed most often. This data can then be used to refine strategies such as marketing campaigns, pricing structures, or product offerings in order to maximize customer engagement and improve sales. The store could also set up tracking tools to monitor the performance of these changes over time and use this data to further refine their strategy for maximum effectiveness. The nutshell Keyword research is a crucial part of any ecommerce store’s SEO strategy. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can effectively identify your target audience, conduct competitor research, analyze popular searches, utilize online tools and resources, craft long tail keywords, monitor results with analytics tools, and continually test and refine your strategy. With the right keyword strategy in place, you’ll be able to increase visibility and drive relevant traffic to your website, ultimately leading to more sales and success for your business.
