E-commerce Search Engine Optimisation (e-commerce SEO), is essential if you want to rank your online shop in as a high position on Google as possible. It will help your ranking on other search engines too, including Bing, but Google is the most important search engine for e-commerce businesses in New Zealand.
Put simply, getting a high ranking in Google will ensure your website is seen by the masses.
Doing this means knowing the specific keywords and phrases that people use in Google that are related to your content, website, or products
This involves doing keyword research, which is an essential part of e-commerce SEO.
Keyword Research
Keep in mind that keywords needed for blogs and other website content will differ from those needed for your e-commerce store. The reason for this is that there are different types of searchers online. This includes people searching for general information, while others will be looking for products.
In addition, you will have different types of people looking for products. This includes people who have just started their search right through to people who know exactly what they want to buy and are now looking for an e-commerce store that will give them the best deal.
Your keywords must first appeal to product searchers, not the information searchers. You then ideally want to capture people who are close to making a buying decision.
Find Keywords that Have Buying Intent
The aim is to identify commercial keywords that indicate buying intent.
Where do you find these keywords, however?
You can start with places that people often use to search for products. This includes:
- Amazon
- eBay
- Any other strong website that sells similar products to yours
Start by typing into the search box a keyword you think will rank well. You will then see autocomplete options that will show you other ideas that are related to the keyword you type.
On Google, you can also scroll to the bottom of the search results page. There you will find a list of related search queries which can also be quite useful.
The great thing about using this technique to find keyword ideas is that major websites like Google, Amazon, and eBay understand the phrases the people use when searching for products, and they understand buying intent.
AdWords Keyword Planner
You can also use the Keyword Planner in Google’s AdWords product to find keywords. You will need to create an AdWords account to do this, but getting an account is free.
Not only will the Keyword Planner tool generate keyword ideas, it also gives you the average number of monthly searches for that keyword.
It gives you AdWords bid information too, which can also be helpful, even when you don’t plan to run AdWords campaigns. This is because you can use the estimated bid for a keyword to get an idea of the level of competition that exists.
Research Your Competition
The final source for e-commerce keyword research on this list is to check what your competitors use. You may need a keyword tool to achieve this, although they can be expensive when you just want to check a few websites.
You can, however, get information by manually checking the websites of your competitors. Things you should look out for are the Page Titles of product pages as well as the titles they give to products.
Keyword Research for E-Commerce SEO is an Ongoing Process
One final tip with keyword research for e-commerce SEO is that it is an ongoing process. Adding to the list, finding new opportunities, and lowering the priority of under performing keywords, will help you stay ahead of the competition.
