What is the Similarity Between a T-Shirt, Running Shoes, and a Gift Basket? These are all products that people need and end up searching for them on Google. Most people today prefer the first stop at Google when they need to buy something. These people have neither the time nor the patience to look beyond the first two first pages of search results. If you don't show up in potential buyers' search results, they won't even know you exist.
To attract more potential buyers, you need to optimize your ecommerce website so that it can rank higher in search engine results. Thus helping you drive more traffic to your website. This brings us to SEO (search engine optimization). Keyword research is an important fundamental step in developing an ecommerce SEO strategy, especially when it comes to onsite SEO. On the other hand, a good keyword with a poorly executed strategy won't help you make sales in your online store.
So here's how you can score SEO points and connect with potential customers through organic search:
Keyword research
When doing eCommerce keyword research, there are two main ways to do this:
- Start from scratch with your own research.
- Spy on the competition.
Before you begin, it's important to understand the different factors that go into choosing the right keywords.
Search Volume
There are several free keyword research tools out there, such as Google Keyword Planner, Uber Suggest, and more. Use the tool of your choice to determine the search volume. Then use the Google Keyword Planner to validate and refine your initial keyword list. It allows you to see which keywords have options like search volume and trends, use multiple keyword lists to generate new keyword ideas, and also determine the intent of your keywords.
A high exact match search volume means there are a lot of users searching for a given term. High search volume can also indicate strong competition for ranking. You have to be realistic when you compare the search volume to the difficulty of ranking in terms of domain authority of your website.
High competition
High competition means that it will be difficult to compete with existing search results. Ultimately, it depends on the domain authority of your website in your specific niche. In general, for a new website, you will want to choose low and medium competition. Or it becomes difficult to find relevant terms in searches.
Ahrefs, Moz, and Semrush provide a useful tool for determining your position in domain authority or domain rating, based on your existing backlinks.
Search Relevance
Even if you find a keyword with high search volume that you are sure you can rank for, you need to consider its relevance to your website and what you are selling. For example, consbeider the value of 10 qualified leads generated by finding over 1,000 unqualified visitors who will never buy anything and immediately bounce back when your website fails to deliver what they were hoping to find due to 'a mismatch in relevance.
Use Long-Tail Keywords
In a nutshell, using broad keywords is not a good SEO strategy in modern times, both due to excessive competition and relevance issues.
So be sure to optimize for long tail keywords primarily, especially when it comes to building product pages and blogging content for your eCommerce website. It is true that fewer people will search for these queries, but they are also the ones who are sure of what they want and, as a result, have a higher purchase intent. After identifying your keywords, the next step is to add them to your website pages. Organize all of your pages and keywords to make sure they don't compete with each other.
Using Keyword Rank Tracking Tools to Benchmark Success
Already started building your ecommerce website and tried incorporating keywords? Then make sure that you incorporate some type of keyword rank tracking to determine where you rank in the SERPs. You can verify the data by integrating your website with Google Search Console.
In the performance report, you can check which keywords you rank for and their average position in the search. Regularly checking your rankings can provide a trigger for content improvement that begins to drop in terms of average ranking positions. Lower rankings are an early warning that updates are needed to maintain your place on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Spy on the Competition
After determining the ranking of your website, check the ranking of your competition. This will help you determine how much work you will need to do to come out on top and come up with ideas for focusing your own keyword research efforts. This is especially important for ecommerce, because not ranking first directly results in lost conversions. If you're number two on the SERPs and your competitor is number one, you could lose about half of the potential traffic for that query.
Keyword research is an important fundamental step in developing an SEO strategy for ecommerce. Done well, it provides useful guidance on tactics and strategies to be employed.
Final Thoughts
Your online store shouldn't be stuck on page two (or worse). With the help of one of the country's leading ecommerce SEO agencies, you can experience the power of being on the first page and having an e-commerce website that ranks well, attracts a lot of traffic, and converts more clicks into purchases. With Digitalcrafts and our ecommerce SEO services, you can achieve your goals. Contact DigitalCrafts today to find out how a personalized ecommerce SEO plan can make your store more visible and turn more of your visitors into real and paying customers.
