​How to get more organic traffic. A lesson on Keyword research

Ready for a lesson on easy SEO for Ecommerce?
Recently I asked our Inner Circle Ecommerce Coach,  Sarah, to show us how you can start getting more organic traffic when you implement her simple keyword strategy.

You can listen to the lesson in this episode of the podcast.


What is Keyword research?
It’s simply the process of finding the best keyword phrases to use on our site. It helps us determine the content to write and the best phrases to use to help our potential customers find us and learn more about our products and our brand.

Who should use keyword research?
All ecommerce store owners should use keyword research because it will help them make the best choices for product and collection titles. aIt will also help store owners find the most searched topics for their blog or article content.

Why is keyword research important to me?
Ranking for a keyword phrase in the search engine isn’t good enough, because the keyword phrase you are ranking for might not be getting any traffic. In order to maximize organic traffic, you should be using the phrases that people are actually searching for.
You’ll use your research to discover the exact words people use when they are searching, and you’ll be able to see the search volume for these terms.
In super competitive niches, it’s often necessary to find longer tail keyword phrases to try to rank for. For example, it isn’t likely that a small ecommerce store will rank for the term necklace. But, that same store may be able to rank for “beaded handmade necklace”. 

Ready to give it a try? Here’s where you start.
While brainstorming is a good starting point, keyword research is best done using a tool that can, at a minimum, provide average search volume. The three tools I use and recommend are Google Ads Keyword Planner, Keywords Everywhere Chrome Extension & Ubersuggest. You’ll find the links to these tools at the bottom of the article.
When you’re using one of these tools, start by brainstorming some starter phrases. These are  sometimes called “seed keywords”.  You’ll enter your starter phrases into the tool to come up with lists of possible phrases to use. 
Ideally, you’re looking for keyword phrases that have a decent amount of traffic, and with a low enough level of competition that you have a chance of ranking for that specific phrase.

The best way to start is to go as broad as possible and then see what comes up from that broad search.

You can also brainstorm multiple phrases you think buyers are looking for and your keyword tool will recommend additional phrases. 

Finally, if you’re using a tool like Ubersuggest or SEMRush, you can “spy” on a competitor’s keywords by entering their domain or one of their product pages to get ideas.

Want to see keyword research in action? Here are some examples:

For the store owner that sells high end dog collars
Questions to ask/brainstorm: what are they made of? Small dogs, big dogs, all sizes? Colors?

• Designer dog collars – 9900 searches/month – Medium competition
• Luxury dog collars – 3600 searches/month – Medium competition
• Luxury dog collars for large dogs – 110/Mo – Medium comp
• Fancy dog collars with bling – 90 Searches/Mo – Medium Competition
• Handcrafted dog collars – 40 Searches/Mo – Low comp – Good secondary keyword
• Designer bling dog collars – 30 Searches/Mo

For the store owner that sell bath bombs with surprise toys inside
Questions to ask/brainstorm: ingredients, what is the toy, colors

• Kids bath bombs – 0 Searches
• Bath bombs – 49,500/mo – Med – High Competition
• Bath bombs with toys inside – 1600/mo – Medium competition
• Bath bombs with surprise – 880/mo – Medium competition
• Bath bombs with surprise inside – 480 – Medium competition

For the store owner that sells collectible, symbolic jewelry
Questions to ask/brainstorm: What material? What type of jewelry – rings, earrings, necklaces…? Handcrafted? Colors? Gender? What makes it collectible or symbolic?

• Talisman – 49.500/mo
• Talisman necklaces – 720/mo – medium comp
• Amulet Necklace – 1600/mo – medium comp
• Talisman Jewelry – 590/mo – Medium comp
• Amulet Jewelry – 320/mo – medium comp
• talisman pendant necklace – 40/month – medium comp

I’ve found some keyword phrases, what’s next?

Once you’ve decided on the primary keyword phrase for your product, you’ll want to incorporate this into the product name & description, the SEO page title and meta description. (in Shopify, this is found at the bottom of the product creation page under “Search Engine Listing”). 

You should also use your primary keyword phrase in the alt text of your first image. Use the primary keyword phrase naturally in your description. Once or twice in a shorter description is fine.

Remember this:
Without some type of keyword research, you don’t know whether the terms and phrases you’re using are helping or hurting you in the search engines. 

Working on your SEO a little at a time, you may see results in as little as 30 days but expect it to take several months to see large shifts. Highly competitive keywords can take months, or even years to rank for. Start with long tail keywords for the quickest traffic wins. 

You should only use 1 keyword phrase per page of your site. You don’t want to try to rank multiple pages for the same keyword phrase. This confuses Google, which will ultimately decide which page to rank or none at all. 

Review a few keyword research tools and decide which is best for budget and time. For a demonstration of any of the tools or help with using them, Inner Circle members can book a call with Sarah, our Inner Circle Ecommerce Coach, specializing in SEO. You’ll find her booking information in your classroom.

Links to the tools mentioned:
Ubersuggest: https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/

Keywords Everywhere: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/keywords-everywhere-keywo/hbapdpeemoojbophdfndmlgdhppljgmp

Google Keyword Planner: https://ads.google.com/intl/en_ca/home/tools/keyword-planner/