Learn how to do keyword research for ecommerce, from finding seed keywords to matching search intent and mapping keywords to product, category, and blog pages. Includes free tools and common mistakes to avoid. https://votrixai.com/guides/ecommerce-keyword-research
Ecommerce SEO Guide
Ecommerce Keyword Research: How to Find Keywords That Drive Sales
Ecommerce keyword research is the process of finding the words and phrases shoppers type into Google when they look for products, then using those phrases on your product, category, and blog pages so your store shows up when it matters. Done right, it puts your pages in front of people who are already ready to buy — which is why organic search still accounts for 23.6% of all ecommerce website traffic, ahead of social media and most other channels (Similarweb SEO Benchmark Report, 2025).
This guide walks through the whole process in plain language: how to build a keyword list, how to match keywords to what shoppers actually want, and how to place each keyword on the right page. It also covers where AI search is changing the rules and what to do about it.
Definition
What Is Ecommerce Keyword Research?
Ecommerce keyword research means finding and analyzing the search queries real shoppers use before they buy, then adding the best ones to your store's content — product pages, category pages, and blog posts.
Every search is a potential sale. If a shopper searches "heavy duty monitor arm" and your product page is optimized for that phrase, you can appear right when they are deciding what to buy. If your pages only use words like "premium viewing solution," that shopper never finds you.
How shoppers find you
Keyword research is different for ecommerce than for most websites because your keywords must connect directly to products. A blog that targets "best single beds for small rooms" can survive on ad revenue with any topic; an online store loses money ranking for keywords that don't match what it sells. Relevance to your catalog is the first filter, before volume or difficulty.
The Numbers
Why Keyword Research Matters for Online Stores
Keyword research matters because it connects three things: what shoppers search for, what Google shows, and what you sell.
The numbers make the case:
The first organic result on Google gets an average click-through rate of 39.8%, while pages in the lower part of the top 10 often get under 3% (FirstPageSage, 2025). Ranking position alone changes how many shoppers see your store.
Organic search drives 23.6% of ecommerce orders — roughly one in four purchases starts with an organic search visit (SEO Sherpa, citing Similarweb and SEOPROFY data, 2026).
Non-branded organic search traffic converts at about 1.4% on average across millions of ecommerce sessions — real buyers, not just browsers (Visibility Labs analysis of 9.46 million sessions, 2025).
Keyword research also pays off beyond rankings. It reveals market demand (a spike in searches for "collagen supplements for skin" signals a growing niche), reduces wasted ad spend (you can test keywords in paid search before investing in content), and tells you the exact language customers use — which you can reuse in product descriptions, ads, and emails.
Search Intent
Match Keywords to Search Intent First
Search intent is the reason behind a search — what the person actually wants when they type a phrase. It is the single most important filter in ecommerce keyword research, because a keyword only makes money if the searcher's goal matches what your page offers.
Search intent falls into four types:
| Intent | What the searcher wants | Example | Best page type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transactional | Ready to buy now | "buy black leather couch" | Product page |
| Commercial | Comparing options before buying | "best monitor arm under $100" | Category page or comparison post |
| Informational | Learning something | "how to clean a leather couch" | Blog post or guide |
| Navigational | Looking for a specific site | "IKEA Kivik couch" | Brand or product page |
For an online store, transactional and commercial keywords deserve the most attention, because those searchers are close to a purchase. A useful test: search the keyword on Google. If the results are full of shopping ads and product listings, it is a buying keyword and belongs on a product or category page. If the results are articles and forums, it is informational and belongs on a blog post.
The intent also changes how specific the search is. "Black couch" is broad — the shopper could mean anything. "Affordable black leather couch for small apartments" tells you exactly what the person wants, the budget they have, and the room they are furnishing. These longer, more specific phrases are called long-tail keywords. They usually have lower search volume, but shoppers who use them convert at higher rates because the phrase matches their exact need.
Step by Step
How to Do Keyword Research for Ecommerce, Step by Step
Here is the full process, from a blank page to a prioritized keyword list. For most stores this takes a few focused hours the first time and much less after that.
Step 1: List your seed keywords.
Seed keywords are the broad terms that describe what you sell. If you sell yoga gear, your seeds might be "yoga mat," "yoga equipment," and "yoga accessories." Write down one seed for each product category and product type in your catalog. A simple rule: every category page on your site should have at least one seed keyword.
Step 2: Expand each seed with real search data.
Plug each seed into a keyword research tool to find the actual phrases shoppers use, along with monthly search volume and keyword difficulty. Free starting points include Google Keyword Planner (free with a Google Ads account), Google Autocomplete (type the seed and note the suggestions), Google's People Also Ask boxes, and the related searches at the bottom of results pages. Paid tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush add difficulty scores, trend data, and competitor data.
Step 3: Mine your customers' own words.
One of the best keyword sources costs nothing: your reviews, support tickets, live chats, and product Q&A. Customers describe products in language tools often miss — a phrase like "custom neon sign for gaming room" or "fits well for wide feet" comes straight from buyers. Collect recurring phrases and add them to your list; they are often long-tail keywords with strong purchase intent.
Step 4: Check what competitors rank for.
Enter your competitors' domains into a keyword tool to see which terms drive their product and category page traffic — especially keywords they rank for that you don't. This "keyword gap" view is often the fastest way to find terms you never thought of. If competitor research is a big part of your workflow, our competitor keyword research guide covers it in depth.
Step 5: Filter by relevance, then volume and difficulty.
Go through your list and remove anything that doesn't match a product or page you actually have. Then check the numbers: for a new or small store, prefer keywords with difficulty under about 30 and volume of at least a few hundred searches a month. A simple scoring approach — one point each for relevance, intent match, search volume, and low competition — makes prioritization fast. Keywords that score high go in page titles; the rest go into descriptions and supporting content.
Step 6: Map every keyword to a page.
Each keyword should have exactly one target page — a product page for transactional terms, a category page for commercial terms, a blog post for informational terms. Mapping before you write prevents two pages from competing with each other for the same search.
The process at a glance
This process works, but it is also where most stores stall: doing it for a catalog with hundreds or thousands of products by hand takes weeks, and keeping the list current takes forever. That is the gap an automated approach fills — more on that below.
Toolbox
Free and Paid Ecommerce Keyword Tools
You don't need to pay anything to start. These are the tools most stores use:
| Tool | Cost | What it's good for |
|---|---|---|
 Google Keyword Planner | Free with a Google Ads account | Search volumes and keyword ideas straight from Google |
| Google Autocomplete and People Also Ask | Free | Real query suggestions and question keywords |
| Google Trends | Free | Seasonal demand and rising topics |
 Amazon autocomplete | Free | Marketplace-style product phrasing |
 Ahrefs,  Semrush | Paid | Keyword difficulty, competitor gaps, SERP data |
 Votrix AI | Free within the free quota, then usage-based | Fully automated keyword research, competitor analysis, and content execution |
Pick based on your stage: free tools are enough for your first list of 50–100 keywords. Paid tools and automation pay off once you are managing hundreds of keywords across a full catalog.
AI Search
Where AI Search Changes the Game
AI is changing how shoppers find products, and traditional keyword research alone doesn't cover it anymore.
When Google shows an AI Overview on a results page, clicks on the regular organic results drop sharply — organic click-through rate on queries with AI Overviews fell to 0.61% in September 2025, down 61% from 1.76% in June 2024 (Ahrefs, 2026). Shoppers increasingly get answers — and product recommendations — directly from AI answers in Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Claude instead of scrolling through ten blue links.
Organic click-through rate on queries with AI Overviews in September 2025 — down 61% from 1.76% in June 2024 (Ahrefs, 2026).
ChatGPT traffic converts 31% better than non-branded organic search, across an analysis of 94 ecommerce stores (180 Marketing, 2025).
For ecommerce this means two things. First, the keywords worth chasing are shifting even more toward specific, high-intent queries that AI answers can't fully satisfy. Second, your store now needs to be visible not just in organic rankings but inside AI-generated answers — a practice often called generative engine optimization (GEO). Shoppers who arrive from AI search also convert well: an analysis of 94 ecommerce stores found ChatGPT traffic converts 31% better than non-branded organic search (180 Marketing, 2025).
If your store sells in multiple countries or languages, or targets B2B or local buyers, keyword research gets another layer of complexity — those situations each need their own approach. We cover them separately in our international keyword research, multilingual keyword research, B2B keyword research, and local keyword research guides.
Votrix AI
A Faster Way to Run the Whole Process
Everything above — building lists, checking intent, finding competitor gaps, writing and publishing pages, earning links, and tracking results — is work that a small team can do manually for one store, and barely keep up with at scale.
Votrix AI is a fully automated SEO and GEO agent that runs this entire workflow for you. It does keyword research and competitor analysis, checks your backlinks, site authority, and backlink gaps versus competitors (data from DataForSEO), and then acts on the findings: it writes and publishes articles and pages itself, finds pages that aren't ranking and rewrites them, and sends outreach emails for backlinks and mentions on its own. It checks whether Google and AI crawlers can actually read your site, tracks whether ChatGPT, Claude, and Google AI Overviews mention your brand, and — once connected to Google Search Console — shows your real rankings, clicks, and impressions. You can start free within the free quota and pay by usage beyond it.
For a founder or small team, the practical difference is that keyword research stops being a project you redo every quarter and becomes something that keeps running — with the page updates, link outreach, and AI visibility tracking handled as part of the same system. See the product page for details: https://votrixai.com/ai-seo-manager.
Watch Out
Common Keyword Research Mistakes to Avoid
These mistakes show up in almost every store audit:
- ✕ Chasing volume over relevance. A high-volume keyword that doesn't match your catalog brings traffic that never buys.
- ✕ Targeting one keyword per page when several share the same intent. "Best yoga mat" and "best yoga mats for beginners" usually belong on the same page.
- ✕ Ignoring intent. Writing a product page for a keyword where Google ranks comparison articles is a losing fight; match the page type to the intent instead.
- ✕ Ignoring AI visibility. If AI Overviews and chat assistants can't find or recommend your store, you're invisible to a growing share of shoppers.
- ✕ Researching once and never again. Search demand shifts with seasons and trends. Revisit your list at least quarterly.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some good keywords for ecommerce?
Good ecommerce keywords are ones with commercial or transactional intent that match products you actually sell — for example "buy black leather couch" (transactional) or "best monitor arm under $100" (commercial). Long-tail versions like "affordable black leather couch for small apartments" are especially valuable because they describe exactly what the shopper wants and convert at higher rates.
Can a beginner do SEO?
Yes. Keyword research is one of the most beginner-friendly parts of SEO: you can start with free tools like Google Keyword Planner, Autocomplete, and People Also Ask, focus on low-difficulty long-tail keywords, and improve as you go. An automated tool like Votrix AI can also handle most of the technical work while you learn.
What are the top keyword research tools?
The most-used tools are Google Keyword Planner (free), Google Trends, Ahrefs, and Semrush. For ecommerce specifically, tools that combine keyword research with competitor analysis and automated content — like Votrix AI — save the most time.
How do I research products for ecommerce?
Start with your own catalog: list a seed keyword for each product and category. Expand with Google Keyword Planner and Autocomplete, mine customer reviews for real phrasing, check what competitors rank for, then score each keyword for relevance, intent, volume, and difficulty before mapping it to a page.
Keep Reading
Related Guides
Keyword research looks different in other contexts. If one of these applies to you, start here:
Sources
- Similarweb SEO Benchmarks Report — https://www.similarweb.com/corp/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/attachment-2025-SEO-Benchmarks-report.pdf (2025; via SEO Sherpa)
- FirstPageSage, Google Click-Through Rates by Ranking Position — https://firstpagesage.com/seo-blog/google-click-through-rates-ctrs-by-ranking-position/ (2025)
- SEO Sherpa, Ecommerce SEO Statistics — https://seosherpa.com/ecommerce-seo-statistics/ (2026)
- SEOPROFY, Ecommerce Marketing Statistics — https://seoprofy.com/blog/ecommerce-marketing-statistics/ (2025)
- Visibility Labs / 180 Marketing, ChatGPT vs. Organic Search Conversion Analysis — https://www.180marketing.com/chatgpt-vs-organic-search-conversion-rates/ (2025)
- Ahrefs, SEO Statistics — https://ahrefs.com/blog/seo-statistics/ (2026)
- Shopify, Keyword Research for Ecommerce: A Practical Guide — https://www.shopify.com/blog/14207073-the-beginners-guide-to-keyword-research-for-ecommerce (2026)
- Plytix, Ecommerce Keyword Research Guide For Beginners — https://www.plytix.com/blog/ecommerce-keyword-research/ (2025)
- Semrush, Ecommerce Keyword Research: A Practical Guide — https://www.semrush.com/blog/ecommerce-keyword-research/ (2026)