How to Choose Keywords for an E-commerce Website
Keyword research is often described as finding phrases with the highest search volume. For an online store, that is only part of the job. A useful keyword plan connects what customers search for, what your store sells, what page can answer the query, and what business action should happen next.
Google’s e-commerce guidance emphasizes that links between menus, categories, subcategories, and products help search systems understand the relationships within a store.1 Google Keyword Planner can provide keyword ideas and advertising estimates, but those estimates are not guarantees of organic rankings or sales.2
The goal is not to place every possible phrase on one page. The goal is to build a focused catalog and content system that helps the right shoppers find the right information.
1. Start with products and customers
Before opening a keyword tool, create a plain-language inventory of the business:
- Products and product families
- Materials, sizes, colors, styles, and specifications
- Problems the products solve
- Customer types and use cases
- Price ranges and purchase considerations
- Delivery areas and service limitations
- Questions customers ask before buying
- Words customers use in support emails, reviews, and conversations
For example, a store selling office chairs may serve several needs: an affordable chair for a home office, an ergonomic chair for long work sessions, a compact chair for a small room, or replacement parts for an existing chair. These are different customer problems even when the catalog overlaps.
Use the language customers actually understand. Internal product names may be useful for inventory systems but not for searchers.
2. Understand the main types of search intent
Search intent is the likely reason behind a query. It helps determine what type of page should answer it.
| Intent | Example query | Best page type |
|---|---|---|
| Informational | how to choose an ergonomic office chair | Guide or buying guide |
| Commercial investigation | best ergonomic office chairs for home office | Comparison or category guide |
| Transactional | buy ergonomic office chair | Category or product page |
| Navigational | Example Chair Store returns | Store policy or brand page |
| Local | office chairs near me | Location or local store page |
Intent is not always perfectly separated. A query such as “best running shoes” may require an editorial guide, product comparisons, and links to relevant categories. Review the actual wording and the customer’s likely stage of decision-making.
3. Collect keyword ideas from multiple sources
Use more than one source because each reveals different language.
Customer and business sources
Review search terms from your site search, customer-service questions, reviews, product returns, sales conversations, and FAQs. These sources often reveal objections and vocabulary that generic tools miss.
Existing website data
If the site already receives organic impressions, Search Console can reveal queries and pages that are already appearing. Look for relevant terms with impressions but low clicks, terms that point to the wrong page, and useful questions that deserve dedicated content.
Keyword tools
Google Keyword Planner can suggest terms related to products or services and show estimated monthly searches and advertising costs.2 Other tools can help with related phrases and competitor research. Treat estimates as directional data, not promises.
Competitor observation
Review competing stores for category names, filters, product attributes, FAQs, comparison pages, and missing information. Do not copy their text or assume that their structure is correct. Use the review to identify customer needs and opportunities to provide a better answer.
4. Separate product, category, and informational terms
A common e-commerce mistake is assigning every keyword to a product page. Different queries need different page types.
Product-page terms
These usually describe a specific item, model, brand, size, or variant. Examples include:
- “black leather office chair model X”
- “wireless noise-cancelling headphones 40-hour battery”
- “women’s waterproof hiking jacket size medium”
The product page should provide accurate specifications, images, price, availability, delivery, returns, variants, and a clear purchase action.
Category-page terms
These describe a group of products:
- “ergonomic office chairs”
- “wireless noise-cancelling headphones”
- “waterproof hiking jackets”
A category page should help visitors browse, compare, filter, and understand the range. It should not be a thin list of products with no useful context.
Informational terms
These answer questions before or around the purchase:
- “how to choose an office chair”
- “what does noise cancellation do”
- “how to layer a waterproof hiking jacket”
A guide can explain the decision and link to the relevant category or products. It should not disguise a sales page as a neutral article.
5. Build a keyword-to-page map
Create a spreadsheet with columns such as:
| Keyword or topic | Intent | Page type | Existing URL | Priority | Next action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ergonomic office chairs | Transactional/commercial | Category | /chairs/ergonomic |
High | Improve category |
| how to choose an office chair | Informational | Guide | None | Medium | Create article |
| Model X office chair | Transactional | Product | /products/model-x |
High | Check product data |
The map helps prevent several pages from competing for the same purpose. It also shows whether the store is missing an important page type.
Do not create a new page for every slight keyword variation. If “ergonomic office chairs” and “ergonomic chairs for home office” have the same products and intent, one strong category page may be more useful than two near-duplicates. Create separate pages when the audience, product set, intent, or decision criteria are genuinely different.
6. Prioritize keywords with a practical framework
A keyword does not need the highest search volume to be valuable. Score each opportunity using questions such as:
- Relevance: Does it describe a product, service, or problem the business actually serves?
- Business value: Could the resulting visitor reasonably buy, enquire, subscribe, or return later?
- Intent fit: Can the planned page satisfy the query?
- Content readiness: Does the store have useful products, data, images, stock, and expertise?
- Competition: Can the business create a more useful or trustworthy result?
- Effort: How much content, development, photography, or operational work is needed?
- Strategic importance: Does the page support an important category or product family?
A simple priority score might be:
Priority = relevance + business value + intent fit + strategic importance
− effort − operational risk
The formula is a planning aid, not a scientific ranking model. Use consistent judgment and record why an opportunity was selected.
7. Use attributes carefully
Attributes such as color, size, material, audience, compatibility, and use case can help shoppers. They can also create thousands of filter combinations with little unique value.
Decide which attributes deserve indexable pages based on customer demand, product depth, content quality, and business value. Other filters may remain useful for on-site browsing without generating separate search URLs.
If filtered URLs are crawlable, review whether they create duplicate, empty, or low-value pages. Establish clear canonical, indexation, and internal-link rules with your developer before scaling faceted navigation.
8. Match content to the buying journey
A strong e-commerce keyword plan supports several stages:
- Problem awareness: explain the problem and possible approaches.
- Research: compare options, features, materials, and use cases.
- Selection: help visitors choose the right category or variant.
- Purchase: provide accurate product information and a clear checkout path.
- Post-purchase: answer setup, care, maintenance, returns, and support questions.
This creates a useful content path rather than a collection of isolated articles. A buying guide can link to a category page. The category page can link to products. Product pages can link to care or setup instructions.
9. Write for natural language, not keyword density
Use the primary topic where it helps the reader understand the page: title, main heading, introduction, relevant subheading, URL, and links. Use related terms naturally when they add detail.
Do not repeat “best ergonomic office chairs” in every sentence. Explain the decisions customers care about: seat height, lumbar support, materials, adjustment range, warranty, dimensions, delivery, and return conditions.
Specific information demonstrates relevance better than repetition.
10. Validate the page after publishing
Review whether the page is:
- Reachable through navigation and internal links
- Included in the intended category path
- Accessible on mobile
- Accurate about product attributes and availability
- Free from broken links and empty filter states
- Using a unique, descriptive title
- Providing useful copy instead of only a product grid
- Connected to the next logical page
- Measured against relevant business outcomes
For product pages, compare visible price and availability with structured data and feeds. For categories, check that key products can be reached through links rather than only through an internal search box. Google notes that crawlers generally do not submit searches into a site search box.1
Example: building a keyword plan for a chair store
Suppose a store sells office chairs. A basic map might look like this:
| Topic | Intent | Page |
|---|---|---|
| ergonomic office chairs | Transactional | Ergonomic chair category |
| office chair for small spaces | Commercial | Compact chair collection or guide |
| how high should an office chair be | Informational | Buying guide |
| Model A ergonomic chair | Transactional | Product page |
| how to clean mesh office chair | Post-purchase informational | Care article |
The store should not create six pages that all repeat a generic paragraph about “quality office chairs.” Each page has a different job and should provide the information needed for that job.
Conclusion
Choosing e-commerce keywords is a process of understanding customers, grouping their language by intent, assigning each group to the right page, and prioritizing work the store can execute well. Search-volume estimates can help discover opportunities, but relevance, page quality, product accuracy, and business value matter more than a large number in a tool.
Build the keyword plan around a useful store structure: guides answer questions, categories support browsing, product pages support decisions, and internal links connect the journey. Review the plan as products, customers, and search behavior change.
If you need help mapping products, categories, and content into a clearer e-commerce SEO structure, contact Muhammad Rutaab Ali to discuss a practical audit.
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