{"id":367729,"date":"2021-02-14T05:00:30","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T10:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/?p=367729"},"modified":"2022-09-09T15:53:01","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T19:53:01","slug":"seo-keyword-research-for-product-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/seo-keyword-research-for-product-content","title":{"rendered":"SEO: Keyword Research for Product Content"},"content":{"rendered":"

Content on an ecommerce site’s product detail pages, category pages, and blog can attract visitors and lead to sales and profit.<\/p>\n

For many commerce businesses \u2014 omnichannel retailers, ecommerce-only merchants, wholesalers \u2014 attracting a steady flow of site visitors from organic search results is vital for success. But achieving high rankings in those results requires optimizing a site with relevant content.<\/p>\n

SEO and Content Marketing<\/h3>\n

Search engine optimization is the process of organizing a website to communicate its purpose and value to Google, Bing, and similar. The result, hopefully, is highly-ranked pages in search results, producing more and better visitors.<\/p>\n

Content marketing<\/a> is the act of creating, publishing, and promoting content to attract, engage, and retain customers. The goal of content marketing and SEO is the same: generate visitors.<\/p>\n

For this article, I’m going to put SEO first in the process.<\/p>\n

Content marketers will sometimes create articles or videos that are not<\/em> directly related to the products their business sells but instead around topics that interest prospects.<\/p>\n

For example, an online shop that sells 4×4 truck accessories might produce content about backcountry hiking. Why? Because folks who hike in the backcountry likely drive four-wheel-drive vehicles. The hikers might need a vehicle accessory or two.<\/p>\n

Consider the “Michelin Guide” series. Michelin, which sells tires, started publishing a series of hotel and restaurant guides about 120 years ago. Folks who stay at hotels and eat at restaurants presumably drive there in an automobile. Eventually those folks will need tires.<\/p>\n

Neither of these examples is product-centric. Product content marketing starts with the item to be sold. It is about 4×4 accessories or tires, not about hiking and the best restaurant. Product-centric content marketing requires keyword research<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Seeds<\/h3>\n

As with any form of SEO keyword research, start with seed words<\/a>. For an ecommerce business, these keywords might be the names of its product categories.<\/p>\n

For example, if it went looking for seed keywords, a pet-supplies store might pick “dog food,” “dog treats,” “dog toys,” “dog leashes,” “dog collars,” and similar. These are the product category names for Menards, which sells pet goods in addition to home improvement items.<\/p>\n

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If it were doing product content marketing for pet supplies, Menards might start with category names as keywords.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the same way, an online retailer selling shoes might select seed keywords such as “sneakers,” “loafers,” “boots,” and even “tuxedo shoes” for its product content marketing. Those are the category names<\/a> for Suitsupply.<\/p>\n

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Suitsupply’s category names for shoes are potential keywords for optimizing organic search.<\/p><\/div>\n

Keyword Ideas<\/h3>\n

Using the list of seeds, start to generate other keyword ideas. Look for the phrases shoppers use when searching for your products or services. Many tools<\/a> can help. For example, Google’s auto-suggest feature shows popular and relevant keyword phrases.<\/p>\n

If you enter the phrase “dog toy” in Google search, auto-suggest shows keyword phrases such as:<\/p>\n