Keyword research tools are very essential for doing keyword research to help e-commerce businesses and websites rank high on the search engine result page. Keyword research is a very important part of the Search Engine Optimization(SEO) strategy that e-commerce business owners have to focus on. Optimizing your website for the right keywords can help your business boost traffic, create awareness and drive conversion. So if you want to find the right keywords that are easy to rank for and drive a ton of traffic, you will need a keyword research tool.
In this article, we’ll be exploring how to do keyword research, including the best keyword research tools out there to help you target the right keyword.
What is Keyword Research?
Keywords refer to those words and phrases users type into search boxes of search engines, an e-commerce marketplace, and query sites. They help describe your website content and make it possible for people to find your website via search engines. E-commerce business owners optimize their website or product pages on the e-commerce marketplace using specific keywords in hopes of ranking at the top of search engine result pages and e-commerce marketplace result pages.
Keyword research on the other hand is the process of optimizing and researching keywords to understand the language your prospect and customers use when searching for your product or services. It involves the process of researching, analyzing, and selecting the best keyword to drive meaningful traffic to your e-commerce website. (Read our blog on keyword bidding for more understanding of keywords)
Why Do You Need To Perform Keyword Research?
Anytime someone types a query in the search engine box, the engine displays a handful of results from hundreds of thousands of possible pages. The purpose of the search engine algorithm is to determine the most relevant matches for every single search. This is why you need to do keyword research so that the search engines can match your website to the relevant keywords.
Researching the relevant and the right keywords for your website can help you with the following;
- Drive meaningful and quality traffic to the appropriate pages of your website
- Understand search demand so you can create an optimal SEO strategy
- Create a list of relevant phrases that match your marketing goals
- Target high ROI keywords
- Help you know what keywords and phrases to use in your website, blog, and e-commerce marketplace product pages
- Help with Google PPC campaigns by choosing the right keyword and phrase to bid on
- improve search engine ranking by helping Google understand what your webpage content is all about
- Improve your content marketing strategy by identifying and creating useful content for your target audience
- Create streamlined quality and rich content for your target audience
Step-by-step Guide To Do Keyword Research
Before you begin to do your keyword research there are some important terms you have to know. These terms will help and guide your research and help you make the best keyword decision.
Here are the following terms;
1. Search Volume
Search volume is one of the most important terms when it comes to keyword research. It is the rate at which people are searching for a particular keyword on search engines. It matters not how easy a keyword ranks for if no one is searching for it. A high search volume means there are a lot of users searching for a given keyword. Also, a high search volume might mean that there are a lot of competitors ranking for that same keyword.
2. Ranking Difficulty
The ranking difficulty is the rate at which a particular keyword is difficult to rank on the search engine result page. Doing keyword research will help you understand whether you have a chance to land on the first page of the search engine results for your target keywords. Any keyword above 70% is considered highly difficult, while 70-30 is moderately difficult and lastly, keywords below 30% are considered low difficulty. In general, for a new website, you’ll want to stay on the lower end of keyword difficulty.
3. Search Relevance
One thing about keywords is that anyone you choose to rank for must be relevant to your product or website. Your chosen keywords need to resonate with your website, blog post, or product. For example, if you are selling energy drinks for sportsmen and you see the term “football” getting millions of monthly searches. However, just because the term “football” is getting tons of monthly searches does not make it relevant to your product. People that are looking for your product are likely to be typing drinks and other related terms. Trying to trick the algorithm can affect your ranking and even get your website blacklisted.
4. Commercial Intent
As a business owner, your main conversion goal is to make sales and profit. That's why it is important to go after keywords that people are searching to buy products. Ranking high on the search result page is great if you are looking for traffic and brand awareness, but if you are looking to make sales, go for commercial keywords. Use a keyword research tool to look for keywords that have high ROI. You can also spy on your competitions to see which keywords they are using.
Top 10 keyword Research Tools For E-commerce Business
1. Google keyword Research Planner
Google keyword planner is one of the most popular keyword research tools out there. The software is owned by Google which is the most used search engine in the world. It is a free keyword research tool used for both paid (Pay-Per-Click) and unpaid (organic SEO). This free research tool can be used to discover new keywords related to your business, services, or products and see estimates of the searches they receive and the cost to target them. With Google planner, you can see how your keywords fit into different categories related to your brand and estimate the number of searches a keyword gets each month. Users can also get insights into competitors' analyses.
To access Keyword Planner, you have to login into your Google Adwords account and then click on the “Tools and Analysis” to access Keyword Planner. However, if you don’t have an account, you can create one to access the Google Keyword planner.
Features
- Locate commercial keywords using the “top of page” bid range
- Accurate search volume directly from Google’s search engine
- Competitors insight
- Detailed keyword ideas
- Display monthly searches
- Display keyword difficulty, search volume, clicks, CPC, SERPs, Parent topic, and more for each search term
- Use keyword plan to create new campaigns centered on in-depth keyword research.
- Conduct a site audit to find gaps
Pricing
Google Keyword Planner is available for free.
2. SEMrush
SEMrush keyword research tool is another powerful and popular tool used by content marketers and businesses to research keywords for their business. With SEMrush, users can get all sorts of data to improve their search engine rankings. It provides insight into how many people are searching for a particular keyword each month, the trend of a certain keyword, and other important metrics. Users can also get insights into their competitors to have an idea of what keywords they rank for in search engines.
Features
- Keyword research
- Marketing analytics: Users can analyze their position to get ahead of the competition in a current or new market
- Competitor Analysis: Give you an insight into your competitor's strategies to help increase your website traffic and improve performance
- Content marketing: Develop a powerful content strategy with data-driven solutions
- Local SEO: Optimize your site for local searches to get more customers in your area
- Uncover long-tail keywords and ad group ideas
- Get yearly keyword trends
- Worldwide CPC distribution statistics
- Access to the complete keyword research toolkit
- Keyword difficulty analysis and organic traffic insights
Pricing
Semrush currently has three standard monthly subscriptions starting at the following prices:
- Pro – $119.95
- Guru – $229.95
- Business – $449.95
- Enterprise Solution – contact SEMrush for details
3. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a keyword research tool used by content creators and marketers to research trending keywords and backlinks. The research tool offers various tools for improving search visibility, including a WordPress plugin and keyword tool for Bing. With Ahref, users can analyze a website’s link profile, keyword rankings, and SEO health. The tool can also be used to conduct keyword research for Google, YouTube, and Amazon.
Furthermore, you can use Ahrefs to find content that’s performed well (in terms of social shares and/or links) on a given topic as well as analyze a website’s backlink.
Features
- SEO Auditing & Monitoring
- Content Insights
- SEO Reporting
- Competitor Analysis
- Data Visualization
- Custom Reports
- SEO Content & Rankings
- Link Building
- SERP Rank Tracking
- Local SEO
- Keyword Difficulty score
- 1,000+ keyword suggestions
Pricing
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools Free
- Lite $99.00Per Month
- Standard $199.00Per Month
- Advanced $399.00Per Month
4. MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is another keyword research tool used by many marketers to track their website performance and get actionable insights to help grow their business. The software also integrates well with WordPress and lets you add a Google Analytics plugin without any coding experience. This allows users to see how visitors find and use their website from the WordPress dashboard, so you can grow your audience and keep them coming back.
Features
- Google Analytics Dashboard: Users can see their website analytics report inside the WordPress dashboard
- Real-time Stats: Shows real-time stats right inside the WordPress dashboard to have an insight on who is online, what they are doing, and more.
- Enhanced Ecommerce Tracking: Supports enhanced Ecommerce tracking for WooCommerce
- Page-Level Analytics: Get detailed stats for each post and page, so you can see the most popular posts, pages, and sections of your site.
- Ads tracking
- Easy setup
- Referral and link tracking
Pricing
- Plus – $199/year
- Pro – $399/year
- Agency – $799/year
5. Moz
Moz is a keyword research tool used by many businesses to increase traffic, ranking, and visibility of sites in search results. The software also comes with features like site audits, rank tracking, backlink analysis, and keyword search tools. With Moz, users can analyze keywords and phrases to improve content and marketing strategies. Moz also provides intuitive keyword suggestions tools to outrank the competition. Furthermore, users can track competitors’ movements on the SERP, allowing businesses to uncover competitive advantages to attain top positions.
Features
- SEO Alerting and auditing
- Technical SEO
- SEO Content & Rankings
- Link Building
- SEO Reporting
- Competitor Analysis
- Data Visualization
- Custom Reports
- Keyword Research
- Search keywords by search volume
- Local SEO
- Keyword reliability
Pricing
- The standard plan starts at $99/month
- Medium plan at $179/month
- Large plan at $299/month
- Premium plan at $599/month.
6. Keyword Tool
Keywordtool.io is a web-based keyword research and marketing tool that uses the Google Autocomplete feature to generate keyword suggestions. The software integrates well with Google, YouTube, Amazon, and many other search engines. One advantage of the Keyword Tool is that it focuses on long-tail keywords that are not visible in Google's Keyword Planner. Because of this, the Keyword Tool is most effective for organic search, content marketing, and SEO. The software generates up to 750 long-tail keywords for any search you make.
Features
- Competitive Analysis
- Keyword Research Tools
- It provides simple UX for beginners
- Helps you find keywords using Google Autocomplete
- Export results to CSV
- You get help in social media marketing such as Instagram and Twitter.
Pricing
- It comes with a Free plan
- Basic plan: $89
- Pro Plus: $99
- Pro-business:$199
7. KWFinder
KWFinder is another keyword research and analysis tool that is good for researching keywords for your website and content. The software provides you with keywords with exact search volumes. It also helps you with keyword research for search marketing for SEO and paid search. Furthermore, users can aggregate key metrics from various sources to help you make informed decisions about your business. With KWFinder, users can search for keywords and get results based on trend analysis, search volume, CPC, PPC, and Keyword difficulty. The software comes with a local keyword research tool that helps users to find location-specific long-tail keywords.
Features
- Find keywords based on search volume
- keyword research
- An in-depth overview of the SERP
- Keyword suggestion
- Accessible navigation UI features
- Competitor analysis
- Ability to filter keywords that are not profitable
- SERP analysis
- SEO metrics,
- long-tail keywords.
Pricing
- Basic costs are $26.91/month
- Premium costs $35.91/month
- Agency costs $71.91/month
8. Answer The Public
AnswerThePublic is a keyword research tool that works a little bit differently than most keyword research tools. This is because they present keywords in a visual format although users can still see them in a list or download a CSV file of results. This keyword tool will let you find long-tail keywords based on your seed keywords. The keyword results from AnswerThePublic are based on Google and Bing’s auto-suggest / auto-complete features.
Without signing up, users can start using Answer The Public to learn more about what your audience is searching for.
Features
- Perform Unlimited Searches & Exports
- longtail keywords suggestions
- Keywords results are based on Google and Bing search engines
- Monitor & Receive Alerts for New Suggestions
- Hide Unwanted Suggestions
Pricing
- Monthly: $99
- Annually $79
- Expert $199
9. GrowthBar
GrowthBar is a great keyword research tool for e-commerce business owners and marketers that wants their content and website to rank high on the search engine result page. With GrowthBar users can track any website’s keyword rankings, analyze the keyword search volume, check for backlinks, and spy on your competitor’s paid social media campaigns. The software also helps e-commerce businesses to discover critical SEO insights and perform competitive analysis.
Features
- Keyword Suggestions
- Analyze competitors backlinks
- Keyword rank tracking
- Accurate ranking difficulty
- Long-tail keyword suggestions
- Suggest keywords with difficulty Scores
- Generate content outlines with AI
Pricing
- Free 5-day trial,
- Pro – $29/month
- Scale – $79/month
10. Long Tail Pro
Long Tail Pro is a powerful keyword research tool that allows users to generate hundreds or thousands of unique “Long Tail” keywords in a matter of minutes based on 1 single root keyword or multiple root keywords at once. The software generates long-tail keywords for niche sites by generating much more than 800 keywords using the data from the Google keyword. Users can use the software for Keyword Research, SERP Analysis, Rank Tracking and Backlink Analysis
Features
- Powerful, detailed keyword metrics
- Easily find long-tail keywords
- Keyword Research
- SERP Analysis
- Rank Tracking
- Backlink Analysis
- Competitor Analysis
Pricing
- 7-day free trial (subscription to be canceled before 7 days).
- Starter – $25/month
- Pro – $45/month
- Agency – $98/ month
Conclusion
One of the most important of SEO is to conduct proper keyword research. Keyword research is a very crucial part of your marketing strategy. This is how you identify the search queries that your target audience uses to search for your products or services. So investing in keyword research is a very important step for you as an e-commerce business owner. To make your work easier, you can use some of the above keyword research tools to get started.
