What makes some ecommerce stores thrive and eclipse their competition? Is it having a great product at great prices? Certainly, but potential customers can’t take advantage of your prices if they don’t know your store exists. To thrive in ecommerce, it helps to be visible online, which means showing up on asearch engine results page(SERP).
Search engines like Google and Bing produce two kinds of results:paid search results (essentially ads that a search engine matches to specific search queries) and organic search results (search results algorithmically generated by identifying relevant keywords across the web).
Many companies want organic search traffic because it doesn’t require paying a search engine to appear in results. Getting this traffic starts with researching organic keywords that your potential customers are looking up. Here’s how you can usekeyword research toolsto drive organic traffic to your site.
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What are keyword research tools?
A keyword research tool is a software application that analyzes the words most frequently typed into search platforms like Google and Bing and shopping platforms like Amazon. These tools provide lists of words and phrases called keywords, along with their search volume—the number of times a keyword is entered into a search bar within a given set of dates.
You can incorporate these keyword suggestions into website headings, blog posts, and ecommerce store listings so your pages have a better chance of showing up at the top of an organic SERP—known as “ranking.” This tactic is part of a broader ecommerce marketing strategy called search engine optimization (SEO).
It takes effort to research keywords and pepper them across your website and ecommerce store. Over the long run, however, it can be more cost-effective than relying on paid ads to ensure your site ranks, making keyword research a fundamental part ofSEO best practices.
Shopify Academy Course: SEO for Beginners
Entrepreneur and Shopify Expert Casandra Campbell shares her three-step SEO framework to help your business get found through Google searches.
Types of keyword research tools
There are two types ofkeyword research toolsavailable to internet marketers: free research tools and paid research tools. Here’s how they’re different.
A free keyword research tool doesn’t charge you to find keywords related to your business and target audience, though there’s typically a limit on the number of terms you can research. At a minimum, thesefree SEO toolscan help you find keyword ideas based on what real-world users are searching for. For instance, the free Google Trends tool shows monthly search volume data for particular keywords and suggests related keywords that mightgenerate store traffic.
A paid keyword tool charges you for keyword data and keyword suggestions. Paid tools typically have more keyword research features than their free counterparts. For instance,Ahrefslets you start your keyword search by typing a word or phrase into a prompt box. It uses this as a starting point to generate several new keywords tied to related queries—a level of automation typically unavailable with a free keyword tool.
What features dokeyword research toolshave?
A high-quality keyword research tool offers several valuable functions that make it easy to generate relevant keywords for your website or ecommerce platform. Look for the following as you explore the best keyword research tool for your business:
- Keyword suggestions.Keyword research tools should provide a keyword list showing what words and phrases attract high search volumes. The list should feature relevant keywords that will attract high-value visitors—people who might be genuinely interested in your offerings—to your site.
- Keyword competition analysis.Acompetitor keyword analysislets you study your competitors’ websites and see the keywords they target to drive search traffic, which you can then use to boost visits to your site.
- Keyword difficulty rankings.A keyword difficulty ranking tool tells you how easy or difficult it is to rank on the first search result page for that keyword. For instance, an ecommerce merchant selling candles might have difficulty ranking for broad keywords like “candles,” but may fare better competing for more specific keywords with lower search volumes, like “hickory-scented candles.”
- Backlink data.Abacklinkis linked text that directs users to another website. When a high-quality site links to a page on your website, Google and other search engines see it as a sign your site is trustworthy. A good keyword research tool can inform you about competitors’ backlinks, which can help you assess how many you’ll need to boost your performance.
The 12 best keyword research tools
Depending on yourSEO marketingbudget, you may choose to pay for a keyword research tool, or start with a free option. Here are some of the bestkeyword research toolsavailable to ecommerce entrepreneurs.
Free keyword research tools
A free tool can be an excellent entry point to the keyword research process. Here are six freekeyword research toolsto consider:
- Google Keyword Planner.Google Keyword Planner comes with a Google Ads account. While purchasing Google Ads costs money, you can create an account for free and use Google’s keyword planner to conduct research. It shows monthly searches for particular keywords and how they’ve changed over time and gives phrase match reports showing whether word order affects your search results.
- Google Search Console.Google Search Console helps you understand which keywords your site already ranks for, technical issues that might be hurting your site’s search performance, and which websites are providing backlinks to your site.
- Keyword Surfer.Keyword Surfer is a Google Chrome extension by Surfer SEO that overlays onto standard Google web searches. When you search for terms, Keyword Surfer shows you recent search volumes and the estimated cost-per-click, should you opt-in. It can also suggest an AI-generated outline for an article or blog entry based on particular keywords.
- D问题B.This keyword research tool focuses on questions users search, setting it apart from most other keyword tools. When searching for user questions, Question DB doesn’t just pull data from the big search platforms Google and Bing, it also scrapes questions from forums like Reddit and Quora. You can use Question DB for free and get up to 50 results per search.
- Moz.While Moz doesn’t provide quite the same volume of data that you might get from a paid platform like Semrush, it does offer user-friendly reports on keyword difficulty, search volumes, and organic clickthrough rates. You can use Moz for free and get 10 queries per month using each of its tools.
- 方法rThePublic.方法rThePublic offers a free plan that allows you to research three queries daily once you register with your email. The platform draws on autocomplete data from major search engines to inspire relevant blog entries.
SEO for Shopify stores
Whether you’re launching a new product, building a web presence for your retail location, or starting a dropshipping business, when you’re trying to sell online you have an important problem to solve: How do you get customers to find your store?
Optimize your Shopify store for searchPaid keyword research tools
Companies with larger SEO marketing budgets may opt for the broad functionality of a paid keyword research tool. Here are six options to consider.
- Semrush.Semrush comes with features that help you find the right keywords to boost your search profile. One such feature is its Keyword Magic tool, which lets you enter a target keyword and view its search volume, user intent, keyword difficulty, long-term trends, and cost-per-click, all from a single dashboard. Semrush’s paid plans run from $120 to $450 per month.
- Long Tail Pro.Long Tail focuses on long tail keywords—longer keywords and phrases that are somewhat niche but may let you win higher-quality search results. The Long Tail Pro platform provides a backlink analysis, a SERP analysis, and a keyword rank tracker among its many tools for boosting SEO performance. Annual subscriptions start at $297 per year and go up to $1,177 yearly.
- Ahrefs.Ahrefs provides a keyword explorer feature that lets you enter a short phrase known as a seed keyword, prompting its software to suggest related keywords. Some of its suggestions are also seed keywords; others are long tail keywords. Ahrefs’ monthly plans range from $99 to $999 per month, with some discounts for annual subscriptions.
- Surfer SEO.冲浪者SEO更便宜keyword research toolson the market, starting at $49 per month. The platform uses your chosen keywords to generate “topic clusters,” which can prompt article ideas. It pairs this with a content editor tool to help you write articles and blog posts that align with Surfer’s suggested keywords and section headings.
- SEO Powersuite.SEO Powersuite platform bakes keyword research into an all-in-one SEO solution that includes backlink history, competitor rankings, sitewide SEO audits, and custom-generated SEO reports. Paid plans start at $299 per year.
- Serpstat.Serpstat is an all-in-one SEO platform with robust keyword research features. It can suggest related keywords, rank different types of phrasing, analyze competitor keywords, report on keyword difficulty and seasonal keyword trends, and provide a content plan for implementing high-performing keywords. Monthly plans start at $69 per month and scale up to $499, with discounts for those who buy a one-year subscription upfront.
You can analyze your online store’s search engine optimization using apps in theShopify App Store.
Keyword research tools FAQ
Is it necessary to use a paid keyword research tool or are free ones effective enough?
Paidkeyword research toolslike Semrush and Ahrefs offer robust functionality. Still, some small business owners and ecommerce entrepreneurs may get everything they need from a free tool like Google Keyword Planner or AnswerThePublic. If you have a modest marketing budget, free tools can provide plenty of keywords to incorporate into your web copy or inspire new blog entries.
Cankeyword research toolshelp me find profitable keywords for my business?
Yes, when used properly, a keyword research tool can show you what keywords your potential customers are searching. These tools can analyze the words and phrases driving traffic to your competitors’ websites and help you strategize how to use those keywords to showcase your website or ecommerce store.
How can I effectively usekeyword research toolsto improve my website’s SEO?
Keyword research tools offer multiple ways to approach SEO: A competitor keyword analysis examines the keywords your competitors use so you can target those keywords or identify searches they’re missing out on; a keyword difficulty ranking tool reveals how hard it would be to make it onto the first page of a specific keyword’s SERP; a backlink report lets you know what terms appear on the backlinks that drive traffic to your site, giving you insight into your most valuable content.
What is the difference betweenkeyword research toolsand keyword suggestion tools?
A keyword suggestion is a type of keyword research tool that often prompts you to enter a word or short phrase known as a seed keyword. The tool may then suggest additional seed keywords to feature on your site. It may also suggest longer, more specific phrases known as long tail keywords. Combining these suggestions with other keyword research tools—like a keyword competition analysis—gives you multiple assets to drive more traffic to your website.