One of the biggest open-ended aspects of eCommerce SEO has to do with keyword strategy. Even if you are a wiz with ten years of experience, you can never really know for sure what’s going to work and what isn’t – until you try.
However, there are some things you learn along the way. For instance, when a keyword is too competitive, if there are too many results, or if the search intent is just not there. All of these things pave the way for a successful (or unsuccessful) keyword strategy.
Choosing the right keywords and topics when you draft your strategic content and on-page optimizations will be greatly influenced by these factors. Focusing on the right set of topics and keywords can constitute all of the difference in the world between a page that ranks and gets visits and one that never shows up in the SERPs – even if it is well-researched and written.
This post is going to take a closer look at what constitutes effective keyword research; that is, how it influences the trajectory of your campaign, and also how topic clustering can influence your efforts for the better.
Why Relevant Keywords Matter (and Thereby, How Keyword Research Dictates the Course of Your Campaign)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a complex process that involves a variety of tactics and strategies to help websites rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). One of the most important aspects of SEO is keyword research, which is the process of discovering and analyzing relevant keywords that can be used to create content and improve a website’s ranking.
Keyword research is a critical part of any SEO strategy, as it helps to ensure that content is optimized for the right terms and phrases. By understanding which keywords are most relevant to a website’s target audience, marketers can create content that is more likely to rank higher in SERPs. Additionally, keyword research can help to identify potential areas of opportunity where a website can gain an advantage over its competitors.
For instance, the following are attributes we look at when evaluating the fitness of a keyword for a client’s SEO campaign.
- Volume: Volume refers to the number of monthly searches that occur in Google for a given search term.
- Difficulty: Keywords are assigned a difficulty score between 1 and 100, which is a suggestive measurement of how hard Google says it will be to rank for a given keyword. The lower a website’s domain authority, the harder it is to rank for difficult keywords. We generally avoid targeting keywords with a difficulty of 60 or more, simply because it would take an untenable amount of time and resources to pursue them.
- Number of results: Sometimes, keywords with high difficulty scores but low numbers of search results make sense to target, simply because there aren’t enough other websites in ranking for them.
- Search intent: Search intent has to do with what people’s goals are when they search for a term. That is, are they looking for information or do they want to make a purchase?
- Relevance: This is one that we need to use our brains for, as no tool can really tell you when a keyword is relevant or not. Basically, we need to consider the keyword, what it means, if it has additional meanings or associations, and whether or not it is a good fit for the client in question.
We also consider the reality of short-tail and long-tail keywords. Short tail keywords are those that consist of only one (or a few) words. They can have more than one intent associated with them and sometimes, users search them for different reasons. Short tail keywords also tend, on the whole, to be associated with high volumes and high keyword difficulties. For instance, “eCommerce SEO” and “eCommerce SEO services” are both short-tail keywords.
Long tail keywords are typically several words long, and in some cases, consist of an entire query. For instance, “what are the benefits of eCommerce SEO?” is both a long-tail keyword and an entire search query.
Long-tail keywords often have lower search volumes than their short-tail counterparts, but they are also usually associated with lower difficulty and much more defined search intent. Moreover, long-tail keywords often contain shorter-tail seed keywords. For instance, “what are the benefits of eCommerce SEO services?” when evaluated as a keyword, contains instances of both former short-tail keywords “eCommerce SEO” and “eCommerce SEO services.” Therefore, targeting the long tail keyword, though it may generate lower impressions overall, will generate impressions for both short-tail keywords that it contains.
We need to take all of these criteria into consideration when performing keyword research for all of our clients for which we offer eCommerce SEO services.
In addition, we also need to consider the value of topic clustering.
So, What Is Topic Clustering?
When it comes to keyword research, it can be a daunting task and many people are not sure where to begin. One of the most important things you can do is to understand the concept of topic clustering. This is a method of organizing keyword phrases into related topics and subtopics. Topic clustering is a great way to ensure that you are targeting the right keywords and phrases for your website or blog.
In short, it helps hedge your bets, by increasing the odds of hitting on a desired search query in any given piece of content, optimizing it all the way around. Topic clustering can be used to improve the performance not only of long-form content like blogs, but also landing pages like category pages and product pages.
Topic clustering is a process of organizing keywords into related topics and subtopics. This helps you to identify and target the most relevant keywords for your website or blog. By using topic clustering, you can easily identify the topics and subtopics that are relevant to your website. This is important for SEO purposes, as the search engines will be able to better understand the content of your website and rank it higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
The first step in topic clustering is to identify the main topics that are relevant to your website or blog. This can be done by researching the keywords that are related to your website or blog. You will want to look for keywords that are related to the topic of your website or blog and then use tools such as Google AdWords Keyword Planner to analyze the volume of searches for these keywords. This will give you an idea of which topics are most relevant to your website or blog.
Once you have identified the main topics that are relevant to your website or blog, you can then start to organize the keywords into related topics and subtopics. This is done by grouping similar keywords into topics. For example, if you have a website about travel, you could group the keywords “travel”, “vacation”, “holiday”, and “destination” into a single topic. This helps to ensure that you are targeting the right keywords for your website or blog. It also maximizes the number of relevant keywords and search queries you cover in each piece of optimized content, including, likely, some you are not formally targeting.
Once you have organized the keywords into related topics and subtopics, you can then start to optimize your website or blog for these topics and subtopics. This can be done by creating content that is relevant to the topics and subtopics. You can also use SEO tactics such as keyword density and linking to other related websites and blogs. This will help to increase the visibility of your website or blog in the SERPs.
Topic clustering is an important part of keyword research and can help you to ensure that you are targeting the right keywords for your website or blog. By grouping similar keywords into topics and subtopics, you can easily identify and target the most relevant keywords for your website or blog. This will help to improve the visibility of your website or blog in the SERPs. As such, it is important to understand the concept of topic clustering and how it can help you to optimize your website or blog for the right keywords.
How Topic Clustering Can Improve Your Keyword Research
When performing keyword research, topic clustering helps you to identify the most relevant keywords for your content. It allows you to group related keywords together and then narrow down your list of keywords to the ones that are most likely to be successful for your website or blog. Think of it as “keyword clustering” in this respect. Look for keywords that are similar to the ones for which you start your search initially and branch out from there. Search for them and see what sorts of topics and information come up in the search results.
Topic clustering also helps to identify potential gaps in your keyword research. By identifying keywords that are related to your content, but are not currently being used by your competitors, you can identify potential opportunities to increase your rankings.
Topic clustering also helps to identify the most effective keywords for your content. By grouping related keywords together, you can better understand how these keywords are performing in search engine results pages (SERPs). This will help you to identify the keywords that are most likely to be successful for your website or blog.
Additionally, topic clustering can help you to identify the most effective keywords for your content. By grouping related keywords together, you can better understand how these keywords are performing in search engine results pages (SERPs). This will help you to identify the keywords that are most likely to bring you the highest search engine rankings.
eCommerce SEO Services That Get It Right
For over 10 years, 1DigitalⓇ Agency has provided top-tier, customized eCommerce SEO services to our clients, on the basis of their unique needs. We offer both B2C and B2B-focused SEO campaigns, targeting very specific segments of the marketing, and centered around keyword strategies that boost online visibility and return on investment for our clients.
If you’re looking for new, effective ways to reach new potential customers, improve the quality of your leads, and boost organic traffic to your online store, work with our SEO experts to develop a custom eCommerce SEO strategy for long-term success.
We’re waiting for you to reach us – Sales@1DigitalAgency.com.