E-commerce or electronic commerce businesses is a business model that allows firms and individuals to buy and sell things over the internet. are ones that buy and sell things over the internet This can be from business to business, business to consumer, consumer to consumer, or consumer to business. Keyword research is the base of every e-commerce company.

SEO (search engine optimization) is the foundation of the strategy for starting an e-commerce business from the ground up. When it is done correctly it can be utilized to optimize content in the direction that you want your company to grow in.

When starting an e-commerce business from the ground up there are a few steps an entrepreneur should follow.

Step 1: Understand Your Customers

Understanding your target audience is one of the most important things you can do from the start. The best way to do this is to create a buyer persona, see an example of this here. Understanding what the target audience is intending to search by their keywords will allow you to find the keywords that are attracting them to your site.

The most effective ways to find the keywords of the target customers is to:

  • Conduct interviews or run qualitative surveys
  • Read comments made on the brand’s social media accounts
  • Seeing what customers are saying in support related emails
  • Reviewing the competitor’s sites

Step 2: How are These Keywords Related to Each Other?

To understand how keywords are related to each try grouping them into different categories. You could do this by brainstorming other words or using an SEO generated site to find all of the keywords that relate to the phrase/words. Let’s say a customer is searching for new running shoes. Some keywords related to this search could include:

  • Best running shoes
  • Running shoes for flat feet
  • Running shoes for long-distance
  • Faster
  • Prone to injury
  • Foot pain

Step 3: Find a Complete List of Your Keywords

One simple easy way to do this and a good place to start is letting Google autocomplete your search. Start typing the keywords into Google and see what suggestions are autocompleted for you. This gives you a good insight into what the customer/consumer is getting when they search for these words.

how-to-conduct-keyword-research-for-e-commerce-from-the-ground-up-in-5-steps

Finding keywords on Amazon, one of the highest e-commerce sites will also give you very beneficial information. Take advantage of this when starting from the ground up.

SEOquake is another great free tool that lets you compare your products to your competitors to see what keywords they are using and how they rank in comparison to yours.

Step 4: Refine Your Keywords

Once you have a list of keywords go back and examine their monthly search volume and how many leads they have gotten your company.

Remove all keywords that:

  • Do not relate to your product that you are selling
  • Are not specific to your product
  • Have a high competition to larger companies
  • Low searches

Focus on keywords that:

  • Are related to your business or products
  • Have a high search volume
  • Have low competition
  • Specific to your business

Step 5: Focus on Keywords that Bring you Revenue, Not Just Traffic

Optimizing your keywords that are bringing you a high amount of revenue is very important. Some important keywords are:

  • Buy-now keywords
    • Buy now, coupon, discount
  • Information keywords
    • How to, best ways to, I need to

Taking the time to find an in-depth analysis of keywords will create a strong base for your e-commerce company. Generating a buyer-persona and identifying certain niches of an audience will make implementing these strategies as beneficial as possible.

Reasons to Start an E-commerce Business

Becoming an entrepreneur is not an easy task, but it is very rewarding. According to Oberlo, “Online sales are expected to grow to $4 trillion by 2020. In 2018, the US alone, e-commerce retails made $504.58 billion in sales revenue.” Some of the key advantages of starting an e-commerce company include:

Advantages of Electronic Commerce

  • Buying and selling occurs 24/7
  • Increased selection of inventory
  • Easy to start and manage
  • Low operation costs
  • Sell internationally
  • Personalized online experience

These advantages allow you to create specific content tailored to your target audience. Being able to have a website that is operational at all times of the day increases your potential profit. Creating a personalized online experience for the consumers is very important because this allows you to showcase the best-selling products. The other benefit of an e-commerce company is the low start-up cost. Physical in-person stores have to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars in rent each month, along with mass amounts of inventory. There is also the threat of theft.

Short-Tail VS Long-Tail KeyWords:

Short-tail keywords are two words of less, while long-tail keywords are about 4-5 words also referred to as “key phrases.” Using long-tail keywords is far more specific so will help a start-up company be able to analyze the niche of their customers. This also creates better odds for a consumer to find the website because they are more specific.

Short-tail keywords are so difficult to target people because of the commonality of the word such as, “bedding”, while long-tail keywords could be “fluffy white duvet cover.” This creates for better odds of a company when someone is searching for your product.

Drive Traffic Through Blogging

Growing traffic organically through onsite and offsite blogs will drive traffic and sales without spending any money. This is very important for start-up e-commerce companies that people may not be familiar with. Creating blogs through content creation will let you be able to track who found your website through the blog. When writing blogs remember to focus on the keywords found from your SEO searches.

Overall, when starting an e-commerce company from the ground up it is very important to know your target audience. To find these keywords, understand your audience. Use resources from online resources to find keywords that people are searching for when it comes to your product. Blogs are a very efficient way to drive traffic to one’s site fast. For start-up companies creating content naturally will bring you customers who never knew about your site.