Ecommerce Keyword Research: How to Find Keywords for Category, Product and Blog Pages

Ecommerce keyword research means finding the searches your buyers use and putting each one on the right type of page: category pages for "[product type]" searches, product pages for brand and model searches, and buying guides or blog posts for "best", "vs" and how-to questions. The best sources are ones most guides skip: your store's own search report, Search Console, and marketplace autocomplete. Check every keyword's live results before choosing a page type, then rank keywords by what they could earn, not by volume.

This guide gives you the keyword-to-page map, seven sources with exact menu paths, a calculator that turns a keyword into estimated monthly revenue, and data from the 153 Shopify stores in Outrank's growth study.

#The ecommerce keyword map: which keyword goes on which page

Ecommerce searches follow a handful of patterns, and each pattern has a page type that ranks for it. Getting this match right matters more than any volume number.

Two rules keep the map clean. First, one keyword (and its close variants) per page; two pages targeting "soy candles" will compete with each other, which is keyword cannibalization. Second, only create filtered or attribute pages for filters people actually search. "Unscented soy candles" may deserve a page; "soy candles 8.5 oz blue lid" doesn't.

#Where to find ecommerce keywords

#1. Your store's own search box

People who search your store tell you, in their own words, what they want and what you're missing. In Shopify, go to Analytics → Reports and open the behavior reports Shopify documents:

• Searches by search query: the terms customers used and how many sessions searched each one.
• Searches with no results: demand you don't serve yet. Each term is a product, collection or synonym you're missing.
• Searches with no clicks: results that didn't match what people wanted.

On other platforms, Google Analytics 4 tracks site search through enhanced measurement: it records a view_search_results event with the term in the search_term parameter, as long as your search URLs use a parameter such as q, s, search, query or keyword.

#2. Google Search Console

Performance → Search results → Queries shows what you already appear for. Filter Position to greater than 10 and sort by impressions: these are keywords Google already associates with your store where a better page could reach page one. Click a query, then the Pages tab, to see which page Google is showing; if it's a blog post for a buying query, your category page needs work.

#3. Amazon and marketplace autocomplete

Type your product type into Amazon's search box and note the suggestions, then add letters ("soy candles a", "soy candles b"). Marketplace suggestions often surface attributes, sizes and use cases, which is exactly what category and filter pages need. Etsy works the same way for handmade and gift products; our list of Etsy SEO tools covers tools that speed this up.

#4. Competitors' navigation and filters

A competitor's category menu and filter sidebar is a keyword list someone already researched. Note every collection and filter name, then check which ones have search volume. A keyword gap analysis does this at scale by listing the keywords competitors rank for and you don't.

#5. Reviews, Q&A and support tickets

Your reviews and customer emails show the words buyers use ("smoky", "tunneling", "throw", "burn time") and the questions they ask before buying. Questions become FAQ entries on product pages or how-to articles.

#6. Keyword tools for volume and difficulty

Run your list through a keyword tool. Outrank's free keyword research tool shows search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC and a 12-month trend with no signup. CPC is especially useful in ecommerce: advertisers pay more for keywords that convert, so a high CPC is a hint of buying intent. For checking volumes in more detail, see our guide on how to check keyword search volume.

#7. Google Trends for seasonality

Google Trends doesn't show volume, but it shows when interest rises and falls over the year. For seasonal products, it tells you how early the demand starts, which is when your page needs to be live and indexed.

#How to evaluate an ecommerce keyword

Check four things before you assign a keyword to a page:

1. The page type Google ranks. Search it in a private window. Category pages, product pages, guides or a mix? Build the type that ranks.
2. Commercial value. Would the searcher buy something you sell? CPC and the presence of shopping ads are good hints.
3. Difficulty. For a young store, start with keywords whose keyword difficulty is low and whose first page includes small stores or weak pages.
4. Revenue potential. Volume alone is misleading. A 300-search keyword for a $90 product can be worth more than a 3,000-search keyword for a $9 one.

Estimate it with your own numbers:

#Category pages, product pages or blog posts?

Most of an online store's search revenue comes from store pages, not articles. Across 6.2 million pages from 3,332 sites in Outrank's content formats study, product, category and other non-article pages earned 37.7% of all clicks from 44.8% of impressions, while articles of every kind earned just 9.6% of clicks from 35% of impressions.

That doesn't make a store blog pointless. Guides catch searches that category pages can't rank for ("best candles for a bedroom", "soy vs paraffin candles"), earn links, and send readers to the products. The balance that works for most stores:

• Category and filtered pages get the head and attribute keywords. Give each one a short, useful intro, unique title and meta description, and internal links from guides.
• Product pages get brand, model and specific-attribute keywords. Write your own descriptions instead of the manufacturer's copy, and answer pre-purchase questions in an FAQ.
• Blog posts and guides get "best", "vs", "how to" and gift keywords, and each one links to the relevant category and products.

Our guides to SEO for fashion brands and Magento SEO cover platform and niche specifics, and ecommerce link building covers how category pages earn the links that competitive keywords need.

#Seasonal keywords

Seasonal searches ("Black Friday candle deals", "fall candle scents", "Mother's Day gift set") need a page that is live and indexed before demand rises. Two habits help:

• Check Google Trends for the start of the rise, not the peak, and publish or update before it.
• Reuse the same URL every year (for example /collections/mothers-day-gifts) instead of creating a new one each season, so the page keeps its links and history.

#What ecommerce SEO results look like

In Outrank's study of 2,119 sites, stores did well:

Two stores show what that looks like in practice: Blushing Ivy Home Fragrance, a candle maker, reports traffic up 119% and sales up 30% year over year, and Rip Van, a snack brand, went from zero to 5,000 monthly blog visitors. Both are Shopify stores using Outrank, which researches keywords for the store, writes articles with images and internal links, and publishes them to the store's blog on a daily schedule.

#Ecommerce keyword research mistakes

• Targeting head terms only. "Candles" is fought over by marketplaces and big retailers. "Unscented soy candles" or "candles for small spaces" are winnable.
• Writing blog posts for buying keywords. If Google ranks category pages, improve your category page instead.
• Creating a page for every filter combination. Thin filtered pages compete with each other and waste crawling. Only index filters that people search.
• Using the manufacturer's product description. Hundreds of stores publish the same text; yours gives Google no reason to choose you.
• Ignoring zero-result searches. Your store's "no results" report is free demand data. Add products, synonyms or collections for the terms that come up again and again.

To decide between the keywords that survive all of this, use our keyword picking method, and group close variants onto one page with keyword clustering.

#FAQ

#What is ecommerce keyword research?

Ecommerce keyword research is finding the search terms shoppers use for your products and assigning each one to the right page: category pages for product-type searches, product pages for brand and model searches, and guides for "best", "vs" and how-to questions. It weighs commercial intent and revenue alongside search volume.

#How do I find keywords for my online store?

Start with your store's search report (in Shopify, Analytics → Reports → Searches by search query and Searches with no results), then Search Console queries, Amazon autocomplete and competitors' category menus. Check volume, difficulty and CPC in a keyword tool, and look at the live results to see which page type ranks.

#What keywords should I use for product pages?

Use the product's brand, name, model, size and the attributes people search for, such as "[brand] lavender soy candle 8 oz" or "unscented wooden wick candle". Broader searches like "soy candles" belong on the category page. Answer pre-purchase questions in a product FAQ to pick up question keywords.

#How do I choose keywords for category pages?

Use the product type and its most-searched variations: "[product type]", "[product type] for [use]" and searched attributes like material, size or style. Confirm that Google ranks category pages for the keyword, then give the page a unique title, a short intro and links from related guides.

#How many keywords should a product page target?

One primary keyword, usually the product name with its key attribute, plus a few close variants that show the same search results. Product pages naturally pick up long-tail searches for specific attributes. If a keyword needs a different answer, it belongs on another page.

#Is keyword research different for Shopify stores?

The method is the same, but Shopify gives you extra data: its behavior reports show what customers search for in your store and which searches return nothing. Shopify's URL structure (collections, products, blogs) maps directly onto the page types in this guide.