Shopify Keyword Research Guide: Finding Keywords That Drive Sales

Keyword Research Is the Foundation of Shopify SEO

You can write perfect product descriptions and build thousands of backlinks — but if you’re targeting the wrong keywords, none of it matters. Keyword research tells you exactly what language your customers use when they’re searching for products like yours. Get this right and everything else in your SEO strategy becomes more effective.

Understanding Search Intent for Ecommerce

Every keyword has an intent behind it. For Shopify SEO, you need to match your content to the intent:

• Transactional — “buy silk pyjamas online UK”, “organic dog treats free delivery”. These go on product and collection pages.
• Informational — “how to care for silk pyjamas”, “are organic dog treats healthier”. These go on blog posts.
• Navigational — “[brand name] silk pyjamas”. Rank for your own brand — it’s table stakes.
• Comparison — “Klaviyo vs Mailchimp for Shopify”. Great for comparison guides that rank and convert.

Step 1: Seed Keyword Brainstorm

Start by listing what your products are and how your customers describe them. Think like a customer, not a manufacturer. You sell “premium ergonomic office chairs” — your customer searches “comfortable office chair for back pain” or “best home office chair UK.”

Sources for seed keywords: product names, customer reviews (how do customers describe your products?), competitor product page titles, Amazon and eBay category names, forum discussions in your niche.

Step 2: Expand with Keyword Tools

• Google Keyword Planner (free) — volume estimates, related keyword suggestions
• Ahrefs Keywords Explorer — keyword difficulty, SERP analysis, parent topic clustering
• Semrush — competitor keyword gap analysis (what are your competitors ranking for that you’re not?)
• Google autocomplete — type your seed keyword and note every autocomplete suggestion
• Google “People also ask” — informational keyword goldmine for blog content
• Google “Related searches” — at the bottom of any SERP page

Step 3: Assess Keyword Difficulty and Volume

Not all keywords are worth targeting. Assess each keyword on two dimensions:

• Monthly search volume — low volume (<100/month) keywords may not drive meaningful traffic even if you rank #1
• Keyword difficulty (KD) — how hard it is to rank for this keyword based on the backlink profiles of current top-ranking pages. New Shopify stores should target KD <30; established stores can go for KD 40–60.

The sweet spot for most Shopify stores: 500–5,000 monthly searches, KD under 40, strong commercial intent.

Step 4: Map Keywords to Pages

Each page on your Shopify store should target one primary keyword and a handful of related secondary keywords (called LSI keywords — Latent Semantic Indexing). Create a keyword map:

• Homepage → brand + category keywords
• Collection pages → category + intent keywords (“men’s running shoes”, “organic skincare UK”)
• Product pages → specific product keywords (“Nike Air Max 270 UK”, “The Ordinary Niacinamide 10%”)
• Blog posts → informational and long-tail keywords

Step 5: Prioritise Your Keyword List

Score each keyword: (Search Volume × Commercial Intent Score) / Keyword Difficulty. Tackle highest-scoring keywords first. For a new Shopify store with limited domain authority, start with long-tail keywords (3–5 words, lower difficulty) and build up to head terms over time.

Need a full Shopify keyword research strategy? Our SEO team builds keyword maps that align with your revenue goals. Get a free keyword audit or see our SEO results.