What is Keyword Targeting?

Keyword targeting begins with research: understanding what your potential customers actually type into search engines. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and Semrush reveal search volume (how many people search for a term monthly), keyword difficulty (how hard it is to rank for), and related terms. For e-commerce, keywords fall into several intent categories: informational ("how to choose running shoes"), commercial ("best running shoes for flat feet"), and transactional ("buy Nike Pegasus 41").

The most effective e-commerce keyword strategies target all three intent types across different page types. Product pages should target transactional keywords with specific product names, model numbers, and purchase-oriented modifiers. Collection pages target commercial keywords that indicate comparison shopping. Blog content captures informational queries, building authority and guiding visitors into the purchase funnel. This layered approach ensures your store appears at every stage of the customer journey.

Long-tail keywords, which are longer, more specific phrases with lower individual search volume, are often the highest-converting targets for e-commerce stores. A search for "shoes" signals vague intent, but "women's waterproof hiking boots size 8 wide" signals a visitor who knows exactly what they want and is ready to buy. Long-tail keywords also face less competition, making them easier to rank for. Collectively, long-tail searches make up the majority of total search volume.

Customer reviews are an underutilized source of keyword intelligence. The language customers use to describe your products in reviews often differs from how you describe them in marketing copy. If customers consistently mention "true to size" or "runs small" in reviews, those phrases are the exact terms other shoppers will search for. Mining review text for recurring natural-language patterns reveals keyword opportunities that no tool-based research can replicate.