Most ecommerce keyword research guides were written for affiliate bloggers and content sites. The priorities are completely different for a Shopify store. You are not just looking for traffic volume. You are looking for search terms where the person typing them is ready, or close to ready, to buy something you sell.

Get this wrong and you end up ranking for terms that generate thousands of visitors and almost zero sales. Get it right and a single well-optimised collection page can drive consistent, qualified traffic month after month with no ongoing spend. According to data from Ahrefs, the top organic result on Google gets 27.6% of all clicks for a given search term. That is an enormous, recurring traffic advantage if you are targeting the right keywords.

What is the difference between commercial and informational keywords?

This is the most important concept in ecommerce keyword research. Every search query has an intent, and that intent determines how likely the searcher is to buy.

Commercial intent keywords are searches made by people actively looking to purchase or compare products:

"buy leather wallet UK"
"best standing desk under £500"
"Dyson vs Shark vacuum cleaner"
"Nike Air Max 90 size 10"

These keywords belong on your product pages and collection pages. They convert.

Informational intent keywords are searches made by people trying to learn something:

"how to clean a leather wallet"
"what is a standing desk"
"how do I know my vacuum has good suction"

These keywords belong on your blog. They build authority and bring in top-of-funnel traffic, but they rarely convert directly on the first visit.

The mistake most Shopify merchants make is targeting informational keywords with collection pages, or commercial keywords with blog posts. Match the intent to the page type.

How do you find the right keywords for your collection pages?

Collection pages are usually the highest-value SEO real estate on a Shopify store. They sit between your homepage and your product pages in the site hierarchy, and they target category-level searches: the broad commercial queries that have the highest search volume.

Step 1: Start with your product categories

List every major category and sub-category you sell. If you sell furniture:

Sofas
Corner sofas
3-seater sofas
Velvet sofas UK
L-shaped sofas

Each of these is a potential collection page and a potential keyword target.

Step 2: Use Google's autocomplete and People Also Ask

Type your category name into Google and note the autocomplete suggestions. These are real searches. Also expand the "People Also Ask" section on the results page. Every question there is a keyword opportunity.

Step 3: Use a keyword tool

Free options:

Google Keyword Planner: Requires a Google Ads account, but free to use. Shows search volume ranges and competition levels.
Ubersuggest: Limited free tier, but useful for basic volume and difficulty data.

Paid options (worth the investment if SEO is a priority):

Ahrefs: The gold standard for ecommerce keyword research. Shows exact monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, traffic potential, and which pages currently rank.
Semrush: Similar feature set, strong for competitor analysis.
Mangools / KWFinder: Lower cost, good for smaller stores.

For each category, find 3-5 keyword variations. Aim for a mix of higher volume (harder to rank) and lower volume (easier to rank, often higher buying intent).

Step 4: Check who currently ranks

For any keyword you are considering, search it on Google and examine the top 10 results. Ask yourself:

Are these large retailers (John Lewis, Amazon, ASOS) or smaller sites?
Are the pages ranking product pages, collection pages, or blog posts?
Does the content on those pages look better or worse than what you could create?

If the first page is dominated by major national retailers, the keyword is probably too competitive for a new or small store. Find a more specific variant instead.

How do you find keywords for product pages?

Product page keywords are more specific than collection page keywords. They target searches for individual products, brands, models, or variants.

Good product page keywords include:

Product name + brand
Product name + key attribute (colour, size, material)
Model number or SKU
Direct purchase intent phrases: "buy", "order", "cheap", "UK", "free delivery"

Use your keyword tool to check whether people are actually searching for the specific product names you use. Sometimes the product name your supplier uses is different from what consumers search for. Adjusting product titles to match actual search queries is one of the quickest wins on most Shopify stores.

See our guide to Shopify product page optimisation for how to apply these keywords once you have found them.

How do you find blog keywords that support your SEO?

Your blog should target informational keywords that are relevant to your product category. The purpose is:

To build topical authority (Google trusts sites that cover a topic in depth)
To capture upper-funnel traffic that can be converted over time
To earn backlinks (informational content attracts far more links than product pages)

To find blog keywords:

Use "how to", "what is", "best way to", and "guide to" modifiers with your product category
Look at your competitors' blogs and find which posts are getting traffic (Ahrefs Site Explorer shows this)
Use Reddit and Quora to find the questions your customers actually ask about your product category

For more detail on turning blog content into SEO traffic, read our guide to Shopify blog SEO.

How do you prioritise keywords once you have a list?

You will end up with more keyword opportunities than you can act on immediately. Prioritise using three factors:

Search volume

Monthly search volume tells you how many people are searching for a term. Higher volume means more potential traffic, but also more competition. A keyword with 500 monthly searches that you can realistically rank for is more valuable than a keyword with 50,000 monthly searches that you have no chance of reaching page one for.

Keyword difficulty

Most keyword tools assign a difficulty score (usually 0-100). For a new or small Shopify store, target keywords with a difficulty below 30. Established stores can target up to 60 with strong content and links.

Business value

Some keywords bring traffic that converts at 5%. Others bring traffic that converts at 0.5%. A keyword that maps directly to a product you sell at a good margin is worth pursuing even at lower search volumes.

Build a simple spreadsheet with columns for: keyword, monthly search volume, difficulty, intent type, page to target, and priority score. A priority score can be as simple as: (volume / difficulty) x business value (1-3). Sort by score and work down the list.

What are long-tail keywords and why do they matter for Shopify?

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific search phrases with lower individual search volume but higher purchase intent. For example:

"dark green velvet 3-seater sofa UK" (long-tail)
"sofas" (short-tail)

Long-tail keywords account for approximately 70% of all search queries. They are easier to rank for, they convert at higher rates, and the cumulative traffic from many long-tail keywords often exceeds the traffic from a single high-volume short-tail term.

For Shopify stores, long-tail keywords often emerge naturally from product variants: size, colour, material, finish. Make sure your product titles and descriptions incorporate these natural variants rather than using generic product names.

How do you track whether your keyword strategy is working?

Keyword research is not a one-off task. You need to monitor performance over time.

Google Search Console shows you which queries your pages are appearing for and at what average position. It is free and essential. Connect it to your Shopify store immediately if you have not already. See our guide to Google Search Console for Shopify for setup and usage.

Rank tracking tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or SERPWatcher let you track specific keyword positions over time and alert you to movements. Set up weekly tracking for your top 20-30 target keywords.

Review your keyword targets every quarter. Remove keywords where you are stuck below position 20 despite good content, and replace them with new opportunities identified through Search Console's query data.

Key actions to take now

List every collection page on your Shopify store and assign a primary keyword to each one. If you have collection pages with no clear keyword target, that is your first priority to fix.
Run your top 10 product titles through Google's autocomplete. Check whether the terms your customers actually search match the titles you are using.
Sign up for Ahrefs (or start a free trial) and run a competitor's domain through Site Explorer. Find which pages drive the most traffic and identify the keywords you are missing.
Build a simple keyword prioritisation spreadsheet with volume, difficulty, intent, and business value columns.
Identify 5-10 long-tail keywords from your product variants (size, colour, material) that are not currently in your product titles or descriptions. Add them.
Connect Google Search Console to your store if it is not already connected, and check the Performance report for queries you are already ranking for but have not optimised for.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many keywords should I target per page? Focus on one primary keyword and 2-3 closely related secondary keywords per page. Trying to target too many keywords on a single page dilutes the relevance signals you send to Google. Each page should have a clear, single topic.

Should I focus on my product pages or collection pages first? Collection pages first. They target higher-volume category keywords and have more ranking potential because they can attract links more naturally than individual product pages. Once your collection pages are optimised, work down to product pages.

Is Google Keyword Planner accurate enough for Shopify SEO? Google Keyword Planner is useful but shows volume in ranges rather than exact numbers for accounts without active spend. It is fine for initial research and identifying whether a keyword has meaningful volume. For more precise data, especially keyword difficulty scores, a paid tool like Ahrefs or Semrush is worth the investment.

How long does it take to rank for new keywords on Shopify? It depends on the keyword's difficulty and your domain's authority. For low-difficulty keywords (under 20), well-optimised pages on an established domain can rank within 4-12 weeks. For competitive keywords, expect 6-12 months of consistent content and link building work before reaching page one.

How to Do Keyword Research for a Shopify Store