Find keywords for an online store without paid tools
To find keywords for an online store, you spot the exact words buyers type into Google before they order, then put those words on the right pages. You need no paid tool and no industry jargon to do it: the best sources are your own store, your inbox and the Google search box. Here is the method, in about an hour, with a usable list at the end.
TL;DR
- The words that bring you buyers are your customers' words, not your trade's words.
- Five free sources are enough: Google suggestions, the questions shown in the results, your own store search box, your inbox and Search Console.
- A keyword is worth it if the person typing it wants to buy what you sell, and if you have a page that genuinely answers.
- One keyword, one page: two pages aiming at the same search compete with each other.
- One hour is enough to pull ten keywords and know which page to write first.
Table of contents
- Why your customers do not search with your words
- Where to find keywords for an online store without paid tools
- How to tell if a keyword is worth it
- Which page should target which keyword
- Mistakes that cost you visitors
- Where to start this week
- Frequently asked questions
Why your customers do not search with your words
A coffee roaster talks about grind size and origin. His customer types "what coffee for a moka pot". A candle maker writes "coconut soy blend, cotton wick" on the product page. Her buyer searches "candle that actually smells strong". Both describe the same object, in two vocabularies that never meet.
That gap explains most stores with no visitors. Your pages may be well written, but they answer a question nobody asks. Google does not guess that your "coconut soy blend" is the answer to "candle that actually smells strong": it matches what it reads on your page against what people type.
The good news is that you do not have to invent those words. They already exist, written down, in five places you can open for free today.
Where to find keywords for an online store without paid tools
Open a three column table: the phrase typed, what the person wants, the page that could answer. Fill it in by working through these five sources in order.
1. The Google search box
Type one of your product names into Google without pressing enter, and watch the suggestions unfold. These are real searches, ranked by how often they are made. Type "leather tote" and you get "leather tote for laptop", "leather tote that ages well", "small leather tote for work". You just collected three topics and three ways to describe your products.
Do it again with the start of a question: "how to choose a", "difference between", "why does my". Those openers surface the real hesitations buyers have.
2. The questions and related searches in the results
Run the search, then scroll. Google shows a block of expandable questions, and at the very bottom a list of related searches. Both are built from what people search next, so both are a gift.
Write the wording down exactly as it appears, clumsiness included. "Does shampoo bar ruin your hair" is a better line in your table than "effects of solid shampoo on the hair fiber".
3. Your own store search box
Your visitors already tell you what they want, right on your site. Every phrase typed into your store search is an explicit request, often with zero results when you do not carry that product yet. Shopify and WooCommerce both let you get at this, either in the built in stats or through an add on.
This is the most overlooked source, and the most profitable one: these people are already in your store.
4. Your inbox, your messages, your support requests
Open the last thirty customer messages and copy their questions word for word into your table. A specialty food store that gets "does this need refrigeration" four times has both a topic and a sentence to add to several product pages.
These words have a quality the other sources lack: they come from people who already bought from you, or were about to.
5. Search Console
This is the free Google tool that lists the searches people already found you through, even when they did not click. It is useless in your first month, because it has nothing to show, and it becomes your best source once a few pages have been live for a while.
You only need one screen, the one listing queries. Searches where you already appear without ranking well are your easiest targets: Google already associates you with that topic.
How to tell if a keyword is worth it
Your list is now too long. Run every line through three questions.
Does the person typing this want to buy what I sell? "How to make soap at home" attracts people who want to make it, not buy it. "Solid soap for dry skin" attracts a buyer. The first inflates your traffic numbers, the second fills your cart.
Do I have a page that genuinely answers? If not, write down the page to create. A keyword with no page behind it is worth nothing, and a page thrown together just to hold a keyword does not hold up either.
Can I be more specific than the big sites? On "mug", you sit behind every large retailer. On "handmade stoneware coffee mug", you have a real chance, and the people typing that phrase are exactly yours. A specific search brings fewer people, but it brings the right ones.
Keep ten lines at most to start. A list of a hundred keywords you will never act on is worth less than a list of ten you actually work through.
Which page should target which keyword
Every keyword should land on a single page, and every page should target a single main keyword. Two pages aiming at the same search do not add up: they compete with each other, and Google ends up picking one of them, often not the one you wanted.
Sorting is simple once you look at the intent behind the search.
| What the customer types | What they want | The page that answers |
|---|---|---|
| handmade stoneware coffee mug | to buy now | the product page |
| handmade ceramic mugs | to compare a range | the collection page |
| best mug for pour over coffee | to decide before buying | a blog post |
| how to care for a stoneware mug | reassurance before or after buying | a blog post |
Buying phrases go on your product and collection pages. Question phrases go on articles, which then point to the relevant products. That path is what turns a reader into a visitor on your product pages. We cover the landing page side in how to rank a product page on Google, and how to pull topics out of your catalog in ten blog post ideas for an online store.
Mistakes that cost you visitors
Writing in your trade's words. This is the most common and most expensive mistake. Your technical terms reassure the connoisseurs, but nobody types them. Keep them in the body of the page, and put the customer's word in the title.
Aiming at a phrase that is too broad. "Jewelry" or "home decor" are out of reach for a small store, and those searches bring people who do not know what they want yet. A four or five word phrase beats a single word.
Repeating the keyword everywhere. Dropping your keyword fifteen times on a page does not lift you, and it makes the text painful to read. Once in the title, once in the opening lines, once in a subheading, and write the rest normally.
Creating two pages on the same keyword. This happens fast when you write without a list: an article and a collection page aiming at the same search weaken each other. Your three column table exists precisely to prevent that.
Finding the words and never writing the pages. Keyword research is pleasant, you can spend weeks on it. The value is in the published pages, not in the table.
Where to start this week
Block one hour. Open a three column table, work through the five sources above and stop at ten lines. For each one, note the page that answers, or the page to create.
Then pick the three lines closest to your best selling products. Two will improve existing product pages, the third becomes an article. Write that single article this week, then come back to the table the following week. After a few months you have a handful of pages that each answer a real search, and a method to find more whenever you need them. For why those pages end up selling, see our pillar post on why a blog sells for an online store.
That is the work Ecomrank does: writing SEO articles around your Shopify or WooCommerce catalog, publishing them on your store blog and linking them to your product pages, to bring in visitors without an advertising budget. Ecomrank is live: the trial is free for 7 days and you can cancel anytime.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a paid tool to find keywords?
No, not for a small store getting started. Google suggestions, the questions shown in the results, your internal search and your inbox cover the first months comfortably. Paid tools are mainly for comparing search volumes, which becomes useful later, when you have to choose between several topics that are all already sound.
How many keywords does a small store need?
Ten well chosen ones beat a hundred listed. Count one main keyword per important page: your best product pages, your two or three collections, and the articles you publish. A store with twenty products does fine with twenty to thirty keywords tracked, added over the months.
Can a product page and an article target the same keyword?
Better not to. The two pages end up competing on the same search and Google picks one, often not the one you wanted. Give the buying phrase to the product page, and a neighboring question to the article, which then links to the product.
How long before I see an effect?
Nobody can promise you a date, and be wary of anyone who does. On a young store, expect several weeks before Google discovers a new page, and longer before it settles in the results. Check whether the page is indexed first, then whether it shows up on any searches, and only after that look at its position.