Keyword research is the process of identifying the specific words and phrases that your target customers type into search engines when looking for products, information, or solutions related to your business. It is the foundation of any SEO or content strategy - without understanding what people are actually searching for, optimising content is guesswork. For Shopify brands, keyword research informs which collection pages to build, which product descriptions to optimise, which blog topics to cover, and which paid search terms to bid on.
Commercial intent keywords signal purchase readiness: buy organic collagen powder, best running shoes for flat feet, Shopify agency Portland Maine. These terms have high conversion rates when captured because the searcher is close to a decision. Collection pages and product pages should target commercial keywords.
Informational keywords reflect research behaviour: how to reduce cart abandonment, what is CLTV, collagen benefits for skin. These terms have lower direct conversion rates but are essential for top-of-funnel content that builds brand awareness, earns backlinks, and creates internal linking opportunities to commercial pages. Blog content and guides target informational keywords.
Navigational keywords are brand-specific searches - these are typically high-intent and dominated by the brand itself.
The distinction between keyword types matters because it determines the right page type and content format. Sending informational searchers to a product page, or commercial searchers to a blog post, mismatches intent and produces high bounce rates regardless of ranking.
The standard toolkit includes tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google Search Console. The process typically follows four steps. First, seed keyword generation: listing the core terms that describe your products and categories from the customer's perspective (not internal product names). Second, expansion: using keyword tools to find related terms, questions, and long-tail variations around those seeds - these often reveal high-opportunity, low-competition keywords missed by competitors. Third, evaluation: assessing each keyword for search volume (how many monthly searches), keyword difficulty (how competitive the ranking landscape is), and commercial intent (how close to purchase the searcher likely is). Fourth, prioritisation: mapping keywords to specific pages based on intent match, and identifying the highest-value opportunities - often long-tail terms with moderate volume and low difficulty rather than high-volume head terms dominated by large retailers.
For Shopify brands, the most impactful keyword research focuses on collection-level terms. A running shoe brand might find that a category term has 8,000 monthly searches with moderate competition - representing a collection page opportunity worth significant investment. Individual product pages typically target long-tail variations that are lower volume but very high intent.
Google Search Console is an underused starting point for Shopify keyword research: it shows exactly which queries your existing pages already appear for, often revealing ranking opportunities on page 2 or 3 that can be captured with content improvements rather than new page creation. Pairing Search Console data with keyword ranking tracking and a content calendar creates a systematic, ongoing SEO programme rather than a one-time exercise.
Keyword research also directly informs content marketing strategy - the same terms your customers search for when discovering products are the topics your blog should cover. A brand that builds content around the questions its customers ask earns compounding organic traffic while building the internal link structure that strengthens its commercial page rankings across search results.
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