What is a Keyword?
A keyword is a search term or phrase representing user intent (e.g., “nike air max 270 men 45 waterproof”). In SEO/onsite search, keywords guide content, navigation, and ranking, from head terms to long-tail specifics.
How It Works (quick)
- Types: Head (high volume, broad), mid-tail, long-tail (specific, high intent).
- Signals: Tokens/entities (brand, model, size, material, budget); synonyms and variants.
- Mapping: Align keywords to canonical pages (categories, collections, PDPs, guides) and facets.
- Retrieval: Lexical (BM25, bigrams, exact) + semantic vectors; re-rank with business signals.
- Analytics: Mine site-search logs and GSC; cluster queries to discover gaps.
Why It Matters in E-commerce
- Demand capture: Route shoppers to the right landing page immediately.
- SEO coverage: Create/optimize pages for recurring intents (e.g., “waterproof trail shoes men”).
- Merchandising: Inform collections, filters, and copy; reduce zero results.
Best Practices
- Build a keyword → page/facet map; avoid cannibalization.
- Use synonyms and locale variants (trainers ↔ sneakers; gtx ↔ GORE-TEX).
- Support exact fields for SKUs/MPNs and phrase/bigram for common pairs.
- Write helpful, unique copy; avoid stuffing.
- Evaluate by intent: informational vs transactional vs navigational.
- Measure CTR, conversion, zero-results, reformulations per keyword cluster.
Challenges
- Ambiguity (“apple” brand vs fruit); seasonality; multi-locale management; thin or duplicate pages.
Examples
- Keyword: “air max 270 men 45” → category results filtered by brand/model/size.
- Keyword: “gift card balance” → direct to help-center article.
- Keyword: “gtx trail running shoes” → collection page with waterproof facet applied.
Summary
Keywords are compact expressions of intent. Map them to the right pages and facets, support synonyms and exact fields, and track performance by cluster to lift discovery and conversion.
