Here is how you can lay strong long-term SEO foundations for e-commerce sites, new or established.
Keyword Scraping
Scraped all the keywords.
I am talking about all competitors’ keywords and all keywords in different databases, from Semrush to Ahrefs, says Tryggvi Rafn.
For this store we ended up with over 100K keywords, meaning a complete topic overview.
Keyword Clustering
Clustering these keywords is about creating page-level groups of keywords that belong together.
These keywords are then defined as main keywords and secondary keywords.
Cluster Intent
Although you can define different levels of intent, we are looking for product intent vs information intent.
Is Google showing product and category pages, or are there information articles ranking?
HUB & Spokes
After the first phase of intent mapping, narrowing the intent even further helps with content planning.
How To vs Best Product vs collection product comparison
At the same time, here you can organize all information content into HUBs that are attached to collection pages.
Example: “Smokeless Fire Pits”
Smokeless Fire Pits > Main Collection Page Portable smokeless fire pits > sub-Collection
Best smokeless Fire Pits > BOF / Blog Are smokeless fire pits worth it >MOF / Blog How does a smokeless fire pit work > TOP / Blog
Note: some of these might end up as FAQs on collections, blogs, or product pages rather than their own articles.
Site Architecture
With a list of 300 possible collection pages, it’s possible to build out collection pages based on product availability…
It also gives a great overview of topics based on total search volume instead of just keywords.
That gives us an overview when we design the store’s menu and footer.
It also allows us to map out all internal links & anchors before even starting on the content.
Content Priority
Its now possible to start building out collection pages, product pages, and information articles based on resources available while still understanding how the store will look 12 months down the line.
I personally start with top-level collections and blogs to help with store navigation, menu, and search features.
“Fire Pits” “Smokeless Fire Pits” “Fire Pit Table”
Fire pit buying guide Best Fire Pits
Workflows
Create workflows for content and technical audits and make sure you are always workflows to find opportunities and mistakes.
