When evaluating your e-commerce SEO strategy, focusing on search intent is key to great results. The best way to respond to user needs in real-time for any B2C business is understanding what they are searching for and incorporating their intent into the digital experience.

In this post, we’ll cover four steps you can take today to improve your e-commerce SEO and give your customers exactly what they’re looking for in just a few clicks.

1: Focus on the right intent

The first step in developing your e-commerce SEO strategy is understanding how users interact with search engines when shopping online. For example, consider this search for “red leather handbags:”

This searcher is clearly looking to buy a red leather bag and doesn’t care which website it comes from or who sells it. They are already committed to buying something new so this is an excellent time for you to capture their business by appearing at the top of page one of Google’s results.

Step 2: Use long-tail keywords strategically in product titles and descriptions

Long-tails are keywords or phrases that include 3+ words. These searches tend to be specific about what type, color, size, etc. Their search intent is clear and specific so matching these searches with your products gives the searcher exactly what they’re looking for – saving them time. If they searched “red handbags” they may or may not be looking for a specific color – e.g., black, brown, red, etc.

Step 3: Rewrite titles and descriptions to include all SEO relevant keywords

The best way for you to incorporate search intent into your SEO strategy is by literally rewriting your webpage copy using all of the SEO terms that searchers might use when looking for exactly what you have on offer. For example, if someone was searching for “red leather handbags” you may search for “leather handbags in red color” and add the SEO update to your webpage copy.

Step 4: Use SEO in your product feed and data feeds

Another SEO-relevant area is in your e-commerce product feed. This is the SEO-relevant information you’ll provide to shopping comparison engines like Google Product Search, Bing Shopping, etc. The visual SEO aspect should be separately managed by SEO copywriters, but the content (title, description, image alt tags) should map back to what someone might type into a search engine. You can use tools like Merchant Matrix Toolkit or Google Data Highlighter to help with this process.

By focusing on understanding how users search for intent-based keywords you will give them exactly what they’re looking for – saving both time and money!