Keyword research per product versus per category in the beauty industry – which is more effective?

Owners of online shops in the beauty industry often find it extremely difficult to establish and then maintain a strong presence in the market. The direct reason is huge competition, which makes acquiring new customers increasingly harder. Luckily, what could be of an equally huge help here is SEO.

Proper optimisation of product cards can make it easier for potential customers to find desired items on the internet. But how to deal with the issue if our shop features hundreds or even thousands of articles? How to approach the subject if we have limited time and budget? Here’s the good news – there are ways.

You can’t optimise product cards if you haven’t identified keywords. Keyword research is one of positioning pillars, which requires knowledge, skills, and appropriate tools. Even though there’s no lack of e-commerce platform owners who try to deal with this single-handedly, it usually proves to be an uphill struggle due to the imposing presence of large brands. One of the biggest challenges here is choosing a strategy that is not only simple to implement but also effective.

What exactly are keywords and what function do they serve in product cards? In a nutshell: they are nothing else than phrases that potential customers type into search engines (Google or the ones integrated into e-commerce platforms). If our content is optimised with search engines in mind, we’re more likely to rank higher. We’ll be more visible, and – in consequence – users will find our products with considerably greater ease.

Keywords come in different shapes and forms, and are selected based on the platform on which we sell a product. While several entries can be adapted without much hustle, the situation becomes somewhat more problematic if we have loads of them. In such cases, we have to begin by determining what strategy will yield us the best keywords.

If a product card is to be visible, it should meet a vast array of requirements. One of them is containing content optimised in terms of keywords. SEO in the beauty industry is characterised by huge competitiveness. It entails competing with such brands as Rossmann or L’Oréal. It doesn’t mean, however, that our positioning strategy is doomed to fail from the get-go. The key is selecting the one that would suit us best.

If our shop features items that belong to various categories and have different properties or purpose, we should conduct a per-product analysis. Otherwise, we may fail to account for all crucial features, and our list will turn out chaotic, even when filtered.

This process will be perfect also if we want to focus only on selected items, critical in terms of a given market.

How do we do it at locatheart?

At locatheart, we use a method that has been tried and tested in multiple projects carried out for both larger and smaller brands. If products are so different that they cannot be divided into coherent categories, we need to search for keywords relevant to every single item.

What does the process look like in such a situation?

Even though performing keyword research for every single product may be time-consuming, it allows for conducting an in-depth analysis and finding a perfect match. Not always, however, is this action necessary. Sometimes, products are similar enough to be grouped into larger categories.

In principle, keyword research per category resembles keyword research per product. What distinguishes it, however, is that it requires us to take more factors into consideration. First, we need to determine to what extent our products are similar to each other, and to what extent they differ. Perhaps they have unique formulas or properties, or the purpose of one of them varies from the rest. Perhaps they are distinguishable only in terms of colour or packaging. We need to check it thoroughly before we begin preparing the list of keywords. Thanks to this, we’ll know what filters to apply and how to group the items.

When it comes to finding phrases per category, we can approach the subject in two ways.

In the case of this project, phrases were grouped based on features such as form, ingredients, and purpose. Thanks to this, it was easier for us to identify keywords related to a specific product.

The greatest merit of researching per category is that you don’t have to conduct the same analysis over and over again. If we had to do it for each item separately, it would cost us a lot more time, and, to top it off, the quality of phrases wouldn’t be higher.

Moreover, the category in the online shop won’t always match the category determined by keyword research. In some situations, the category in the shop is too broad for us to apply all the phrases from the list. If that’s the case, we have to divide the products into new, slightly narrower categories, thanks to which we’ll maintain readability.

Keyword research per category is, admittedly, less precise, but significantly quicker to perform. It also allows for cost management, as it lets us create broader or narrower categories of respectively lower or higher match precision. It proves indispensable in the case of large shops and whenever there’s a need for immediate action – for example when we enter a new market and want to introduce our entire assortment all at once. Phrases per category also come in handy if we plan to broaden our assortment within a given category.

Are your product cards in desperate need of high-quality keywords? Do you feel unsure of how to come to grips with the analysis? Or maybe you’re struggling with grouping your items in an effective way?