Ecommerce trending keyword research is the process of combining 4 data sources: Google Trends for momentum, Google Keyword Planner for demand and advertising value, Google Search Console for queries your site already attracts, and marketplace or social data for product language.
Review the data against and do not choose keywords only because they have high search volume. A useful ecommerce keyword should have:
- Growing or recurring demand
- Clear product or purchase intent
- A close connection to products you sell
- Enough demand to justify a page, campaign or stock decision
- A reasonable chance of staying relevant beyond a short-lived spike
Ecommerce Keyword Research at a Glance
| Tool | Best for | What to look for | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Trends | Detecting growth and seasonality | Rising queries, breakout terms and recurring peaks | Interest is relative, not absolute search volume |
| Google Keyword Planner | Estimating demand and advertising value | Monthly searches, advertiser competition and top-of-page bids | Advertising competition is not organic SEO difficulty |
| Google Search Console | Finding queries your site is already gaining visibility for | Rising impressions, low CTR and positions just outside page one | It only shows data for your website |
| TikTok Creative Center | Finding social product language and emerging trends | Trending hashtags, keywords and products | Social attention may not become lasting search demand |
| Marketplace autocomplete | Finding buyer phrasing | Product attributes, use cases, sizes, colours and problem-based terms | Suggestions do not prove demand by themselves |
1. Start with Product and Category Seed Keywords
Begin with the products, categories and customer problems connected to your store.
A clothing retailer might start with:
- Linen pants
- Women's work trousers
- Wide-leg jeans
- Petite trousers
- Summer dresses
A fitness retailer might start with:
- Resistance bands
- Running shorts
- Walking pads
- Yoga mats
- Adjustable dumbbells
Expand each seed keyword with ecommerce modifiers:
- Product attributes: waterproof hiking jacket, organic cotton sheets
- Audience: women's running shoes, toddler rain boots
- Use case: work-from-home desk, travel backpack with laptop sleeve
- Problem: non-slip yoga mat, cooling pillow for hot sleepers
- Size or fit: petite linen pants, wide calf boots
- Purchase intent: buy, shop, sale, discount, price, online
This gives you a starting list based on customer language rather than your store's internal categories.
2. Use Google Trends to Find Rising Ecommerce Keywords
Google Trends shows whether interest in a keyword is growing, seasonal or declining.
Enter a seed keyword and review:
- Interest over time
- Interest by region
- Related topics
- Related searches
- Google Shopping data, where available
Google Trends lets you analyse an exact search term or a broader topic. A search term measures the precise wording entered into Google. A topic groups related searches that refer to the same concept. Use a search term when wording matters, and a topic when you want a broader view of demand.
Use These Google Trends Filters
- Past 90 days: Find recent momentum
- Past 12 months: Review current seasonality
- Past 5 years: Separate lasting growth from a temporary spike
- Target country or region: Match the data to your market
- Shopping search: Focus on product interest where the option is available
Look for keywords that:
- Have risen steadily rather than spiked once
- Show recurring peaks during a predictable buying season
- Are growing in your target location
- Have related searches that reveal attributes or use cases
- Connect directly to products you stock or can source
Google Trends data is indexed and normalised on a 0 to 100 scale. A score of 100 represents the highest relative interest for the selected term, location and period. It does not mean the keyword received 100 searches, so Google Trends should not replace a search-volume tool. Low-volume keywords may also show as zero.
Check "Rising" and "Breakout" Searches
Google Trends provides "Top" and "Rising" related searches. Rising searches have grown the most compared with the previous period. A "Breakout" label means Google reports growth of more than 5,000 percent.
Treat breakout terms as discovery signals, not automatic business opportunities. A spike may come from a news event, influencer or short period of social attention.
Google's "Trending now" feature focuses on recent surges connected with news stories. It can help you spot immediate attention, but it is less useful for judging lasting ecommerce demand.
3. Validate Demand with Google Keyword Planner
After finding growing phrases in Google Trends, enter them into Google Keyword Planner.
Use Keyword Planner to check:
- Average monthly searches
- Historical demand by month
- Advertiser competition
- Top-of-page bid ranges
- Geographic differences
- Related keyword ideas
Google Keyword Planner provides average monthly search estimates based on the selected location, language, Search Network settings and date range. Its competition metric describes how many advertisers compete for a keyword. It does not measure the difficulty of ranking organically.
How to Interpret the Data
| Keyword pattern | What it may indicate |
|---|---|
| Rising Trends interest and increasing monthly searches | A product category that may be expanding |
| High monthly searches but declining Trends interest | A mature or weakening category |
| Low volume but high top-of-page bids | Smaller demand with strong advertising value |
| High volume and high advertiser competition | A valuable term that may be expensive to target |
| Low volume and low competition | A possible long-tail opportunity if product fit is strong |
| Strong seasonal peaks | A keyword to plan for before demand rises |
Use top-of-page bids as a commercial signal. Advertisers often pay more for keywords closer to a purchase, but bid data does not guarantee organic ranking difficulty or profitability.
4. Use Google Search Console to Find Emerging Keywords
Google Search Console shows the queries for which your website already appears in Google Search.
Open the Performance report and review:
- Queries
- Impressions
- Clicks
- Click-through rate
- Average position
- Pages receiving visibility
You can sort queries by clicks, impressions or CTR, compare time periods, filter a query and see which pages Google associates with it.
Look for these opportunities.
High Impressions with Low CTR
Your page appears for the keyword, but the title, description or page format may not match the searcher's expectation.
Example:
- Query: "women's waterproof walking shoes"
- Existing page: "Women's Shoes"
- Opportunity: Create or improve a dedicated waterproof walking shoe category page
Average Positions from 8 to 20
Keywords in this range already have some relevance and visibility. Improving the page, adding missing product details or creating a more specific landing page may work better than starting with a completely new keyword.
New Non-Branded Queries
Non-branded queries can reveal product categories, use cases and customer problems that your initial research missed.
Queries Assigned to the Wrong Page
If product queries point to a blog post instead of a category or product page, create a page that matches the buying intent more closely.
Search Console has limits. It only covers queries for which your site received visibility, and filters can omit anonymised queries or affect totals. Use it to find customer language and page opportunities, not to estimate the whole market.
5. Mine Marketplaces and Social Platforms for Product Wording
Use search suggestions on the marketplaces where your customers shop. Enter a broad product term and record suggestions related to:
- Materials
- Sizes
- Colours
- Features
- Problems
- Brands
- Occasions
- Compatibility
- Customer types
For example, a search beginning with "travel backpack" might reveal phrases related to:
- Carry-on size
- Personal item dimensions
- Laptop compartments
- Anti-theft features
- Water resistance
- Business travel
TikTok Creative Center can help you find trending hashtags, keywords, product categories and high-performing creative patterns. TikTok describes Creative Center as a public resource for discovering trends, ad examples, keywords and products.
Use social trends carefully. A viral product may attract attention without producing stable search demand, sufficient margins or reliable supply.
6. Separate Lasting Ecommerce Trends from Temporary Spikes
A keyword becomes more useful when it passes several checks at the same time.
Stronger Trend Signal
A keyword is more promising when it:
- Grows across several months
- Shows recurring seasonal demand
- Appears in Google Shopping or other product-focused searches
- Has related product and purchase queries
- Matches a product with reliable availability
- Has a clear landing-page opportunity
- Appears across search, marketplace and social data
Weaker Trend Signal
Be cautious when a keyword:
- Spikes for only a few days
- Is tied to a news event or celebrity
- Has no clear product behind it
- Gets social engagement but little search interest
- Refers to a product you cannot stock consistently
- Has high interest but no clear purchase intent
Do not build permanent category pages around every short-term trend. When demand is uncertain, test it with temporary content, paid campaigns or a limited product run.
7. Score Each Keyword Before Creating a Page
A simple score helps prevent decisions based on search volume alone. Rate each candidate from 0 to 3 across five criteria.
| Criterion | 0 | 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Trend strength | Falling or unexplained spike | Sustained or recurring growth |
| Buyer intent | Informational only | Clear product or purchase intent |
| Product fit | Weak connection to your catalogue | Direct connection to a profitable product |
| Demand durability | Likely one-off interest | Evergreen or predictable seasonal demand |
| Business value | Low margin or difficult fulfilment | Strong margin and reliable supply |
A keyword scoring 12 to 15 deserves immediate investigation. A score of 8 to 11 may suit a test campaign or supporting content. A score below 8 usually needs more evidence before you invest heavily.
This score helps you prioritise keywords. It does not predict traffic or revenue.
8. Match the Keyword to the Right Ecommerce Page
The keyword should guide the page type.
| Search intent | Example keyword | Best page type |
|---|---|---|
| Broad category | women's hiking boots | Category page |
| Specific product group | waterproof women's hiking boots | Filtered category or subcategory |
| Attribute-based shopping | wide-leg linen pants | Collection page |
| Product comparison | best walking pad for small apartments | Buying guide with product links |
| Product-specific | Nike Mercurial football boots | Product or brand landing page |
| Informational | how to wash linen pants | Editorial guide |
| Promotional | linen pants sale | Sale or campaign landing page |
Do not force every keyword onto a product page. A broad category query needs product choice and filtering. A specific product query needs details, availability, price and reviews. An informational query needs a useful explanation before a commercial recommendation.
9. Build a Monthly Ecommerce Keyword Workflow
Run this process once a month, with extra checks before major seasonal campaigns:
- Export new queries from Google Search Console.
- Review Google Trends for your main product categories.
- Record rising and recurring related searches.
- Validate candidates in Keyword Planner.
- Check marketplace autocomplete and social product language.
- Remove keywords with weak product fit or unreliable demand.
- Score the remaining keywords.
- Map each keyword to a category page, product page, guide or campaign page.
- Track impressions, clicks, CTR, conversions and revenue after publishing.
Keep the final keyword list tied to a business decision. A term may deserve a new page, a seasonal campaign, a product test or no investment at all. The data should make that choice easier.