Keyword Research Template for eCommerce
A working spreadsheet rather than an article about one. Four tabs, an opportunity score that calculates itself, and a page map built to expose the cannibalisation that most keyword research quietly creates.
FORMAT
XLSX
CONTAINS
4 tabs
LAST UPDATED
September 2026
LICENCE
Free, unrestricted
Keyword research is a page-mapping exercise. The spreadsheet is where that becomes visible.
- What is inside
Four tabs, each with one job
The workbook is deliberately small. Keyword research spreadsheets fail by growing columns nobody fills in.
Read me
Five lines on how to use the workbook and the one rule that makes keyword research work. Delete it once you have read it.
- The one-keyword-one-page rule, stated plainly
- What the opportunity column is and is not
- The order to work the tabs in
Keywords
The working tab. Paste an export from any keyword tool into the first five columns and fill in the rest as you make decisions.
- Keyword, cluster, intent, volume, difficulty
- Current rank and target page
- Opportunity score, calculated for you
- Priority and notes for the things a number cannot hold
Page map
One row per page rather than per keyword. This is the tab that shows you two pages chasing the same term.
- Target page, page type and status
- One primary keyword per page, enforced by the format
- Secondary keywords the same page can satisfy
- Owner, so the work has a name attached
Clusters
The demand view. Where a cluster has volume and no page, you have found something worth building.
- Cluster, primary page and page type
- Keywords in cluster and total volume
- Has a page? — the column that produces the plan
- Gap or action for each cluster
- The structure
Columns on the Keywords tab
So you can see whether it fits your process before downloading anything.
Column
What goes in it
Source
Keyword
One search term per row, lowercase
Your keyword tool export
Cluster
The group of terms one page can satisfy
Your judgement
Intent
Commercial, informational, navigational or transactional
Your judgement
Monthly volume
Average monthly searches
Keyword tool
Difficulty
Whatever difficulty score your tool produces
Keyword tool
Current rank
Where you rank today, or zero
Rank tracker or Search Console
Target page
The one URL that should own this term
Your decision
Page type
Category, product, article, guide or hub
Your decision
Opportunity
Volume divided by difficulty, rounded
Calculated
Priority
High, medium or low, decided by you
Your judgement
Notes
Anything the numbers do not hold
You
The opportunity column is a sort order, not a truth. It ignores commercial value entirely, which is why priority is a separate human column.
- How to use it
Four passes through the workbook
Work in this order. Doing the page map before the clustering is the most common way to end up with a spreadsheet nobody acts on.
Gather without judging
- Export from whichever tool you use, plus Search Console
- Include terms you already rank for, not just aspirational ones
- Add the phrases your support inbox uses
- Do not filter yet — filtering early hides demand
Cluster by what a page can satisfy
- A cluster is not a topic, it is a page’s worth of intent
- If two terms need different pages, they are different clusters
- Keep clusters small enough to write one page for
- Name clusters in your customers’ language, not internal jargon
Map one keyword to one page
- Every keyword gets exactly one target page
- Every page gets exactly one primary keyword
- Duplicates in the page map are cannibalisation, visible early
- Decide which page wins rather than leaving both to compete
Turn the gaps into a plan
- Clusters with volume and no page are your build list
- Pages with a keyword and no content are your rewrite list
- Sort by priority, not by opportunity score
- Give each row an owner and a date, or nothing happens
A finished workbook should produce two lists: pages to build and pages to rewrite. If it has not produced those, the mapping pass is not done.
- Common mistakes
What goes wrong with keyword research
Three failure modes that turn a good research pass into a spreadsheet nobody opens again.
Letting two pages share a keyword
This is the expensive one. Two pages targeting the same intent split their signals, rank inconsistently and each underperform what one page would have achieved. The page map tab exists specifically to make it visible.
Sorting by volume and starting at the top
The highest-volume term in your category is usually the hardest and the least commercially specific. A cluster of smaller, high-intent terms is nearly always the better first project.
Researching without deciding
A spreadsheet with four hundred keywords and no target pages is data collection, not research. The output of this work is a list of pages to build, with owners.
If you only fill in two tabs, make them Page map and Clusters. The keyword list is the input; those two are the output.
DOWNLOAD
Keyword Research Template — XLSX
Four tabs with working formulas and example rows you delete. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers and LibreOffice. No macros, so nothing is blocked by your IT policy.
FORMAT
XLSX spreadsheet
TABS
Read me, Keywords, Page map, Clusters
ROWS READY
40 blank, 4 examples
LICENCE
Free, commercial use
No email address, no sign-up and no watermark. If a formula is wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
- Questions
Keyword research template FAQs
What people ask before and after downloading.
Which keyword tool does this work with?
Any of them. The first five columns match what every major tool exports, so you paste rather than retype. The workbook deliberately does not depend on a particular tool’s difficulty scale, because you are comparing rows against each other rather than against an absolute.
How is the opportunity score calculated?
Monthly volume divided by difficulty, rounded to one decimal. It is a sort order rather than a truth: it ignores commercial value completely, which is why priority is a separate column you fill in yourself.
What counts as a cluster?
A group of keywords one page can satisfy properly. Not a topic, and not a category in your merchandising structure. If two terms would need different pages to answer them well, they belong in different clusters even when they sound similar.
Why does the page map only allow one primary keyword?
Because cannibalisation is the most common and most expensive mistake in eCommerce keyword research. Forcing one primary keyword per page makes the conflict visible in the spreadsheet rather than six months later in your rankings.
Does this work for marketplace keyword research?
Partly. The structure holds, but marketplace search behaves differently and the page map concept does not apply in the same way. The Amazon listing checklist covers marketplace keyword work specifically.
Will it open in Google Sheets?
Yes. It is a standard XLSX with no macros, so Google Sheets, Numbers and LibreOffice all open it and the formulas carry across intact.
How often should keyword research be redone?
A full pass once a year for most stores, with the page map kept current as pages are added. The cluster view is worth revisiting quarterly, because new demand appears faster than existing demand disappears.
Can you do this for us?
Yes, it is part of our eCommerce SEO work, and a lighter version of it is included in the free audit so you can see the approach before committing to anything.
- Keep reading
Related resources
What to do with the workbook once it is filled in.
CHECKLIST
Forty-two checks covering the technical and architectural work that has to be right before keywords matter.
GUIDE
How keyword mapping works within Shopify’s fixed URL structures, with the constraints stated plainly.
TEMPLATE
The reporting counterpart: monthly trading, channel mix and contribution margin in one workbook.
Want the research done properly, once?
A free eCommerce audit includes a keyword and page-mapping pass on your own store, so you can see where demand exists that you have no page for.