Bol.com

How do you improve your findability on bol with a keyword strategy? (2/4)

Lars Hurkmans·Co-founder·13 November 2023·Reading time 17 minutes

You improve your findability on bol by building your product title from the keywords your target audience searches for. You collect those terms from the listings of well-selling competitors, split them into base words and specifications, and order them so you get found on as many combinations as possible.This is part two of our four-part series on improving your findability on bol. In the previous article we explained how the bol algorithm works; here we apply that foundation to a concrete example product, with a focus on the product title.

Which product do we use as an example?

We work through title optimisation using a concrete example product: an ultrasonic repeller. That's a device that repels unwanted animals and insects with ultrasonic sound waves. These sound waves are generally inaudible to humans, but can be disturbing to certain animals. Our goal is to improve the findability and appeal of this product on bol, with a specific focus on improving the product title.

The ultrasonic repeller we use in this example has the following characteristics:

• Suitable for: Outdoors
• Sound frequency: 15 kHz - 50 kHz
• Power type: Battery / Solar
• Repeller type: Ultrasonic sound
• Waterproof: Yes
• Range: 15 metres
• Colour: Green
• Brand: Unbranded

Now that the product specifications are clear, it's important to understand the sound frequency of the ultrasonic repeller, since this plays a key role in the effectiveness and marketing of the product. The frequency ranges from 15 kHz to 50 kHz have been carefully chosen to repel different kinds of animals and insects:

• 20 kHz - 30 kHz: Effective against smaller rodents such as mice and rats.
• 30 kHz - 50 kHz: Suitable for repelling larger animals, such as cats, dogs and certain bird species.
• 50 kHz and higher: Used against a wider range of animals and insects, but with varying effectiveness.

This information is essential, not just for understanding the product, but also for positioning it in the market. It helps us position the ultrasonic repeller effectively for potential customers with specific needs.

The current product listing on bol for this product is shown in the image below.

Our goal is to attract a wide range of consumers, including those looking for a general outdoor animal repeller and specifically for an ultrasonic repeller that runs on solar power. That's why in this article we focus on developing an optimised title that can increase the product's visibility and appeal on bol.

How do you assess the current product title?

You assess a title by holding it up against how the bol algorithm works. To improve the title, we first need to evaluate how well the current title is put together. We do that in light of the bol algorithm, explained in the previous article. As a reminder, some of the important points:

1. Popularity and keyword relevance: The basic findability of products is determined by category positions, which in turn are influenced by click and purchase behaviour. For search queries, keyword relevance also plays a role, where the search term is compared against product specifications and the product title.
2. The 'or' condition for keywords: With partial matches between keywords and product specifications, products that match those specifications get priority. If a keyword doesn't directly match a specification, the algorithm uses an 'or' condition to look at separate terms in the search query.
3. Difference between '-' and '|' as separators: The bol algorithm treats these separators differently. The '|' character is treated as a true separator, meaning terms are treated separately, while '-' isn't treated as a strict separator.

The product's current title is "Repeller Ultrasonic | Waterproof | Deterrent | Extra large range | Outdoor". We can make the following observations about this:

1. Title structure: The title uses separate keywords separated by '|', which means the product won't be found on combined search terms such as "ultrasonic cat repeller". The title also lacks a logical structure.
2. Use of keywords: The current title presents the product specifically as a 'Repeller Ultrasonic', which limits the product's broader applicability, given its frequency range.
3. Choice of specifications: There seems to be a deliberate choice to highlight a number of specifications, such as the waterproof aspect and the extra large range. The question is whether it's wise to add these specifications to the title in this way.

Our goal is to develop a title that:

1. Contains more relevant keywords for a broader reach;
2. Places keywords in an order that optimises findability for a wide combination of search terms;
3. Is easy for consumers to understand, which increases the chance of clicks.

Why do you need a strong basic listing first?

Title optimisation works best when the foundation of your product listing is already solid. Before we go deeper into the title, it's therefore important to first get that foundation in order. Read more about this in this article. Some important aspects to include:

• High-quality images: Images that clearly show the product from different angles are essential for attracting the attention of potential buyers and generating clicks.
• Complete product description: A well-structured and informative description that highlights the product's key characteristics and answers common consumer questions.

Although these elements don't directly affect keyword findability on bol, they play an important role in a product's success. Good images and descriptions contribute to higher click and conversion rates, which in turn can lead to a better position in category rankings, since these depend heavily on the number of clicks and sales. This indirectly influences findability within keyword positions, since keyword positions are also determined partly by category positions. That's why it's wise to only put this strategy into practice once you have a solid basic listing.

Which tools do you use for title optimisation?

For optimising your product title, you choose a tool that identifies relevant keywords, shows the competition on those keywords, and gives insight into the relationships between keywords. Optimising our product title on bol requires precise and in-depth insight into keyword usage. To do this effectively, it's essential to choose a tool that not only meets our basic needs but also offers us strategic advantages. Here are the key criteria for our tool selection:

1. Identifying relevant keywords: The core of our title optimisation is finding the right keywords. We need a tool that gives us detailed insight into the keywords that are relevant for our product, and that helps us understand which terms consumers use to find similar products on bol. This insight is crucial for drafting a title that isn't just appealing, but also matches the target audience's search queries.
2. Analysing competition and keyword competitiveness: It isn't enough to just know which keywords are popular; we also need to understand how competitive these keywords are. An ideal tool should give insight into how many other products use the same keywords, and what the chances are of standing out in a crowded market. This lets us strategically decide which keywords we need to target for maximum visibility.
3. Insight into related keywords and their relationships: The relationship between different keywords is a complex but important aspect of keyword optimisation. We're looking for a tool that not only shows us related keywords, but also gives insight into the nature of these relationships. This includes the distinction between short-tail and long-tail keywords, and how contextually related terms can contribute to a broader reach and better targeting of our product title. Short-tail keywords are broad, general terms that attract a high search volume but are often very competitive. Long-tail keywords are more specific terms that attract less traffic, but often lead to higher conversion rates because of their specific nature. Contextually related terms help reach users who search with different but related terms, and can improve overall findability.

With these criteria clearly in mind, we examine three available tools to determine which one best meets our needs for effective title optimisation on bol.

What can bol search trends do?

Bol search trends is free within your seller account and shows search volume and related keywords, but lacks competitor analysis and reverse search. One of the first tools we consider for our title optimisation is bol search trends. This tool is directly available in the seller account on bol and offers valuable insight into consumer search behaviour. Here are some key points about this tool:

• Search volume insights: bol search trends lets us see the search volume of specific keywords. Search volume indicates how often consumers enter a certain term in the search bar, which helps us understand the popularity of certain search terms.
• Related keywords: A useful feature of bol search trends is showing related keywords. When we enter a base keyword, the tool provides a list of related terms consumers also use. This helps us identify a wider range of relevant keywords we can consider for our product title.

Despite these advantages, bol search trends has some limitations that make it less ideal for our in-depth title analysis:

• Lack of competitor analysis: bol search trends shows the demand side (search volume), but gives no insight into the supply side. This means we have no information about how many products are found with these keywords or how competitive these keywords are.
• Limited insight into keyword relationships: Although the tool shows related keywords, it doesn't explain the type of relationship between these keywords, such as whether they're short-tail, long-tail or contextually related.
• No reverse search functionality: bol search trends doesn't offer a way to see which keywords specific products are found under, a feature that would be useful for quickly performing competitor analysis.

What can Bollify's Keyword Discovery do?

Bollify's Keyword Discovery offers more related keywords than bol search trends, shows the number of listings per keyword and extra data such as average price and review score, but lacks reverse search and deeper insight into keyword relationships. This tool, developed by a third party, is designed to offer deeper insights than bol search trends. Here are the key features and capabilities:

1. Extensive list of related keywords: Keyword Discovery offers a more extensive overview of related keywords compared to bol search trends. This is crucial for finding a wide range of relevant terms that can be used to enrich our product title.
2. Ability to analyse multiple keywords at once: The tool lets us use up to 10 keywords in a single query, which helps carry out an extensive analysis in less time.
3. Insight into number of listings per keyword: Keyword Discovery shows the number of products found for each keyword, giving some insight into competitiveness.
4. Additional keyword information: The tool offers extra information such as the average price, review score, and the number of sponsored products on the first page. This kind of data can be valuable when making strategic decisions about keyword use.
5. Keyword sorting functions: This functionality makes it easier to organise the collected data and set priorities in our keyword strategy.

Although Keyword Discovery offers considerable advantages, there are some important things missing for our use case:

• Partial insight into keyword competitiveness: Although the number of listings per keyword is useful, it doesn't offer a complete picture of the relevance of competitors. This can limit us in effectively assessing how challenging it is to reach a top position in the search results.
• No reverse search functionality: Just like bol search trends, Keyword Discovery offers no way to see which keywords specific products are found under.
• Limited insight into keyword relationships: Although the tool shows through which keyword a related keyword is found, it offers no clear information about the nature of these relationships (short-tail, long-tail, contextual).

What can MarktMentor's Keyword Guide do?

MarktMentor's Keyword Guide is a specialised tool for keyword optimisation on bol and offers keyword analysis, insight into keyword relationships, the sales needed to rank, and product-based competitor analysis. Here's an overview of the Keyword Guide's key features:

1. Keyword analysis: This tool offers a detailed overview of keywords relevant to a particular product or category. It helps users identify both popular and niche keywords that can be used to increase a product's visibility.
2. Insight into keyword relationships: The Keyword Guide gives insight into how different keywords are connected to each other. This includes information about short-tail (general) and long-tail (specific) keywords, as well as contextually related terms. This feature is useful for creating a balanced keyword strategy that includes both broad and targeted approaches.
3. Sales needed to be found: A distinctive feature of the Keyword Guide is that it gives insight into the sales numbers needed to rank high for certain keywords. This kind of information can be used strategically to determine which keywords to focus on.
4. Product-based keyword analysis: Another useful feature is the ability to analyse keywords based on specific products. This lets sellers see which keywords their products and those of competitors are found under, which provides valuable insights for competitor analysis.

There are a few considerations when using the Keyword Guide:

• Data refresh: MarktMentor's Keyword Guide uses a unique method to analyse keyword data, deploying algorithms that combine both current and historical data to determine relationships between keywords. This approach offers extensive insight into the performance and connections of keywords over a certain period, which is essential for developing sustainable keyword strategies. Although this method doesn't reflect market changes in real time, it lets users gain a deep and strategic understanding of keyword trends and market dynamics, which is especially valuable for long-term planning and optimisation of product titles on bol.
• Focused on relevant keywords: The tool focuses on showing keywords that are relevant within a certain period. This ensures a focused keyword list, but can sometimes mean that lesser-known or new keywords aren't immediately visible.

MarktMentor's Keyword Guide is a versatile tool that offers extensive capabilities for optimising product titles on bol, especially for users interested in an in-depth and strategic approach to keyword optimisation.

Which tool do you choose?

We choose MarktMentor's Keyword Guide for this project, because of the insight into competitors' keywords, the research into keyword relationships and the competitor information per keyword. This choice is based on some crucial features the Keyword Guide offers, which give us a strong starting position for our analysis:

1. Insight into competitors: One of the most valuable aspects of the Keyword Guide is the ability to see which keywords competitors are found under. This gives us direct insight into competitors' keyword strategies and helps us determine which terms we need to focus on to position our product effectively.
2. Researching keyword relationships: The Keyword Guide lets us research the relationships between different keywords. This includes identifying short-tail and long-tail keywords and understanding how these terms relate to each other. This insight is essential for building a versatile and effective keyword strategy.
3. Competitor analysis and feasibility: Another important feature of the Keyword Guide is the information about the number of competitors per keyword and the difficulty of being found organically. This data helps us assess how competitive a keyword is and how feasible it is to achieve a high ranking with our product title.

How do you gather competitors' keywords?

You start by identifying competitors similar to your product, via MarktMentor's Product Database, and then collect the keywords those competitors are found under. Before we can analyse the specific keywords, it's important to first identify competitors that are similar to our product. With this tool we can effectively find products that match our characteristics and that perform well on bol. This lets us compile a list of relevant competitors, which will serve as the basis for our further keyword analysis.

The image below shows an example of how we can collect this information from the Product Database.

Once we've compiled a list of relevant competitors, we research their keyword strategies. This means looking at the keywords these competitors are found under. The goal at this stage is to gather a wide range of potential keywords. This collection of keywords helps us gain insight into which terms could be effective for our own product title.

How do you analyse competitors' keywords?

You enter the EAN codes of the selected competitors into MarktMentor's Keyword Guide and get an overview of the keywords these competitors rank on, as illustrated in the image below:

The entered competitors are found under 101 different keywords, ranging from general terms like "Black Friday" to more product-specific terms like "mouse repeller", "marten repeller" and "cat repeller". Important is the 'Dominant category' column, which shows how relevant each keyword is to our product category.

The next step is to analyse the keywords one by one, where we can distinguish between two types of keywords:

1. Permanent keywords: These are keywords that are permanently relevant for our listing. Examples are "mouse repeller", "marten repeller" and "cat repeller", which are directly related to our product category.
2. Temporary keywords: These keywords, such as "Father's Day gift" or "Black Friday", aren't directly related to our product type but can improve overall findability. These keywords can be seasonal or event-related and can vary in relevance depending on the time of year.

To limit our focus to the most relevant keywords, we set a minimum search volume, for example 50 searches per month. This filters out keywords that don't meet these criteria from our list, as shown in the following table:

With this filtered list of relevant keywords, we now investigate whether we can find more related keywords that aren't yet used by other sellers, and try to refine the relationships between these keywords so we can sharpen our strategy accordingly.

How do you research keyword relationships?

With the Keyword Guide you enter a specific keyword and see which other terms are related to it, including the type of relationship. As an example: when we enter "cat repeller" into the Keyword Guide, we get the following overview:

From this we find that there are 71 keywords related to "cat repeller". Important is the 'Relationship type' column, which shows us how each keyword is connected to "cat repeller". For example: "mole repeller" is seen as a contextually related keyword, while "marten repeller" is a more directly related keyword. This information gives us insight into how we can integrate these keywords into our title, as additional terms or as alternatives to "cat repeller" to keep the title concise.

Another interesting keyword is "ultrasonic cat repeller", which is categorised as a specification. This shows that we can add "ultrasonic" to our title to increase specificity and relevance. By systematically navigating through the Keyword Guide and collecting relevant keywords, we can expand our list of keyword candidates. This process lets us find keywords that competitors might not yet be using, but that are relevant for our title. Part of the results of this extensive analysis is shown in the following table:

Now that we have an extensive list of relevant keywords, it's time to further analyse and compare these keywords. This helps us determine which keywords are most suitable for inclusion in our product title.

How do you choose the best keyword candidates?

You split the collected keywords into standalone base words and specification words, and choose the base terms that stand out in search volume and relevance. When analysing our collected keywords, a mix of singular and plural terms, we split them into standalone base words and specification words. Standalone base words such as "cat repeller", "mouse repeller" and "marten repeller" form the foundation of our title. Specification words such as "ultrasonic", "outdoor" and "solar powered" add extra context. From all the keywords, four base terms emerge that stand out in search volume and relevance: "cat repeller", "mouse repeller", "marten repeller" and "cat scarer".

1. Cat repeller: This keyword towers above the rest with the highest direct search volume, which points to strong demand and interest from consumers. The broad search volume of "cat repeller" also shows there's a lot of potential to be found on various keyword combinations, which makes it a strategic choice for our title. On top of that, with a relatively low threshold to rank organically on the first page, this keyword offers an opportunity to quickly increase visibility.
2. Mouse repeller: Although this keyword has a similar direct search volume to "cat repeller", our analysis reveals a higher level of competition. This means that while it's attractive in terms of volume, it requires more effort to achieve a high organic ranking. We also need to consider that not all analysed competitors rank on this keyword, which can point to a more segmented market.
3. Marten repeller: This keyword has a lower search volume than the first two, but it has a comparable competition intensity to "cat repeller". This makes it an interesting option to diversify our title and appeal to a broader range of consumers looking for specific solutions against martens.
4. Cat scarer: Despite its lower search volume, "cat scarer" offers an opportunity to target a niche within the market. The lower competition gives us a strategic advantage, making it easier to achieve a high ranking for this specific keyword.

After evaluating these base terms, we focus on the most common combinations in which these terms appear. This leads us to choose "ultrasonic", "solar power" and "outdoor" as our specification words. These words enrich our product title with meaningful and relevant information:

1. Ultrasonic: The data shows this is a relevant searched-for specification for several base terms, such as the cat repeller and marten repeller. This term also explains a large part of the difference between the exact and broad search volume for these keywords. Since our product is also an ultrasonic repeller, it finally forms a good description of our product.
2. Solar power: Used a lot in combination with the base terms cat repeller and mouse repeller. Further specifies the battery type for our product.
3. Outdoor: Often searched for in combination with cat scarer. On top of that, our product is suitable for outdoor use.

Deploying the remaining keywords. After carefully selecting our base terms and specification words for the product title, we now turn our attention to strategically deploying the remaining collected keywords. During our extensive keyword research, we identified a number of terms that aren't currently used directly in our product title, but that can still be of great value. These terms, such as "mole repeller", "pigeon repeller" and "pest repeller ultrasonic", offer us additional opportunities to increase our reach on bol.

These keywords are extremely well-suited for use in sponsored product campaigns. Sponsored products are an effective tool on bol, with which we can promote our products by paying for increased visibility. By reserving these terms for paid ads, we create opportunities to be found on relevant search terms that aren't directly included in our product title or product specifications.

Using these keywords in sponsored campaigns lets us reach a broader audience in a targeted and effective way. This is especially useful for keywords that face a high level of competition or that follow seasonal trends. For example, we can deploy "pigeon repeller" during periods when there's a peak in demand for such products. This flexible approach lets us increase our visibility and sales opportunities on bol without overloading our product title with an excessive number of keywords.

How do you build an effective product title?

You link the chosen base words and specification words fluently with the '-' character, so you get found on combinations of every base word with the specification words. Based on the analysis of the keyword data, it turned out that the words "Cat repeller", "Marten repeller", "Mouse repeller", "Cat scarer", "Ultrasonic", "Solar power" and "Outdoor" are the relevant keywords on which we can achieve a large reach. A strong title we can build from these keywords is: "Ultrasonic Cat Repeller - Pet-Friendly Mouse Repeller - Marten Repeller - Cat Scarer for Outdoors - Solar Powered". The reasoning behind the title choice is as follows:

1. Structure of base words: The base terms are ordered so the most searched-for terms are visible first. This leads to the order: Cat repeller, Mouse repeller, Marten repeller and Cat scarer.
2. Placement of specification words: The specification words are placed for optimal readability and to cover indirect combinations. For example: the word "ultrasonic" ensures we get found on combinations like "Ultrasonic Cat Repeller", but also "Ultrasonic Mouse Repeller" and "Ultrasonic Marten Repeller". "For Outdoors" and "Solar Powered" are placed at the end to make them applicable to all base terms.
3. Extra word(s): We added "Pet-Friendly" as an extra keyword to emphasise the pet-friendly nature of the product, even though this keyword didn't come directly out of our analysis.

With this new title we should be indexed on a wide range of keyword combinations, such as:

• (Ultrasonic) Cat repeller (for outdoors) (solar powered)
• (Ultrasonic) Mouse repeller (for outdoors) (solar powered)
• (Ultrasonic) Marten repeller (for outdoors) (solar powered)
• (Ultrasonic) Cat scarer (for outdoors) (solar powered)

This title is designed to offer broad visibility on various keyword combinations, while at the same time painting a clear picture of the product type. This should lead to increased organic findability compared to the original title.

What's the difference between the old and the new title?

The new title uses four base words instead of one, chooses specifications consumers actually search for, and uses '-' instead of '|' so combinations do get indexed. Based on our knowledge of the bol algorithm and the data we were able to collect through the Keyword Guide, we were able to change the old title Repeller Ultrasonic | Waterproof | Deterrent | Extra large range | Outdoor to "Ultrasonic Cat Repeller - Pet-Friendly Mouse Repeller - Marten Repeller - Cat Scarer for Outdoors - Solar Powered". Let's take a closer look at these two titles:

1. Different use of base words: In the original title, only one base term was used, namely Repeller. However, because of the combination with ultrasonic, this is a term that matches the product's category. This means the product gets found automatically when this keyword is typed in. On top of that, the keyword data shows there's relatively little search volume for this keyword, making it more efficient to use other keywords. In the new title, we therefore chose four different types of words that describe repeller, namely repellers for different kinds of animals. Given that our product covers a wide range of different sound frequencies, with which different kinds of animals can be repelled, this choice ensures that consumers looking for different types of animal repellers can find our product.
2. Different choice of specification words: In the original title, the choice was made to highlight the specifications waterproof, extra large range and outdoor. Although these are specifications of the product, the keyword analysis shows that consumers aren't directly searching for these elements. On top of that, some of these specifications are already covered by the fact that they're entered as product specifications for the product, which means the product gets found automatically for these specifications. That's why we chose to add specifications that the keyword data shows consumers are also actively searching for, such as outdoor (instead of the more formal term) and solar-powered operation. On top of that, the term ultrasonic in our title plays a slightly different role, since we link it (in)directly to all base terms.
3. Different use of separators: Because | was used as the separator in the original title, the product wouldn't be found with this title on combinations of keywords that don't sit between every separator. Because the new title uses - as the separator, that is the case here.

How do you improve your findability beyond the title?

Besides the title, you also optimise the product description and the images, and you deploy sponsored products for the keywords that don't fit in your title. To further increase our findability, it's essential to also optimise other elements besides the title, such as the product description and images. This optimisation contributes to higher sales, which in turn leads to a better position in both category and keyword rankings. Read more about this in this article.

Given that our current organic findability may not be sufficient to immediately generate sales, we also make use of sponsored products. This includes advertising on both the keywords in the title and the remaining collected keywords. We go deeper into this aspect in the next article.