11 Tips for Amazon Keyword Research

Introduction

Not sure how to research keywords? Let’s fix that! Keywords are extremely vital for the success of businesses selling on Amazon, so to continue selling without knowing how to research them would be devastating. Overreaction? Possibly, but now that we have your attention, in no particular order, here are some of the top tips for how to find the most relevant keywords for your product.

There are a few types of keywords you should be aware of. First, are product-related keywords, which are specific terms used by the customer when they are searching for a product. We then have competitor terms that can give you an insight into the campaigns of your competition.

The final set of terms is audience terms, which have a much broader reach and are more generic. They are typically used to cast a wider net and grab the attention of customers who aren’t directly searching for your product. These distinctions will be useful to consider while doing your research as they will help you understand the purpose of keywords within a campaign.

Focus on Your Amazing Audience

It is important to focus on your personal Amazon audience when researching keywords for your products. Audiences use platforms differently, so it is not necessarily beneficial to assume your Google and Amazon audience will have the same search patterns. Plus, your brand and product range will attract a different audience to other products already on Amazon. To get the most relevant search results from your keywords, you need an understanding of the behavior and buying patterns of your specific Amazon audience. 

Try to generate a list of generic keywords that are relevant to your product and identify how your audience would expand on them to find a specific result. For example, take the term ‘mascara’ or ‘face mask’, what long tail descriptions may a customer use to search for one of these? They may choose to search for ‘waterproof mascara’ or a ‘charcoal face mask’; there will be other examples with greater relevance to your brand so take a moment to think about it! 

Brainstorm how you would search for the product if you were a consumer and take it from there, especially if you have a new product that hasn’t accumulated a lot of data yet.

Use Amazon-Specific Keyword Tools

Using an Amazon-specific keyword tool is a digestible way of finding which search terms are being used to find your product or similar ones. Let’s emphasize the importance of an audience’s search intent, and that these differ from platform to platform. 

When you are using a tool like this it is important to look for keywords with a high number of searches and less competition on Amazon. It’s all well and good using high-performing terms, but it will only cost you more money if you take it from Google or try to compete with products already established on Amazon. Look for a good amount of conversions and assess which ones are worth your investment, especially for new product launches.

Only use Relevant Keywords

Amazon does not mess around when it comes to its rules and regulations. There are many times when companies try to use very high-performing keywords to increase their reach, but the terms have nothing to do with the product they are selling! 

This is not the way to produce authentic and effective results for your business and it can reduce the trust people have in your brand. Most importantly, Amazon will penalize companies for using irrelevant keywords. “Laptop” for example, as a search term, had over 1,000,000 searches on Amazon last year, but this does not mean you should use it in your terms for a hairbrush.

Stay away from Subjective Keywords

Without stating the obvious, subjective terms are those without a definitive description. When you are researching and deciding which terms to include in your product listing be sure to avoid any language that can be misinterpreted by customers or by Amazon. 

That doesn’t mean sellers must turn into skeptics and start questioning whether a chair is a chair or diving into the subjectivity of color. However, it does mean you should avoid terms like ‘best’ or ‘super’ no matter how badly you want to appear at the top of your field. 

To be considered ‘the best’ is entirely dependent on a customer’s preferences, which directly impacts lead conversion rates. Let them decide if a product is the best and avoid any confusion by using clear terms in your listings and descriptions. It will lead to higher conversions and prevent the product from being placed at the bottom of the search results.

Integrate Keywords in your listings

Without keywords, in your product listings, customers cannot find your product. So the next step, once you find the terms you want to use, is to integrate them into your listings. Unlike other platforms, Amazon only requires you to insert a keyword once throughout a listing. 

Placing a term multiple times will only use up valuable space that could be better utilized by testing different terms. Saying that, the placement of your keywords is still relevant, for maximum search engine optimization, you should place your best performing/most relevant keyword in the heading of your listing. 

This will improve the chances of your product being found in the search results as an exact match. Place the second and third most important in your product descriptions so they still appear and are considered.

Use Backend Keywords

Backend keywords are put on the opposite side of a product listing, invisible to the consumer’s eye. Unlike front-end terms, these keywords are only known to Amazon and the seller but are often very helpful for increasing the visibility of an item. 

When you are using backend keywords, aim to include synonyms, misspellings, and abbreviations in your backend descriptions to broaden the reach of your product. For example, include ‘Sorcerer’s Stone’ instead of ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ for the Harry Potter movie since it is called something different in the US compared to the UK. 

Remember that there is a strict byte restriction for backend keywords of 250 bytes. This roughly corresponds to 250 characters but it is dependent on the special characters you are using. Because of this, you may want to think carefully about which terms you use and adjust accordingly every few weeks.

Know your Competition

Did you know that Amazon hands you the cheat codes to succeed?  You can look at and steal your competitor’s audiences and keywords. It is a game changer for sellers but makes an already crowded market more competitive. 

You can have a look at their title, photo, and descriptions to gather information surrounding their keywords and audiences. You can then use this information to find gaps in their advertising, even if it is as simple as adding an extra picture, it can give you an extra nudge in front of the competition. Once you find the suitable keywords you can use a keyword research tool to assess the rankings. This will give you intel on which audiences to focus on. 

While you are there, try comparing your prices. Having a significantly more expensive product without the reviews or conversion metrics to back it up will hinder a campaign. If your prices are not in line with your competitors Amazon will likely lower the ranking of your products in the search results. Amazon favors conversions, so the algorithm will edge towards better-selling products.

Monitor Keyword Performance

Without monitoring your keyword performance there will be no indication of their performance. The search terms report can help understand your keywords’ performance so you can optimize and adjust according to your business needs. You should monitor both front and back-end keywords throughout your campaign. 

Once your product is comfortably ranked within the organic search result, you can ease back on your front-end keywords and focus more on the back-end keywords. It is fairly easy to swap back-end keywords without hurting the ranking of other keywords in your product listing. Adjusting these may be a good way to play around and assess which keywords provide the most conversions, with less effect on the campaign. 

When optimizing your keyword strategy it is crucial to choose the terms that provide high conversions with a low ACoS(Advertising Cost Of Sales). The goal is to spend less money on advertising and achieve more sales. Merely choosing a high CTR doesn’t mean you will have the highest conversion.

Consider Complementary Products

A great way of expanding your audience through your keyword research is to take a look at the frequently bought-together section of seller central. This will give you an indication of what customers often purchase with your product, you could then take these products and develop ad campaigns using these keywords. You could use these as backend keywords if you don’t want to have them in your product description. 

For example, if you sell laptop cases on Amazon, your analytics identify that customers often buy your cases with Bluetooth mouse. Using this information you can assess what the well-performing search terms are for the mouse and develop campaigns for these. You can also produce a bundle deal as a part of this process to attract a wider audience. 

Equally, you could simply use keywords related to but not directly describing your product. This can be done through using your initiative and brainstorming about your product if there is not enough information on your seller central. Looking at the frequently bought together of other brands selling similar products can help grow your reach as well.

Amazon Search Suggestions

We just mentioned using Amazon search to find complementary products but you can also use the search bar to research keywords before pressing enter. Although this may be less effective than deep diving into analytics, it can still give you an indication of how customers are searching for products. Try starting to type keywords for your product in the search bar, then have a look at what suggestions come up in the drop-down menu. These can be added as long-tail keywords to increase exact matches if you desire.

Use Google

Google dominates desktop search queries with over 85% of the market share. Understandably, the focus should be on Amazon, but certainly don’t ignore keywords that will boost your google ranking. When searching for products people often carry out a broad Google search first. Using high-ranking Google terms will increase where you stand in these Google search results.

Google Analytics: Google Analytics can track visitor interactions and show website traffic stats, conversion rates, bounce rates, and page views. With all this information gathered you can gather a good understanding of the performance of your content. Google Analytics will give you a keyword report that you can use to assess what search terms your customers are using to find your item. This will help with your long-term keyword strategy, allowing you to optimize your search strategy over time.

Google Trends: Another way to begin your keyword journey would be through Google trends. For those without an online store of their own, trends can give an insight into how your industry is developing and show recent keyword trends. This is when all your keyword brainstorming comes into effect and you figure out which ones you will use!

The tool lets you change various parameters, including categories and time ranges. It will give you a view of your past search performance. Just enter the keyword into the Google trends search box and it will show you all the figures without extra work. With the information shown, you can then compare daily search results during different time frames to gauge how often a keyword is searched and how easy it would be to rank for SEO. Considering this tool is free for you there is no reason to ignore it.

Remember, SEO tips don’t just apply to traditional web search engines, they are also crucial for success on Amazon. Investing time and resources into keyword research will ultimately pay off in increased visibility and sales for your business.