Amazon SEO Keyword Research: 3 Proven Methods

Amazon SEO Keyword Research: 3 Proven Methods

A comprehensive, targeted Amazon keyword list helps you optimize your product listings. Here are 3 ways to do Amazon SEO keyword research.

Search is the primary way people find products on Amazon, so being indexed and ranked for as many relevant keywords as possible is crucial to your success as a seller.

However, hasty keyword research can lead to much frustration and limit the ability of your optimization to improve overall profitability and sales volume.

While some products or marketing strategies require more advanced techniques for keyword research, these fundamentals can help you maximize your rankings on Amazon.

Basic Keyword Strategy for Amazon

Keywords behave differently on Amazon than on Google. Once you’ve indexed for words that make up the longer keyword phrases your customers might enter into the search bar, you can focus on ranking, which looks at keyword phrases.

For organic Amazon SEO, think of individual words that make up longer phrases. Then, when you’re optimizing your PPC campaigns and launch plans, you’ll think in terms of keyword phrases.

1. Expanding Keyword Approach

The first and most basic way to identify keywords for Amazon is to use the expanding keyword approach.

This process works best for beginners, new-to-category products, or products that don’t have successful, closely related competitors already on Amazon.

Brainstorm All Potential Words That Could Be a Good Fit for Your Listing

Look at your product and think about how customers would describe it if they didn’t know your brand name or listing title.

• Think about how a customer would find your product if they couldn’t remember your brand or product name.
• Look at the words and use cases you put on your packaging.
• How would a customer describe the uses and benefits of your product?

Run the Words Through a Keyword Research Tool

After you’ve brainstormed as many words as possible, we can now use any of the popular keyword research tools on the market to expand your results.

Run the Expanded Keyword List Through a Frequency Counter

Once you’ve farmed the expanded keywords, then you want to use a frequency counter like Helium 10 Frankenstein, Merchant Word’s Keyword Explorer, or Write Words (which is free).

Write Your Title & Bullets

Now that you have a list of individual keywords to incorporate into your listing, you can begin to write your title and bullets.

2. Competitor Keyword Approach

This method looks at what keywords competitors or closely related ASINs are already ranking for. We’re studying what is already working for our competitors to ensure we’re not missing sales opportunities.

Start at Your Favorite Reverse ASIN Tools

Our favorites are Merchant Words Page 1 Products and Helium 10’s Cerebro. The process itself will slightly differ depending on the tool you’re using, but the overall approach is the same.

Merchant Words

• Identify the most relevant keyword for your product and enter it in the tool’s PA (Page 1) search bar. You’ll receive a list of ASINs related to that keyword.
• Select the ASINS that are the most relevant match for your product.

Helium 10

Enter your ASIN, and then select "Get Competitors."

Or, add ASINs that are closely related and rank well for important keywords.

Locate the Frequency Counter and Arrange In Descending Order

Scan the results for the most relevant keywords.

Make sure to remove irrelevant words. If you find many, look at the ASINs you selected.

3. Layered Keyword Approach

For products with multiple keyword profiles such as a Star Wars T-shirt or mug, sometimes layering both techniques is necessary to ensure you’re getting all the relevant keywords without farming unnecessary, irrelevant words.

Start with the Expanding Keyword Methodology

Save your results in a text file, a collection in Merchant Words, or Helium 10’s Frankenstein.

Implement the Competitor Keyword Approach

Keep in mind that if you have a product that has two kinds of profiles, like in the Star Wars t-shirt example, you’ll need keyword research regarding T-shirts and keyword research around the character and franchise of that Star Wars character.

Add the Results

Now, add the results from the Competitor Keyword approach to your farmed keyword list from the Expanding Keyword methodology.

Run the Expanded Keyword List Through the Frequency Counter

After you have the combined list, we’ll use the frequency counter on it to identify the higher-ranking words from both methods.

Key Takeaways

In closing, layering both techniques allows a more complete profile. However, depending on the product and your level of expertise in keyword research, any of these research approaches will help you make sure that you’re integrating highly relevant keywords that can help you bring in additional traffic.

Last but certainly not least, keep your potential customer in mind with a balanced approach. Maximize the number of keywords in your listing without sacrificing that your customers get the information they need on whether this product is right for them.

Do not keyword stuff just to get more traffic; you can always add whatever keywords didn’t naturally flow in the copy in your structured data and backend keywords.

Indexing for keywords is only the first step. Once you have a keyword-rich product detail page, the next step is to use a combination of advertising, clippable coupons, and other legitimate ways of driving traffic and converting sales to show Amazon that your product is a good fit for those keywords.

Started in the year 2011, Aspiration Worx is a Digital Marketing Agency that provides the clients with seamless digital marketing services.