Keyword research is at the heart of every successful SEO strategy. By optimizing your website for the best keywords, you make your site much easier to find for users. As a result, you’ll increase your traffic which will ultimately boost your sales.

So what does keyword research have anything to do with Amazon? Everything.

Amazon is the online marketplace equivalent of Google. Everybody visits Amazon to look for products to buy online or research before making a purchasing decision. They do this by typing a keyword phrase on the search bar, just like they would on Google. The site will show results that match their search query, just like Google.

Therefore, if you are selling products on Amazon, you need to learn how to do Amazon keyword research to ensure that your product pages are optimized for their respective target keywords.

In this post, I will show you how to conduct an effective Amazon keyword research campaign by explaining:

• how the site’s algorithm works
• the process you can replicate to find the best keywords for your pages
• the tools you can use to make the keyword research process much easier

Amazon keyword research: Everything you need to know

As mentioned, Google and Amazon are similar because both are essentially search engines that deliver the best results to their users. However, they have their differences, starting with Amazon’s A9 algorithm.

What is the Amazon A9 algorithm?

Unlike Google’s proprietary algorithm that culls third-party sources for every search query, Amazon’s algorithm shows results from within its site and ranked according to the page with the highest chances of leading a sale.

Also, since Google manages different content types and ranks them according to quality, relevance, and keyword intent, the only content Amazon handles are product pages. This explains why all (if not most) searches on Amazon are transactional or commercial in nature. Either people want to learn more about a product before buying it or are already looking for a product to purchase right off the bat.

There are two factors that the A9 algorithm value the most. The first is historical performance. It takes into account the page’s ability to sell over time. Even if the product page has little to do with the search query, you can expect for the page to rank anyway because it makes tons of sales.

The second factor is the product relevance. This is where keywords come into play. If the product is relevant to the search terms and the page content mentions the keywords, the page may rank high on Amazon listings.

If you have a new product page that hasn’t made a sale yet, then proper Amazon keyword research will tip the scales to your favor. When your page is optimized for the right keywords, you can leapfrog even the best-performing pages on Amazon search. Your page can go as far as make lots of sales eventually so you have historical performance and product relevance on your side. Amazon will then make your page rank even higher and feature your page on related keywords too!

Tactics to rank your pages through keyword research

If you want to take advantage of Amazon keyword research for your product pages, you need to start implementing them now. It all starts with finding keyword suggestions within the site. Before are some techniques you can try on for size:

Target long-tail keywords

There are two types of keywords you can optimize for your page. The first is a head term. This keyword type has a maximum of two words and is very generic. As a result, they have little value for your keyword research. An example is “headset.” The keyword is too broad for Amazon to deliver the best results because it doesn’t specify the type of headset. The user could be referring to a headset for a gaming console or a headset equipment. From a seller’s standpoint, it will be difficult to make a sale by optimizing for a head term because it doesn’t describe what the product is, even if it’s an arbitrage product.

The second is a long-tail keyword. Unlike a head term, this keyword type has more than three words in its search term. As a result, it is very specific and descriptive in nature. An example is “Xbox one headset.” It is clear from the start the kind of headset the user wants to see on Amazon. The site will then return product pages of headset specific to the XBox One console. This could lead to a sale soon because the search term and results work together to produce pages that the user is looking for.

Therefore, you need to approach selling your products on Amazon with a long-tail keyword in mind. You need to get into the heads of your readers and find out the search queries they type on the site.

Use autocomplete

There might be times that your long-tail keywords aren’t descriptive or narrow enough. The goal is to dig deeper for keywords that perfectly capture your product and its specs.

To help you with this, you need to use Amazon’s autocomplete feature. Type the long tail keyword on the search bar and press the Down key on your keyboard. It will show narrower long-tail keywords you can use to optimize your page instead.

Below is the screenshot of the autocomplete when I enter “Xbox one headset:”

As you can see, there are even better long-tail keywords to target than the one we have. When you use the autocomplete feature, choose the ones that describe your product much better. The more descriptive your keyword is, the more chances you can convert visitors of your page into customers.

Check competitor products

After choosing the long-tail keywords to optimize your page with, search the keywords on Amazon and scout the competition. See the top pages ranking for them and find out why. Regarding historical performance, only time will tell if your pages will convert as many sales similar to the ones ranking for your keywords. Therefore, don’t worry about this at the moment.

In the meantime, concern yourself with the titles and product features of your competitors’ pages. There’s a possibility that they’re using keywords that went over your head during your research. If there are phrases that appear at least once on the title and the product features, then it’s probably a main keyword.

In the example below, you can find “surround sound” in the title:

…as well as in the product features.

Therefore, if your product also offers surround sound, mention it in the title and product features as well. Therefore, your keyword now is “wireless surround sound headset for Xbox one.”

Use these Amazon keyword research tools for better data and workflow

The tactics above should help you identify potential keywords you can optimize for your product page. However, it’s not enough to just find the most descriptive long tail keywords on Amazon. There are other factors you need to consider that you can’t measure and gather without help from research tools.

For example, you need to know how many people are searching for your target keywords. They may be descriptive, but there’s no point in optimizing for them if they have a low search volume on Amazon! Also, the product you want to sell might not yield you the most profit. This could throw you off as you go back to square one and find another product to sell that they generate more profit per sale for you.

Lucky for you, you don’t have to do everything yourself. below are tools that will help unburden you from the burgeoning process of Amazon keyword research.

Jungle Scout

Jungle Scout helps you with the entire Amazon product research from top to bottom. Whether you have an Amazon product page or are still looking for keyword suggestions on what to sell on the site, this platform makes it easy for you to extract product data and see potential niches to dominate and products to sell. You will get information about a product’s demands, sales, reviews, and others to help you determine its profitability.

Keyword Scout is the tool’s keyword research feature. Using this gives you access to a keyword’s exact and broad search volumes and PPC bids, the dominant category, relevancy score, and more. You can download the results in a CSV file and sort them out to your liking. You’ll have a field day organizing relevant keywords and finding the best ones to optimize for your page using the parameters.

Keyword Tool Dominator

If you don’t have funds to spend on a premium Amazon keyword research tool, Keyword Tool Dominator should work for the time being. It’s a free tool that lets you type your keywords and see the most popular ones related to yours. The higher the popularity score (from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest), the more reason for you to use the keyword.

For the best results, mix your searches between head terms and long-tail keywords to find the most popular ones in the bunch. You can select relevant keywords to save in a list and review later for further research. It’s not an all-encompassing tool by any means, but it helps you identify which keywords to pursue instead of doing the process manually.

KDP” draggable=”false” href=”https://entreresource.com/what-is-kdp-amazon-kindle-direct-publishing/” data-wpil-keyword-link=”linked”>KDP Rocket

If you wrote a book or still planning on writing one that you want to sell on Amazon, use KDP Rocket to help you find the best keywords to optimize for your page. The tool helps you find keywords that users actually type on Amazon. From there, you will see how many times the keyword was searched on Amazon and the number of books competing for it.

If you want to make it to Amazon’s bestseller’s list, KDP Rocket lets you find low-hanging fruit niches where you can reach the list without having to sell boatloads of books. Also, you can unearth information about other successful authors such as their book covers, daily/monthly earnings, descriptions, and more. These will help you can come up with books that follow their pattern of success.

Unicorn Smasher

Another product research tool added in the mix, Unicorn Smasher adds a different layer to your Amazon keyword research process. Instead of giving you a low-down of the best keywords to use, the tool lets you reverse-engineer keyword research by finding the most profitable niches to target. You can dig deep on any Amazon product to see its bestseller rank, price, reviews, and more. This information gives you a better idea on which products to sell to maximize your profitability. Once you have the data on hand, you can conduct your keyword research much better.

Sonar

Developed by Sellics, Sonar is a free Amazon keyword research tool that helps you come up with keywords to use for your page drawing from your initial search. It draws real search terms from Amazon shoppers using its algorithm to help you come up with keywords that people actually search. You can also reverse lookup a product’s ASIN, search for synonymous keywords, and conduct cross-market research to unearth even more keywords. The tool works best with Sellics, a premium, all-encompassing Amazon tool.

Proper Amazon keyword research is just half the battle!

Finding the right keywords to optimize your page with is a step towards making money on Amazon. It could help boost your page and drive more traffic to it. However, it’s not enough to strategically use your main keyword on your product pages. You ultimately will have to produce sales from them for Amazon to continue listing your page on search results. If not, it will slide down the rankings, never to be seen again.

Therefore, aside from optimizing your page using the best keywords you can find, you need to improve your page’s conversion rate to attract more buyers to your product. Doing so will help give justice to the effort you put into your keyword research and make you more money in the long run.