Amazon Keywords: Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Listings

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December 29, 2023
An image with the words Amazon keywords and a magnifying glass on 'key' in keywords.

Crafting a new product listing on Amazon? Knowing where to include and place Amazon keywords within your listing are pivotal. These keywords are not just vital; they are the essence of your product’s sales, ranking, and success. Properly researched and carefully targeted Amazon keywords act as the lifeblood of your listing. When used correctly they can significantly boost search volume, traffic, customer engagement, and most crucially, increase sales.

Targeting Amazon keywords is often synonymous with Amazon SEO. Broadly, SEO involves “Search Term Optimization,” a set of complex techniques aimed at optimizing web content’s search volume and page rankings. In regards to Amazon, this SEO is tailored specifically to improve your product’s visibility and ranking.

This guide provides a detailed, step-by-step journey through the tactics employed by top Amazon sellers and keyword gurus to fully leverage your Amazon keywords. We’ll cover:

  • Top Keyword Tools: Delve into the best-in-class tools that remove the uncertainty from selecting target keywords and clarify which are essential for your product’s success.
  • Ranking Strategies & Myth-Busting: Learn effective strategies to boost your keyword ranking and debunk prevalent myths about keyword search volume.
  • Keyword Integration: Understand the crucial aspects of incorporating and organizing Amazon keywords in your product listing for optimal impact.

Ready to begin? Dive into our comprehensive guide below, and don’t forget to check out our video walkthrough for optimizing and crafting your listing

1. Strategically Select the Right Amazon Keywords for Your Product

To begin, let’s explore two of the leading keyword software tools available to Amazon sellers, beginner and expert alike. A good keyword tool is vital for sifting through the thousands and thousands of variations which can occur within any given keyword phrase. One of the most common software tools for establishing Amazon keywords is Google Keyword Planner.

Part of Google’s AdWords tools, Keyword Planner is a simple, easy-to-use keyword tool that allows you to quickly establish Google search volume for virtually any keyword phrase or product. Google Keyword Planner features easy-to-read graphs, plus a full breakdown of keyword search volume, and keyword priority.

One drawback to Google Keyword Planner is the broad scope of the tool’s results. Keyword Planner has been designed to collect results from Google’s search algorithm exclusively. These Google-only search trends tend to skew results from groups of exclusively E-commerce keywords, to a broad range of internet content and web searches.

For example if you search “best skateboards” in Keyword Planner, your results will include data for searches referencing popular skateboarders or skateboarding videos. Because of this wide net tendency, you’ll want to pay special attention to your results, being sure to eliminate keywords phrases that involve multimedia, name brands, and specific locations, persons, or businesses.

One way to hone in on Amazon-centric search behavior is to use an Amazon-specific keyword tool. Doing so allows you to make sure you’re only seeing searches from Amazon, instead of external search engines like Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go, etc. Again, search behavior is very different. An Amazon keyword tool will allow you to best optimize your listing specifically for Amazon search.

Viral Launch’s Amazon Keyword Research Tool offers users a range of keyword statistics and metrics in one, easy-to-understand place. This tool is designed to provide insights solely from Amazon searches, aligning more closely with your potential customers’ search habits. It also provides in-depth Amazon-specific data that includes search volume, opportunity, priority, and relevancy metrics for each keyword. This comprehensive view of the most pertinent keywords in Amazon’s landscape aids in crafting your listing as well as refining your sponsored ad targeting.

Pro tip: Learn how to use Keyword Research effectively to tailor your listing specifically for Amazon’s unique search environment.

2. Refine and Prioritize Your Product’s Top Amazon Keywords

Once you’ve got a list of potential keywords for your product, the next step is to choose the best ones. This isn’t always easy, and even the pros can make mistakes. A common error is focusing too much on how many times a keyword is searched (that’s the exact search volume).

Remember, it’s not just about how often a keyword is searched. You should also think about:

  • Opportunity: Are there good keywords that others aren’t using much? These can be goldmines!
  • Relevancy: Make sure the keywords are really about your product. The closer they are to what you’re selling, the better.
  • Broad Search Volume: This is looking at how often your keyword shows up in all sorts of searches, not just the exact phrase. It gives you a bigger picture.

For example, a keyword with a high opportunity score might not be used much by others but still gets lots of searches. If you use these kinds of keywords in your product title or description, you could start showing up in searches that your competitors are missing.

Think about broad search volume too. If you’re selling a rattle and the term “rattle” appears in 76,518 different searches, that’s your broad search volume. It helps you understand how many ways people might be trying to find a product like yours.

Amazon keyword broad search volume in the Viral Launch keyword research tool

By looking at the broadest spectrum of search rather than just the narrow spectrum of exact volume, you can get a better overall picture of which keywords are most important to your product. A balance of keywords from these different categories is vital for producing a well-balanced listing which targets multiple demographics and search pockets.

Pro Tip: Read more about the 3 crucial keyword scores shown in Keyword Research.

3. Strategically Place Your Amazon Keywords

Once you have determined the keywords or phrases you wish to target, you can begin to assemble your listing’s title and bullet points. It’s vital for you to keep in mind how the Amazon search algorithm places greater emphasis or “weight” on certain portions of your listing. This means that certain sections of your listing contain greater ranking power than others when it comes to customer search. A simple breakdown from highest priority to lowest is as follows:

  • Listing Title
  • Bullet Points
  • Backend Keywords

By far the most important element of your listing is the title. The title is weighted extremely high and constitutes the most powerful search portion of your listing. When beginning to assembling your title, you want to focus the most effort on the first 5 words. These first 5 keywords in your title will constitute what is known as the Canonical URL.

In simple terms, the canonical URL contains the 5 words that are indexed for online search engines like Google. This search engine indexation is vital for pulling in outside traffic. A recent Survata study showed that 39% of product searches start on search engines like Google, not on Amazon. If you don’t choose the most relevant and powerful keywords for your title, you put your listing at a disadvantage from being discovered through Google searches.

Next, you want to complete your title keeping in mind that your remaining keywords should be used from left to right in order of importance. The Amazon algorithm reads listing titles with this left to right, making it vital for you to use your highest ranking keywords first.

Once the listing title is complete, you will focus on your listing’s bullet points. The bullet points, or key product features are a chance for you to continue to include relevant keywords and phrases. Many categories have extremely limited character counts for the bullet points, so it’s important to maintain a strategic outlook when building out this section. Don’t hesitate to use various keyword plural forms while including as many keywords gathered from your research as possible without compromising the readability of the bullet.

Pro Tip: Most research indicates that your product description is not affected by Amazon keywords or search engine keywords. This being said, your product description is a great opportunity for you to expound on your product’s unique features and quality. In short, your product description is a chance for you to make a unique and memorable marketing pitch for your product without concern for using the proper ranking keywords or phrases. Use the 2,000 characters allowed in this section to your advantage by creating a unique brand voice and addressing any features that are not covered within the title and bullets.

4. Incorporate Keyword Variations and Plural Forms

Once you have developed a draft for your product’s title and bullet points you want to scan your listing for missed opportunities. Many sellers neglect to include the plural forms and variations of phrases in the listing. Anytime you can include plural forms or mix-and-match various phrases into new threads, you improve the likelihood that your listing will index and rank for multiple variations. This multi-pronged approach coupled with the strategic inclusion of high ranking keywords gives your listing the best opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

5. Leverage Amazon Backend Keywords

All Amazon listings are allowed 250 bytes to include keywords that are not in the title and bullet points. This is a powerful opportunity for you to include outlier keywords which are not seen by Amazon shoppers. These hidden backend keywords can include phrases or terms that may not make sense in the context of your listing. It also gives sellers the chance to exploit the use of common misspellings or slang used in many searches. These misspellings and common phrases can be singled out when doing your keyword research with either Google Keyword Planner or more powerfully with Viral Launch Keyword Research.

When you are in the midst of your keyword research, start to compile a list of candidates for these backend terms. Once you have drafted your title and bullet points, review your list and compile the top ranking words which you have not included in the listing proper. Take caution to exclude name brands or copy-written material from you backend terms, as this practice can be grounds for your listing’s removal.

Once you have established the highest-ranking keywords that you have not included in your title or bullets, simply copy and paste these terms into the edit listing portion of your Seller Central.

Pro Tip: Our current research is showing an emerging trend of powerful foreign language search terms. These keywords, (often in Spanish for US markets) are many times direct translations of the highest ranking english keywords or phrases. The inclusion of foreign language phrases is a powerful way for sellers to tap into underserved markets and exploit this portion of your listing to its maximum advantage. Note* The foreign language phrases are included within the Viral Launch Amazon Keyword Research Tool.

Final Thoughts: Master Amazon Listings with Research, Targeting, and Diversification

In conclusion, we encourage every seller who is creating a new Amazon listing to keep these three principles in mind.

  1. Research: Be sure to take your time and do the proper research to establish which keywords  and phrases to target. No matter what software you end up using, take the time to be thorough and don’t miss out on high ranking words or outliers in your market.
  2. Target: Always keep in mind where you are placing keywords within your listing. Always remember that your title and bullet points are the key aspects of your listing when it comes to achieving keyword ranking. Always Apply the principles of keyword placement and plural forms to achieve the best results.  
  3. Diversify: Remember to think outside the box for where unused keywords might be used. Utilize the backend terms to the best of your ability to capture these outliers and put them to work for your listing.

The application of these 3 simple principles coupled with the powerful software tools and data available online can put your listing in a powerful position to start converting keywords to cash in no time.

Pro Tip: Use a Listing Builder, like the one included in Keyword Research, for a seamless experience writing your Amazon listing. Listing Builder allows you to write your listing and see, in real time, which important words you’re still missing. View your optimization score and how many potential searches your could include in your copy.

Amazon listing builder helping sellers write listings and see, in real time, which important words you’re still missing

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