Keywords decide whether shoppers ever see your product. Good keyword research isn’t about finding the most words, it’s about finding the ones real buyers type. Here’s how to do it without an expensive tool.
What is Amazon keyword research?
Amazon keyword research is the process of finding the exact search terms shoppers use to find products like yours, then choosing which to target in your listing. The goal is relevance, terms with buyer intent that you can realistically rank for, not just high-volume words everyone fights over.
Where to find keywords
- Amazon’s search bar. Type your product and read every autocomplete suggestion. These are real, popular searches.
- Competitor listings. Read the titles and bullets of the products ranking above you. The words they lead with are the words that work.
- Brand Analytics. If you’re brand-registered, the Search Query Performance report shows the actual terms driving your category.
- Keyword tools. Helium 10, Jungle Scout or similar add search volume and difficulty. Useful, but the free methods above get new sellers most of the way.
The types of keywords
- Head terms, short, high-volume, brutally competitive (“water bottle”). Rarely winnable for a new listing.
- Long-tail, specific, lower-volume, higher-intent (“insulated water bottle for gym”). Where new sellers should focus.
- Branded, competitor names. Don’t put these in your listing (against policy), though you can target them in ads.
How to use the keywords you find
Put your strongest term in the title, weave secondary terms into bullets where they read naturally, and load everything else into backend search terms. Don’t repeat words, Amazon only needs to see a keyword once to index it.
Common mistakes
- Chasing head terms you can’t rank for instead of winnable long-tails.
- Stuffing the title until it reads like spam.
- Ignoring the backend fields, which is free indexing left on the table.
Once you’ve got your keywords, the next step is placing them well, that’s listing optimization. Want it done for you? See our services.