At the end of the day, Amazon is an algorithm. An algorithm that makes the difference between struggling to run your store, and making millions of dollars of profit.
So if you want to succeed on Amazon, you need to know the algorithm better than anyone else.
The A10 algorithm ranks your products based on keywords. Which is what today’s article is all about.
Smart Keyword Research
Successful amazon sellers go the extra mile on every aspect of their store. That means they aren’t just typing their product name into a keyword research tool and copy + pasting into Amazon.
Truly effective Amazon keyword research involves getting inside your customer’s head. It involves searching far and wide for laser focused, buying keywords.
Most sellers won’t do this extra work. Which gives those that do an advantage. The truth is, it’s really not that difficult. And if you’re really interested in learning the algorithm, and winning on Amazon, it’s fun and rewarding.
Talk Your Customer’s Language
Although keywords are used by algorithms, they’re inputted by humans. So you can find perfect keywords by listening to how your customers talk about your products.
This means you can even get keyword ideas by having conversations with your customers. I say this to illustrate that keyword research isn’t a technical, mechanical process.
Amazon Search Autocomplete
The first place we’re going to look for buying keywords is Amazon.com search. By seeing autocomplete suggestions, we can find keywords that customers are actively using.
Many sellers think that the more keywords, the better. So they throw all of these into the Amazon backend. However, if you’re selling an essential oil set, that’s not an essential oil bracelet. Odds are, you can use a better keyword in that spot.
Amazon only gives you 250 characters for your backend keywords. For most products, you can get highly relevant keywords to fill that space. So for this step, only use the autocomplete keywords that directly relate to what you’re selling.
Google Autocomplete
Many people use Google search to pull up Amazon products. Head on over Google.com and type your keyword in. Then, use all the relevant suggestions. Now, a word of note. Google is a little bit different than Amazon.
People use Amazon when they know they want to buy. People use Google to learn information. So some keywords will be irrelevant.
YouTube Search Autocomplete
Repeat the same process on YouTube. The keywords here will be even more geared towards information, yet you will find some keywords that other tools don’t show.
Competitor Listings
Your competitors will have their own methods for doing keyword research. And who knows – maybe they have some ideas you overlooked. By checking their listing and writing down keywords, you can make sure you start with a soild base to build on top of.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is another great source for keywords that most will overlook. Wikipedia not only ranks #1 on Google for many topics (meaning it’s perfectly optimized), it also provides you with new keyword ideas from a different context.
To do keyword research with Wikipedia, search your keyword into google + Wikipedia (for example, “essential oils Wikipedia”). Then, look at the search result. The preview text will reveal keywords I’ll bet you never thought of:
As you can see, we just hit a goldmine with this keyword. We just found out that some people call essential oils Volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetherolea, or, oil of _____.
These are keywords that only a tiny fraction of amazon customers will search. But when they do, they are incredibly targeted, and most likely buyers. Not only that, because none of our competitors will use these keywords, we can rank on page #1, even if we just launched our product and don’t have many reviews.
Wordstream Keyword Tool
Now, finally, we get to an actual keyword tool. I hope you’re seeing how this process works. We’re doing what most sellers don’t do, so we can get better results.
The Wordstream Keyword Tool will give you hundreds of keyword ideas, completely free. Again, you’ll need to use discretion to figure out which are buying keywords vs. information seeking.
Closing Thoughts
See? Doing top-notch keyword research isn’t that difficult. Don’t underestimate the power of finding a unique keyword. Just one amazing, overlooked keyword can give you a steady stream of buyers. That means more reviews, a higher BSR, and even better organic rankings. It can snowball.
If you follow this article, I know you’ll find not just one, but a handful of these keywords. Happy selling!
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