A comprehensive and thorough Amazon Keyword research forms the basis for a better ranking on the Amazon results page. Because product listings are so important, an entire SEO industry is now dedicated to optimizing these search results. The Base for a Good Amazon SEO strategy lies in the Selection and placement of relevant keywords for your product.
What is a keyword?
The term Keyword is available in German as Keyword to translate. A keyword should represent the content, the topic or a particular aspect of an article in abbreviated form so that the relevant content can be found for a search query and suggested as a result.
The indexing of a scientific text in a library database, for example, is not a new phenomenon, but has been practiced for longer than PCs and digital databases have existed. In the context of this article, we are concerned with the much more recent phenomenon of Keyword searchin particular on the trading platform Amazon.
Users enter keywords in the search field and expect to be shown relevant results. Search engines such as Google or Amazon's search engine search digital content for the use of the keywords entered, words related to these keywords and synonyms. They then create a list of results based on this search, which is displayed to the user.
You can also start from a keyword or Search term and not just refer to a single keyword, but to the entire search query - such as "winter shoes cheap" or even "winter shoes cheap outlet sale".
Why are keywords important?
Marking a text with the correct keywords makes it possible to find a relevant text or other object for the terms entered by the user. The Google search algorithm for example, constantly searches websites and analyzed their Content. Semantic analyses allow him to Topic of a textto recognize the important points and the relevance of certain keywords in certain text sections. The results of this web crawling are saved by the search engine (Indexing).
As soon as a user enters keywords that have been classified as relevant for a website during the analysis, the website is displayed in the search results of a search query with these keywords. However, a website or article is never alone in this, as other content usually also contains the entered search term. The Search Engine sorts the displayed result list therefore after the Relevancewhich it assigns to the content in relation to the keyword used.
Put simply, for example, a user enters the search query "car repair Frankfurt" into the search engine and the search algorithm presents them with a list of results from websites that contain all three search terms. The user tends to see the pages that contain all keywords more frequently or in more prominent positions than others at the top. Hits that contain only some of the search terms, such as "car" and "repair", but not "Frankfurt", also appear at the bottom of the search or results list.
Keywords and their use are therefore important for a specific content. important for a search query to found and displayed but also to further up than the competition to be displayed. The Keyword optimization is therefore an important component of online marketing and search engine optimization (SEO: Search Engine Optimization).
A car repair shop that also mentions "car repair" in some places in addition to the keywords "car" and "repair" can thus move up in the results list, as some users also use this keyword and the algorithm recognizes it as a synonym. This also increases the relevance of a certain content for the original keyword. However, Google's search algorithm, like Amazon's, is secret, so the search engine optimization, a certain amount of uncertainty, estimation and experience always play a role.
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What are Amazon keywords?
Amazon keywords work in the same way as keywords in other searches. They help the search algorithm to find the relevant content for certain search queries. For example, if you want to offer a desk lamp for sale on Amazon, you can use the keywords that you think are particularly relevant to your item and that are frequently used by users, write in your product title.
This is indexed by Amazon and displayed in a search with the corresponding keywords. For example, you could write "Desk lamp, bright light, good for working, adjustable brightness and color tone, timer function" and other features of your product that you consider important in the title. If one or more of these keywords are used in a search query, your product will be listed by Amazon in the results list
Where are keywords used on Amazon?
In addition to the Product title you can also use the Bulletpoints and the Use the product description to include even more keywords. These are also indexed by Amazon and taken into account when creating the results lists. However, the most important key points should always be included in the title.
These keywords are so-called Frontend keywordswhich are visible to the user. In addition to these, there are also the Backend keywordswhich are not visible in the customer view. They correspond to the Meta descriptions in classic SEO and become stored especially for the search engine.
For backend keywords we recommend, Common spelling mistakes (omitted and doubled letters, word separation errors, alternative or outdated spellings, denglish and similar), related search terms (similar materials, dimensions or generic terms) and Abbreviations and Longtail keywords (consisting of several words, especially adjectives).
As a seller you can these backend keywords in the seller view under "Product details" and Store "Search terms"where they are automatically recorded and indexed by the Amazon search algorithm.
Does Amazon have its own type of SEO?
Yes, Amazon uses, similar to Google, a Algorithm for the search and the search sequence displayed. This is called A10 and ranks the search results according to performance and relevance. Through suitable SEO measures you can influence where your product is displayed in the results list.
In the Performance The main factors taken into account are the past sales of a product, how often it is clicked on, product and seller ratings, cancellations and processing times as well as affiliate links. These are Factors that cannot be easily and directly influenced.
For a Good Amazon SEO strategy is therefore the Relevance the more important factor. It describes how well the user's search query and the product match. To perform well here, the selected front-end and back-end keywords are of particular importance.
Ways to rank as high as possible in the search results
The all-important factor for the order of search results on Amazon is the Probability with which a particular product will be purchased. Clicks and the Conversion rate are therefore of paramount importance, but cannot simply be influenced. This quickly puts a seller in the dilemma that their article appears too far down in the search results, is therefore not clicked on and sold and thus loses further places in the sequence of events.
One Successful Amazon SEO strategy intervenes here. By optimizing all factors that you can easily influence, you can significantly increase the visibility of your product, generate more clicks and conversions and thus rise further up the search rankings.
In addition to the right Product and target group adapted keywords there are also many other factors that play a role in the ranking of your Amazon store or product page. In particular, a favorable or at least competitive price of your product is also a strong ranking factor. But also Customer ratings or the Customer service response times are included. The right Stylesheets and Pictures can also improve your ranking.
In addition, Amazon prefers retailers who Fullfillment by Amazon Service and always for a Sufficient stock provide. Amazon does not disclose exactly which factors are included in the ranking by the algorithm and how they are weighted.
What role do keywords play in Amazon searches?
The right keywords are an important part of the relevance of your article with regard to a specific search query and therefore a strong factor for the ranking of your product on the results page.
Choosing the right keywords is also a Easily influenced factor and should therefore be Basics one good Amazon SEO strategy belong. To identify the right keywords for your product, you need to put yourself in the minds of your potential customers and ask yourself what they are likely to use as search terms.
For example, if you sell table tennis balls, a certain percentage of potential customers will search for ping pong balls, which is why this keyword should also be mentioned in the title or at the latest in the product details. In order not to overlook any relevant keywords, you should create a Systematic Amazon keyword research carry out.
How can I research Amazon keywords?
The Starting point for an Amazon keyword research builds your own knowledge. If other employees are involved, you can, for example, use the Brainstorm-Collect all promising keywords in the search engine. Then choose a few main keywords that fit well with your product and continue researching with these.
For example, you can view the titles and product descriptions of the competition for a central keyword on the results page and also include well-fitting items. You can find more suggestions in the customer reviewsbecause this is where potential buyers speak. A corresponding Google search can round off this part of the research.
Once you have gathered enough good candidates, you can with a free Amazon Keyword Tool integrate these as well. You can also use the Amazon autocomplete respectively the Auto-suggest function of the Amazon search use. If you enter a main keyword here, Amazon will suggest other keywords that have already been used in connection with your keyword.
This way, you will quickly end up with more keywords than you can accommodate on an article page or the backend keywords. Overloading the page with as many keywords as possible is more likely to lead to your page being penalized than to a better ranking. The However, you can only estimate the relevance of certain keywordsas Amazon keeps the necessary data under lock and key. With the help of professional tools you can go even deeper into the analysis.
How do you do a keyword analysis?
A proper analysis requires a completed Amazon keyword research. The well-fitting and frequently used keywords identified here Keywords can then be further analyzed with the help of mostly fee-based analysis tools. be examined for their relevance.
One of the most important points but the Search volumei.e. the frequency with which the analyzed keyword is used. Based on the collection of this data, it is also possible to Trends can be observed. Keywords with increasing usage will probably generate more clicks and conversions in the near future than those with a downward trend.
An analysis of the Competition (Competition) can not only help to identify central keywords, but also help you, Niche keywordsthat have hardly been used to date. These can be, for example Longtail keywords that are used by users who know exactly what they are looking for. If such niche keywords are used, you may be able to rank high for certain, rather rare search queries.
Strong keywords also usually have a high advertising value. This means that companies that place an ad for this keyword have to pay more for it (CPC: Cost-per-click) than for less strong keywords. Ads, in turn, push organic results further down and represent particularly strong competition.
Carrying out a keyword research
Brainstorming
An initial brainstorming session is a good basis for keyword research. Put yourself in the shoes of an Amazon user who wants to buy your product. What terms would you search for? What other terms for the product can you think of? In this way, you can usually already generate a selection of intuitive keywords that you can continue to work with. Keep a clear record of the search terms found in a document, e.g. in an Excel spreadsheet.
Similar products
In the next step, you can expand the list by searching for similar products. To do this, you can either enter the search terms already found in the search field or follow the search path under which your product is also listed. Not always, but often the first results are well optimized and contain some new keywords that you can add to your list. The first three to four search results are often enough to gain some additional keywords.
Find synonyms
When brainstorming, you usually come up with some synonyms that also describe the product well. If you enter one of the keywords you have already collected in a synonym search engine such as Wokikon.de or Synonyms.com you will often find further expressions to complete the list.
Amazon Autosuggest
A distinction is made between short-tail, mid-tail and long-tail keywords. Short-tail keywords, which consist of a single term, are usually obtained from brainstorming, orientation on similar products and synonym searches. Word combinations or mid-tail keywords can now be determined using the auto-complete function in the Amazon search field. To do this, enter one of the keywords found and a space in the Amazon search field and frequently searched combinations with this keyword will appear. As space is limited, you can enter all letters from A to Z once after the search term and add relevant word combinations to the list.
Keywordtool.io
A tool with a similar function is Keywordtool.io, where you can select Amazon as the desired search engine as well as the country or language. By using the keyword tool, manual research for keyword combinations can be neglected, as the tool also displays the entered keyword with frequently combined terms from A to Z. The resulting list can even be saved in CSV format and then edited. In this way, the new mid-tail keywords can be easily integrated into the existing list without having to type them in individually. Further information on the results, such as search volume or CPC, is subject to a charge. However, the tool is very helpful for generating new keyword ideas free of charge.
Sonar
The keyword tool Sonar can also be used free of charge in its basic function and even provides rough information on search volume. Like Keywordtool.io, Sonar works on the basis of Amazon autosuggestions and enables a CSV export of the data obtained. The tool also offers four different search modes, which are briefly explained below:
- Keyword: In keyword search mode, keyword combinations of the entered search term and the associated search volume are displayed. In contrast to Keywordtool.io, these are not sorted alphabetically, but according to search volume. However, the free version of Sonar only displays a limited number of search results.
- Extended: In advanced mode, related keywords are displayed for the search term entered. These can be sorted either by relevance or search volume. However, the keywords displayed are very broad in terms of their meaning, so "flashlight", "black light" or "curtain" are also listed for "carpet".
- ASIN: In this mode, the ASIN of a product offered on Amazon can be entered. If the product is recorded in Sonar's database (there is no live query), the keywords for which the product ranks are displayed. In this way, you can find out relevant keywords for competitor products or check your own product.
- Translate: A cross-market search can be started in this mode. This allows you to search for foreign-language expressions of the entered keyword.
The following figure shows the results for the keyword "carpet" in keyword mode.
Google Keyword Planner
As it is difficult to obtain reliable information on the search volume of individual keywords in relation to Amazon, the Google Keyword Planner can be used. Although the results relate to the Google search engine, they can usually also be easily transferred to Amazon. In addition to information on search volume, the Google Keyword Planner can of course also be used to generate valuable keyword ideas, which can also be exported as a CSV file. As Google is not a pure product search engine, the results also include keyword combinations that are irrelevant for Amazon with terms such as "buy" or "order online". However, there are also valuable keywords, relatively precise information on search volume and competition. However, as the values refer to Google, it is advisable to consider them only as guidelines.
Use keywords correctly
Now that a few possibilities for comprehensive keyword research have been mentioned, the next step is to optimize the keywords in the Product listing to place. There are a few aspects to bear in mind.
- Upper and lower case: It makes no difference whether a term is capitalized in the search query and written in lower case in the product listing, the main thing is that the terms match.
- Sequence: The order of the keywords specified in the search query does not have to correspond to the order in the listing for the product to be considered relevant. The keywords are only checked for their occurrence in the listing.
- Keyword density: The frequency of a keyword does not play a role on Amazon. It only checks whether the relevant keyword is included in the listing or not. An unnaturally frequent repetition of relevant keywords therefore has no positive effect on the ranking in the search results.
- Singular & Plural: Amazon recognizes the same terms regardless of whether they are mentioned in their singular or plural form. It is therefore sufficient to use the keyword in one of the forms.
- Hyphen: The hyphen is a popular tool to cover different spellings. For example, the spelling Fahrrad-Klingel also covers the spelling Fahrrad Klingel and Fahrradklingel in addition to the hyphenated variant. When using it, however, care should be taken to ensure that the texts still appear natural
- Filler words: Filler words such as "for" or "to" are not taken into account in a search query, so long-tail keywords such as "cotton rug for bathroom" do not have to be included in full in the listing. A product would also be considered relevant if it contains the keywords "carpet", "cotton" and "bathroom" somewhere in the listing.
Possible keyword placements
According to the latest evaluations, the Amazon algorithm no longer differentiates between the various keyword placements. A keyword in the title is therefore just as relevant as one in the bullet points. Nevertheless, it can't hurt to sort the collected keywords by relevance first and place the most important ones in the title. After all, the title is what should convince potential customers in the search results. Below you can find out what you need to bear in mind for the various placements.
Product title
First of all, the product title is limited. The limit can vary depending on the product category, but the limit is 200 bytes at the latest. Titles that are too long can lead to penalties and reduced visibility. Titles that are too long are not recommended anyway for the sake of clarity. The most important information and keywords can usually be easily accommodated in 120 - 130 bytes. It is important to note the difference between bytes and characters, for example an umlaut is one character but takes up two bytes. It is advisable to check the length of the title using a byte counter. As already mentioned, the most important keywords should be in the title to convince prospective customers. Attention should be paid to readability and customer friendliness and pure keyword strings should be avoided.
Bullet points
The bullet points are ideal for including other important keywords. The keywords should be combined with helpful information to form meaningful sentences. There is no advantage if the bullet points contain all the keywords but the customer is deprived of information that is crucial for the purchase. It is important to note that only the first 1,000 bytes of the bullet points are indexed. It is therefore recommended not to write more than 200 bytes per bullet point. In this way, the clarity of the bullet points and complete indexing are guaranteed.
Product description
Care should be taken with the product description, as it is not fully indexed. The product description should therefore focus on useful additional information for the customer. Less relevant long-tail keywords can be included. The product description is limited to 2,000 bytes.
Backend keywords
The backend keywords, on the other hand, should not be neglected. These are very relevant and are ideal for important keywords that could not be included in the listing. They also provide space for terms that should not necessarily be visible in the listing, such as frequent misspellings or variants (example: citrus and citrus). The order of the backend keywords does not matter, they are all classified as equally relevant. However, it is important to ensure that the limit of 249 bytes is adhered to, otherwise none of the keywords will be considered. The individual terms can simply be separated by a space.
Keyword tools for Amazon
There are a large number of free or paid Amazon keyword research tools, some of which have completely different focuses and very different functions. The ideal tool for all purposes of an Amazon seller probably does not exist.
It is more likely that a Combination of different tools to achieve the desired results leads. The choice of an Amazon keyword research tool also depends on how much effort you are willing to invest in optimizing your Amazon rankings. If you want to have all relevant features combined in a user-friendly interface, such a program will probably not be free of charge and will probably not achieve top results in each of its functions.
Conclusion Amazon Keyword Research
There are several ways to carry out keyword research and, of course, there are numerous other tools in addition to those presented. It is advisable to try out and combine different methods in order to find the approach that suits you best.
Especially with a large product range, not too much time can be invested in creating the individual listings, but keyword research provides an important basis for the findability of the products and should therefore not be neglected. When subsequently using the keywords, care must be taken to combine the keywords with helpful information in order to offer the customer added value that ultimately leads to a purchase decision.
Note: Do you need support with optimizing your product listings on Amazon? Amazon SEO Agency can help.
