Keyword data is a fascinating subject. There’s millions upon millions of search terms out there that you can choose from to optimize your Amazon listings. This serves as a short guide and some general best practices in setting search terms in Seller Central.

How to Set Search Terms in Amazon

1. Log into Seller Central and go to your inventory page https://sellercentral.amazon.com/inventory
2. Hit edit on an item in the far right.
3. Click the keywords tab. It will show something this effect (depending on your category)
4. Use the My Amazon Guy guide to optimize your search terms.

Guide to Using Good Keywords

We choose Search Terms after reviewing search volumes and potential sales.

Things we consider:

• Available impressions
  • Words are chosen based on search volumes and relevancy
• Competition for those impressions
• Long tail keywords
• Misspellings of core keywords (if high enough search volume)
• The string of words has thousands of permutations due to the strategic nature on how it is setup.
  • No commas between words
  • No words duplicated
  • In essence each word combines with the rest of the string to create thousands of keywords. 
• The search terms field affects SEO, for traffic generation on Amazon. As you index for keywords, this allows you to show in search results. Over time, the goal is to get to page 1 for hundreds if not thousands of converting keywords.

The other fields on the keywords page have significantly less impact. Such as the the other attributes, subject matter, and target audience. We fill them in with product matter for reinforcement but the core search term field is the most that has the most impact.

Example:

In this example we will look at selling wine glasses with funny sayings on them.  You can find this listing here.

We set the search terms for this product to: mr and mrs right winenewlywed wed married glass beer glass wedding engagement present gift hugs kisses mister misses gifts parents grandparents couples anniversary glasses mom dad grandpa grandma sign mugs table set drinking bridal shower gag custom his her best man woman

As a direct result of the SEO optimization, this product ranks for 2,464 organic keywords. Many on page 1 for terms such as “engagement present” or “drinking gifts for couples”

Here you can see it in organic position #2. This leads to earned sales on Amazon without paying for PPC.

All of the above recommendations were followed, and it leads to a powerful listing with sales.

If you haven’t worked with search terms before, we recommend hiring us to help set the search terms on your products as they have a massive impact to your success on Amazon.

At My Amazon Guy we are primarily an Amazon digital agency. However we do many other eCommerce services such as setting meta tags for websites using keyword best practices acquired from decades of collection experience. Below is a tutorial with step by step instructions for optimizing meta tags for your website. This in turn increases traffic to your website, with earned media in the search engine results. Hire us today to set your meta tags or follow our guide.

1. Choose 2-3 keywords for every piece of content developed. Use keywords suggested from the keyword research report provided.
2. Use those keywords 2-3+ times each “exact match” in the body of the content.
3. Always create unique content. Unique content on the page itself, and unique content in the supporting content such as the meta tags.
4. Use at least 1 of the keywords in the title of the article if possible as well as the URL.
   1. Example: If “Corporate Valuation Services” was the keyword the url would include that keyword: successbiznow.com/corporate-valuation-services/
5. Use keywords in the meta tags: (this tool can help you understand what your meta tags will translate to in Google: http://www.seomofo.com/snippet-optimizer.html )
   1. Html Title – Maximize to around 60-75 characters. Use this section to tell Google what the page is about in brief statements. Think of this like talking in bullet points.
      1. Html Title Example: Corporate Valuation Services – Expert Business Support – Excel Management
         1. This uses the primary keyword “Corporate Valuation Services” and tells the consumer that if they click on the link they are getting expert business support from Excel Management.
      2. Meta Description – Maximize to around 150-170 characters. This section gives the value proposition to the consumer and explains the purpose of the content in further detail. This should be written to tell the consumer why they should click on your link instead of the other thousands of pages out there. Using all 2-3 keywords that are chosen for the content in this section is ideal.
         1. Meta Description example – Dale Richards is a Certified Business Valuation Expert Services (Sample Valuation Report) Financial Accounting and bookkeeping Services Business Audits, Reviews and CPA Opinions.
            1. Highlights show great use of keywords in this meta description. These are all key phrases someone might use that would help them find the page.
         2. Keywords – Keywords can be a single word, multiple words or a phrase. This tag is just a list of all the keywords chosen for the page. Use between 3-20 keywords in this section. You can do multiple iterations of similar keywords. If the primary keyword was “corporate valuation services” you might also put “valuation services” as a keyword.
            1. Keywords example: company valuation services, corporate valuation, valuation service, valuation services, corporate valuation advisors, valuation services inc, corporate valuations, duff and phelps, valuations, property valuation services, business valuation services, pwc valuation, valuation firms
            2. Notice the separation of keywords by a comma. Google will only consider the first 20 keywords used, and the most important keywords need to be at the beginning of the string. So if you have 3 keywords for the article, put those keywords at the front of this tag.

This example translates to:

Notice how there is truncation. That’s why  the most important keywords should be at the front of the tags. Google has also announced an expansion of characters on these tags, thus my recommendations are slightly over current practices.

6. Videos – If uploading to Youtube, follow the meta tag instructions and apply to these fields:

Title = HTML Title

Description = Meta Description

Tags = Keywords

1. The most important thing you can do with video content is to get a transcription of the video posted on your website where the video is displayed. Google will use the copy from the video as a content indicator of the page. It gives additional copy to the page. If you are putting the video in the middle of a page – you can include the video transcription later that’s fine. As long as the transcription is on the page somewhere it is very helpful.
2. Images –
   1. File name – Name the image with keywords in mind. An image titled 12345.png is not helpful for SEO. Naming the images corporate-valuation-servies.png is very helpful.
   2. Image title – compare to HTML title above. Use a keyword or two of the image. Make sure every image has a title.
      1. Example title: Corporate Valuation Services
   3. Alt text – Write an alt text for every image. One sentence. This is kind of like the meta description equivalent.
      1. Example text: Get great corporate valuation services from Dale Richards. You can get a sample valuation report and other expert services.
   4. Copy
      1. Every content piece should have 300+ words. Recent Google indicators show that articles that are longer rank better. So when in doubt, build high quality longer articles.
      2. Use the chosen 2-3 keywords 2-3 times each within the copy. Preferably in header tags. If the keyword is difficult to use in an “English sentence” use it in a headline or bullet point to get the mention in.
      3. Header tags
         1. The title of the article should be a <h1> tag.
         2. Any subheadlines later in the article should be <h2> and <h3> tags.

• Word press should allow you to set these header tags.

1. Header tags tell Google what is the most important copy on your page. Should only have one H1 tag on page.
2. Header examples:
   1. H1 – Corporate Valuation Services
      1. H2 – Why Corporate Value Services Matter
         1. H3 – Helps Raise Capital
         2. H3 – Can Help Sell Business
      2. H2 – Why You Should Pay for a Thorough Valuation Service
         1. H3 – Official Document Increase Value
         2. H3 – Get a True Assessment that Impacts Business Decisions
      3. Copy would support those headlines underneath as a normal content article flow. These header tags are just meant as Google signals.
   2. Anchor text.
      1. Anchor text is a hyperlinked phrase within the copy. If you have one page about Corporate Valuation Services, and another page about How to Sell Your Business. You might cross link these pages by adding a hyperlink to “how to Sell Your Business” to the other page. When using anchor text, try to use keywords, but is not mandatory.
      2. Every article should attempt to link to another page on your website 2-3 times.

Word Press walkthrough

Pages: Go to Pages to get this section, scroll to bottom of page content.

1. Set these fields as indicated above.
   
2. Example: http://successbiznow.com/business-valuation-services/
3. SEO Title (HTML title):
   1. Original title: Business Valuation Services
   2. Original SEO title is too short.
   3. New title (incorporates additional keywords): Business Valuation Services | Business Valuation Methods & Financial Valuation Services
4. SEO Description (Meta Description):
   1. Original Meta description: Dale Richards can help you with your business valuation. Come learn why you need a business valuation and why Dale is the best in the business.
   2. Meta description is duplicate of other pages.
   3. New description (keywords highlighted) Get a cost effective business evaluation from Dale Richards, who teaches business valuation methods and builds you a business evaluation that will help you evaluate your business options such as selling your business. Getting a financial valuation increases the value of your company.
5. SEO Keywords:
   1. Only 1 keyword was set for this example. Need to focus on additional keywords, 2-3 minimum per page, upwards of 10 if any other valuable keywords are related.
   2. Keywords: business evaluation, business valuation methods, business evaluation, financial valuation, Dale Richards

Example post edits: