How do we get those numbers?

We get many questions about our Amazon search estimates.

How does MerchantWords get its search volume numbers?

Do they come directly from Amazon?

Are your estimates accurate?

Why do your search estimates differ from other Amazon keyword tools?

Let’s get down to it.

Yes, we pull real keywords from Amazon – keywords that hundreds of millions of customers use every day while shopping for products in the world’s largest marketplace.

No, we do not get actual search volume numbers delivered directly from Amazon, nor do we get our data from Google or Bing. In fact, Amazon does not publish “overall” search volume statistics for anyone. What they do release are paid ad impressions, which show the amount of traffic that your sponsored ad reaches. Since the number of people searching for a product does not always equal the number of times a sponsored ad shows up for that keyword, basing your keyword choices solely on paid ad data only gives you a fraction of the picture.

MerchantWords measures sitewide search volume; i.e., the number of times Amazon customers search for a particular product overall. We estimate (conservatively) there were more than 20 billion searches performed on Amazon last month. That’s 20 billion searches from around 250 million active users searching with more than 75 million unique keywords phrases, just in the US market alone.

We take that tremendous amount of data and use artificial intelligence to organize and rank all of those keyword phrases. Then we calculate our search volume estimates based on how a particular keyword phrase ranks among all the keywords in our database. MerchantWords' proprietary algorithm utilizes billions of data points in the most extensive historical database of searches for Amazon available anywhere in the world. As a result, some keywords will garner very high search volume numbers and some volume numbers will be very low. To check all this, we verify our search estimates against real, 100% Amazon source data. We also make sure to update our keyword data at least twice a month, so our algorithm accurately reflects changes in consumer demand.

We are continually tracking changes in Amazon’s algorithm and improving our search estimates. And we listen to every piece of customer feedback, so we can continue to provide the best product to empower sellers. The goal is - and always has been - to help you measure your Amazon store’s potential by providing data that is relevant and reliable.

Have more questions? Reach out to us at [email protected]