Hey MerchantWords, How Do You Get All This Awesome Keyword Data?

Good question and we're glad you asked. MerchantWords data comes from the Amazon autocomplete search bar.

We rely on the assumption that Amazon wants to make a sale. Given this, it’s logical to further assume that Amazon aims to quickly suggest keywords for products that shoppers are buying, or looking to purchase.

This data collection method allows us to acquire customer demand-driven data. By doing so we can capture search trends as they're happening. And you as the retailer can see what words shoppers are using to describe the products they're looking to buy in more than a dozen countries and languages.

Step One

We visit Amazon the same way that shoppers do, but we can type in every single combination of keywords available. We start with “a” and record the constantly changing dropdown suggestions: amazon gift cards, aa batteries, aaa batteries...

Then we add the letter “b” and record the suggestions: above ground pool, ab roller, abreva...

We continue on in this manner until we've collected hundreds of millions of keywords across 11 Amazon marketplaces, all in a batch.

Step Two

Once a batch is collected, we use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyze each of the search terms. Amazon’s A9 algorithm uses this same type of artificial intelligence to power its search and personalization functionality.

In general terms, NLP breaks down language into shorter, elemental pieces – in our case individual words – to understand relationships between each piece and how they work together to create meaning, and search results.

The output of this NLP processing allows our data science team to calculate the ranking of every single search phrase. Our proprietary algorithm looks at the overall levels of demand and popularity and then ranks every keyword from 1 to 75 million (sometimes more!)… just in the US alone.

Taking into account the number of monthly Amazon shopper visits, we then allocate the proportional search volume across every keyword in each Amazon marketplace.

Step Three

Before we release any data live to you, our engineers, data scientists, and product managers review the results. We double, triple, and quadruple check our work before you use it for your business.

First, we compare our ranking system to the data we get directly from Amazon. Then we spot check our estimates with PPC advertising data. This is done to ensure we’re not under-representing any searches. Our reviewers and data scientists then further compare the raw output against Amazon's recent and seasonal trends. This allows us to tune and update our algorithms on an ongoing basis to adapt to Amazon's shifting trends and its evolving suggestion engine. Billions of data points are processed and ranked in every cycle to distill the latest and most relevant information possible – including the hidden relationships – to expose what is in demand in the Amazon marketplace.

Our internal analysis tools use machine learning to generate reports on rising and falling popularity, seasonal and “evergreen” suggestions, Amazon’s spelling correction system, global trends across markets, and the appearance of entirely new terms.

You might be surprised how much Amazon changes throughout the year. For example, expanding the total number of suggestions in multiple languages, and at times including misspellings among the suggestions. It’s all exposed and incorporated in the final results we compile.

Once the whole process is complete it all goes live to you! Then, the data team takes a deep breath, pauses for a moment, and does it all over again for the next month.

By collecting our data in this manner, we can continue to bring you the most accurate search information available, interruption-free.

Step Four

We’ve seen our fair share of Amazon updates while gathering and analyzing Amazon search data since 2012. With hundreds of millions of products analyzed and billions of searches indexed, we’ve learned how to consistently maintain reliable keyword data and performance metrics, regardless of these changes. Amazon is constantly updating their search algorithms, so when we detect a change, our algorithms evolve as well. Aside from Amazon itself, we are the only company that sees the entirety of what searches are the most important every month.

MerchantWords is always here to help sellers “be awesome” and achieve success. If you have further questions about how we get our data, our keyword tools, or our listing optimization service, please contact us at [email protected].