How to find Amazon keywords

As you type in Amazon’s search box, Amazon shows a list of suggestions under it. We see at most 10 per query.

The suggestions come from what shoppers search. Amazon’s autocomplete patent says the lists are built “to favor the items and/or search strings that are currently the most popular.” Amazon doesn’t publish how it ranks today’s list.

That makes a suggestion good evidence and a poor number:

• It shows that real buyers type the phrase.
• It doesn’t say how many buyers do.
• Its place in the list isn’t a search count.

Suggestions also change by country and by the department picked in the menu next to the search box.

Start with a seed: the two or three words that name your product. Here we use “yoga mat”. Every example on this page comes from amazon.com on 17 October 2026, signed out, in All Departments.

1. Open Amazon in the country you sell in, and pick your department.
2. Type the seed. Write down the suggestions.
3. Add a space and the letter a: “yoga mat a”. Write those down.
4. Repeat for b through z.
5. Try connecting words too: “yoga mat for”, “yoga mat with”.

The seed plus 26 letters is 27 searches and up to 270 suggestions, with many repeats. You repeat it for each seed and each country.

Amazon completes what you type, so the method above finds only words that come after the seed. Buyers often put the deciding word first: “thick yoga mat”, “kids yoga mat”.

By hand, type the first words you expect and see what Amazon keeps:

• a material: cork, rubber, TPE;
• a size: extra wide, extra long, thin;
• a buyer: kids, women’s, toddler;
• a use: travel, pilates, hot yoga.

Guessing finds some of them. It misses the ones you didn’t think to type, and those are often the useful ones.

Not every suggestion belongs in your listing. Ask four questions.

Does it describe your product?

“Yoga mat towel” and “yoga mat cleaner” are other products. Keep them only if you sell them.

Is it a brand?

“Manduka yoga mat”, “gaiam yoga mat” and “yoga mat alo” show demand for those brands. Amazon tells sellers not to put other brands in Search Terms, and a title that names one misleads buyers.

How specific is it?

Longer phrases name a need. “Foldable yoga mat for travel” tells you who buys and why. “Yoga mat” alone doesn’t.

Does the word come back?

A word that shows up in many lists, like thick, wide or travel, is something the market keeps asking for. Count it once and use it well.

None of this tells you volume. For numbers you need an estimate from a paid tool, or Amazon’s own Brand Analytics if your brand is registered. The guide to free tools compares the options.

• Title: your main phrase, in 75 characters or fewer outside media categories. See the 75-character title rule, and test yours with the title checker.
• Item Highlights: 125 more characters for materials and uses, shown with the title and searchable.
• Bullets and description: the words a buyer reads before buying.
• Backend Search Terms: the words left over, each once, under 250 bytes. See the Search Terms rules, and check yours with the Search Terms checker.

Shopperwords is a free Chrome extension that runs the manual method for you. Type a keyword in Amazon’s search box, and its dropdown shows three columns: Amazon’s own suggestions, Before and After.

• As you type, it asks Amazon 28 questions: the seed, the seed plus each letter, and the words before it. For “yoga mat”, that’s 259 keywords.
• Deep Expand asks 64: it adds every number after the seed and every letter before it. For “yoga mat”, that’s 582 keywords.
• It follows the department you pick, works on 22 Amazon sites, and hides words you exclude.
• Copy one keyword, star it, or export the list to CSV, free and with no account.

Pro adds estimated monthly searches to every keyword, sorts Before and After by volume, and builds your backend Search Terms. See pricing.