If you work in Amazon operations, you’ve probably run into this scenario: you’ve been promoting a new product for weeks, but core keywords still don’t show up in search results, or previously stable organic rankings suddenly drop entirely. When I was optimizing our team’s new product listings recently, I noticed a frequently overlooked detail: all four operators on our team write Search Terms (ST) completely differently. Right around the same time, one of our team members saw core keyword organic rankings for their product disappear suddenly. When they opened a support case, Amazon support said the keywords were not indexed because they were not included in the ST field. I’ve compiled the four common writing methods our team uses, plus our real testing results, and I’d love to hear about your real-world experience with this.

We used wireless earbud category keywords as our test sample, test premise: Keywords already embedded in listing title and bullet points: Wireless Earbuds Bluetooth Headphones, ear phone; Keywords not used elsewhere in the listing: wireless earbuds, cordless earbuds. The test results of 4 writing methods after 4 weeks of promotion are as follows:

ST Writing Method Specific Operation 4-Week Promotion Test Result
Full Inclusion Method List all 4 keywords separated by commas, regardless of whether they are already embedded elsewhere in the listing 127 newly indexed keywords, average 10 days for core keywords to reach first page
New Keywords Only (Comma Separated) Include only the 2 keywords not used elsewhere in the listing, separated by commas 142 newly indexed keywords, average 9 days for core keywords to reach first page
New Keywords Only (Space Separated) Include only the 2 keywords not used elsewhere in the listing, separated by spaces 156 newly indexed keywords, average 8 days for core keywords to reach first page
Root Word Combination Method Keep only unique root words from unused keywords, combined as "wireless cordless earbuds", no repeated roots or punctuation 168 newly indexed keywords, average 7 days for core keywords to reach first page

I also looked up Amazon’s official ST writing examples, and found that all valid search terms provided in the examples are supplementary relevant terms that do not appear elsewhere on the listing.

We’ve summarized a few actionable tips from our testing:

▌Avoid repeating keywords already embedded in your listing, and don’t repeat identical root words, to save precious character space

I’d love to hear from you: do you intentionally add keywords that are already used in your listing to your ST field?

▌Skip punctuation and prepositions entirely. Platform algorithms can recognize terms directly from combined root words

▌Before writing your ST, sort all collected keywords by relevance, search volume, and number of competing sellers. Add the highest priority terms to your title first, combining them in natural order while keeping the title readable. High potential terms that don’t fit in the title belong in the ST field

We had one product where our core broad keyword wouldn’t reach the first page for months. We replaced some long-tail terms in the ST with relevant variations of that core keyword, and it moved to the third position on the first page in 2 weeks. Have you had a similar experience adjusting ST to boost core keyword rankings?