Keyword Research for Selling Paperback Planners on Amazon

When people go on Amazon, they usually type what they want into the search bar at the top. Amazon then uses these words that actual customers type in to decide which products to show to the customer.

These words are what we call “keywords.” As any online marketing expert may tell you, the key to succeeding in selling things online is good keyword research. This helps you know what your target audience wants, and if you know what your target audience wants, you can easily offer them a book – and make money! 

But what if the product you’re offering is a low content book, such as a paperback planner? After all, goal-setting and self-awareness are on the rise, and planners fit the bill for these needs. But how do you do keyword research for selling paperback planners on Amazon?

Fear not! It’s possible to do effective keyword research even for low- or no-content items on Amazon. 

How to do Keyword Research for No-Content Items

These steps should help you do effective Amazon keyword research for selling low- or no-content items, such as paperback planners on Amazon: 

1. Open an incognito window on your browser

An incognito window is a feature for online privacy that does not store your browsing history. Chrome lets you open an incognito browser, and doing this will help you see more “generic” results on Amazon that aren’t tailor-fit for you. To do this in Chrome, go File > New Incognito Window. 

This is an important step because it will give you results that are not affected by your previous searches. 

2. Use the Auto-Complete feature on Amazon

The good thing about the Amazon search box is that it gives you search suggestions. In the case of planners, you can start typing “planners” and the following screen shows up: 

This gives you an idea of what people are actually typing into the Amazon search box. You can do the same for other similar keywords, such as “journal,” “notebook,” or any other synonym you can come up with. 

3. Pick a phrase and then go through each letter of the alphabet

Pick a phrase from one of the suggestions. For example, you might want to type “Planners 20…” and see the following pop up.  

Then, take one of the phrases. For our example, let’s use “Planners 2021 for women.” Don’t click on the phrase. Instead, type it into the search bar, and we get the following:  

From there, type “Planners 2021 for women a”… then “Planners 2021 for women b”… then, “Planners 2021 for women c”… 

Do this for every letter of the alphabet and you will find lots of keywords that Amazon completes for you. 

4. Check these keywords in a Keyword Research Tool

Now, Amazon has told you what search terms people use when they want to buy something from Amazon. But you still don’t know if that keyword is profitable. In this step, you can use a keyword research tool: free ones include Ubersuggest and Google Chrome’s Keyword Surfer. Paid ones include Publisher Rocket and ahrefs, among others. 

This step isn’t absolutely necessary as you should be able to find out from the search results if the keyword is profitable. (See the next two points).

5. Scope out the competition 

Finding a good keyword also means you pick one that does not have too much competition but has decent demand. In our previous example, try typing “Planner 2021 for Women” into the search box, and you will see how many items already match that keyword on Amazon.  

From this example, you can see that there are over 1,000 results for your search term. Your goal is to find a keyword that has good search volume but relatively low competition, perhaps between 100-400 results. 

6. Check existing sales

The next step is to check how much sales the search term actually returns. After all, a keyword that gives you low results may not be selling at all! For this, look at the Best Seller Rank (BSR) under the Product Details section of the item. 

A rough estimate is that an item with a BSR of 100,000 is equivalent to sales of about 30 units per month. A BSR of 700,000 is estimated to sell about 10 units per month. 

A good range to look at is a search term that gives you 100-400 results but with low BSRs, or below 1,000,000. 

Using Effective Keywords for Selling Planners on Amazon

If you are creating your own paperback planners, you can use the keywords you find as part of your actual product title and subtitle. This will be a big help to making your item more easy to find for potential buyers who are most willing to spend! 

Author’s Bio: 

Yen Cabag is a Blog Writer for TCK Publishing. She is also a homeschooling mom, family coach, and seminar speaker for the Charlotte Mason method, an educational philosophy that places great emphasis on classic literature and the masterpieces in art and music.