SEO Content: Search Terms

Access from: Processes → Workflows

Audits the backend search terms field (generic_keyword) of every active product (seller and vendor) on the configured connection and marketplace. Search terms are hidden keywords that only Amazon sees: well optimized, they capture traffic that does not fit in the title, bullets or description; poorly optimized, they waste a critical indexation resource.

Chained auto-fix in this template

This template is the one that auto-corrects the most: 9 out of 12 checks generate a suggested value. When several fail at the same time, the fixes chain in the order S08 → S04 → S05 → S06 → S07 → S09 → S10 → S11 → S12 and produce a single optimized value applicable with one click.

When it runs

• Default frequency: 1st of each month at 5:00 (workflow timezone).
• Editable from the workflow editor once cloned.

How it works

Auto-fix vs manual review

Type	Checks
Auto-fix available	S04 (commas), S05 (own ASIN), S06 (brand), S07 (duplicates), S08 (uppercase), S09 (stop-words), S10 (overlap), S11 (competitor ASINs), S12 (superlatives)
Manual review	S01 (empty), S02 (minimum bytes), S03 (byte overflow)

When several auto-fixes apply to the same product, the corrections concatenate: the final suggested value is the result of applying all transformations sequentially over the original generic_keyword.

Checks

Empty search terms (S01)

• Severity: error
• What it checks: That the generic_keyword field is not empty.
• Why it matters: The backend search terms field is one of the main channels for A9 to index your product for keywords that do not appear in the title or bullets. Leaving it empty is handing over organic traffic that other products will capture.
• Amazon reference: Use search terms effectively.
• Auto-fix: no — requires generating content. The bulk AI editing can generate search terms based on the rest of the listing.
• Task message: "No backend search terms defined. Search terms are critical for discoverability beyond title and bullets."

Search terms too short (S02)

• Severity: warning
• What it checks: That the field has at least 150 bytes.
• Why it matters: Amazon allows up to 249 bytes in generic_keyword. Being below 150 means you are wasting space to index additional keywords — especially in competitive categories where every indexed keyword counts.
• Amazon reference: Keyword attributes explained.
• Auto-fix: no — the bulk AI editing can expand while keeping relevance.
• Task message: "Search terms are only {byteCount} bytes (recommended: {minBytes}+). Short search terms miss indexing opportunities."

Search terms exceed the limit (S03)

• Severity: error
• What it checks: That the field does not exceed 249 bytes.
• Why it matters: Critical. Going over 249 bytes causes Amazon to ignore the field entirely — it will not index any keyword from the search terms, not just the ones over the limit. Users often think a fuller field is better; in reality, going over de-indexes.
• Amazon reference: Use search terms effectively.
• Auto-fix: no — requires deciding what to drop. The bulk AI editing can prioritize the most relevant keywords within the limit.
• Task message: "Search terms are {byteCount} bytes, exceeding the 249-byte limit. Amazon de-indexes the ENTIRE field when this limit is exceeded."

Commas instead of spaces (S04)

• Severity: warning
• What it checks: That the field does not contain commas (,) as separators.
• Why it matters: Amazon separates search terms by spaces, not by commas. Commas are characters that consume bytes without providing separation: they degrade indexation and waste the 249-byte limit.
• Amazon reference: Use search terms effectively.
• Auto-fix: yes — replaces commas with spaces and collapses multiple spaces.
• Task message: "Search terms use commas as separators. Amazon recommends spaces — commas waste bytes without benefit."

Own ASIN in search terms (S05)

• Severity: error
• What it checks: That the product's own ASIN does not appear in its search terms.
• Why it matters: Amazon already indexes the product's ASIN automatically. Including it in search terms wastes bytes and adds nothing — the product already shows up when somebody searches for its ASIN.
• Amazon reference: Use search terms effectively.
• Auto-fix: yes — removes the own ASIN and normalizes spacing.
• Task message: "Search terms contain own ASIN ({asin}). Amazon already indexes your ASIN; this wastes bytes."

Brand in search terms (S06)

• Severity: warning
• What it checks: That the product brand does not appear in its search terms.
• Why it matters: The brand attribute is already indexed automatically. Repeating it in search terms takes up bytes without benefit: the product is already indexable by its brand through the right field.
• Amazon reference: Keyword attributes explained.
• Auto-fix: yes — removes the brand name from the field.
• Task message: "Search terms contain brand name "{brand}". Brand is auto-indexed from the brand field; this wastes bytes."

Duplicate words (S07)

• Severity: warning
• What it checks: That there are no repeated words in the field.
• Why it matters: A9 indexes each keyword once. Repeating a word does not improve ranking — it only spends bytes that could be used for new keywords.
• Amazon reference: Amazon search glossary.
• Auto-fix: yes — deduplicates preserving the first use of each word.
• Task message: "Search terms contain duplicate words. Each word only needs to appear once for indexing."

Uppercase in search terms (S08)

• Severity: warning
• What it checks: That the field is entirely in lowercase.
• Why it matters: A9 is case-insensitive for indexation: Cámara and cámara are indexed identically. On the other hand, uppercase letters (especially accented ones) can take more bytes in some encodings. Switching everything to lowercase optimizes space without losing relevance.
• Amazon reference: Use search terms effectively.
• Auto-fix: yes — converts the whole field to lowercase (first transformation in the fix chain).
• Task message: "Search terms are not all lowercase. Amazon search is case-insensitive; uppercase wastes bytes."

Excessive stop-words (S09)

• Severity: warning
• What it checks: That the field does not contain more than 3 stop-words (articles, prepositions, conjunctions of the marketplace language).
• Why it matters: A9 ignores stop-words like de, la, the, and, der. Their presence consumes bytes without contributing to indexation. For languages like French or Italian, stop-words are especially common.
• Amazon reference: Amazon search glossary.
• Auto-fix: yes — removes stop-words of the marketplace language.
• Task message: "Search terms contain {count} stop words. Words like "the", "and", "for" waste bytes without helping indexing."

Overlap with title and bullets (S10)

• Severity: warning
• What it checks: That the word overlap with title and bullets does not exceed 30%.
• Why it matters: A9 already indexes every word in the title and bullets. Repeating them in search terms is duplicating indexation: it does not improve ranking and wastes bytes. The field should complement the others with keywords that do not appear anywhere else in the listing.
• Amazon reference: Use search terms effectively.
• Auto-fix: yes — removes words that already appear in title or bullets.
• Task message: "Search terms overlap {overlapPercent}% with title and bullets. Use search terms for words NOT already in your visible content."

Competitor ASINs (S11)

• Severity: error
• What it checks: That the field does not contain ASINs of other products (format B0... with 10 alphanumeric characters).
• Why it matters: Amazon forbids this practice: taking advantage of searches reaching a competitor's ASIN. Its presence is grounds for penalty or listing suppression for search manipulation, and Amazon detects the pattern automatically.
• Amazon reference: Product detail page rules.
• Auto-fix: yes — removes any ASIN different from the product's own.
• Task message: "Search terms contain competitor ASINs. This violates Amazon policy and may result in listing suppression."

Superlatives in search terms (S12)

• Severity: error
• What it checks: That the field does not contain forbidden superlatives ("the best", "premium", "#1", etc.).
• Why it matters: The same Amazon rules about unverifiable superlatives apply to search terms. Their presence may trigger automatic reviews and limit listing visibility.
• Amazon reference: Use search terms effectively.
• Auto-fix: yes — removes forbidden superlatives of the marketplace language.
• Task message: "Search terms contain prohibited superlatives. Claims like "best" violate Amazon policies even in backend keywords."

Next steps

• Templates catalog — back to the index
• Tasks — how to review and approve generated items
• Workflows — understand the engine underneath
• AI editing — generate search terms in bulk with AI