Phase 1 SEO: How To Construct MKLs and Highly-Optimized Backend Search Terms Through Helium10 Cerebro Reverse ASIN Lookup
Objectives:
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To identify the top 10 competitors on Amazon (only applies in scenarios when the full list of competitors are not provided by the brand; the specialists will verify the top competitors if they have been provided);
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To build highly-optimized backend search terms and other search attributes, including subject matter, intended use, target audience, and other attributes;
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To help build product listings by constructing the MKL that is generated through Helium10 Cerebro and;
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To ultimately increase the product listing’s visibility and revenue on Amazon
Top 10 Competitor ASINs
The SEO team is taking full responsibility for finding the top 10 competitor ASINs on Amazon. This does not mean that the SEO team will not consider the competitor ASINs that the brand provided, however, they will be cross-referenced with the high-performing ASINs that will be generated by the specialist.
For experts, if the listing is especially common (i.e. vitamin c supplements), you can easily look for competitors using the seed keyword vitamin c supplements, however, if you are unsure about this process and prefer a more systematic approach, you can utilize Helium10 Xray Keywords. This will provide you with a list of high-volume search keywords, which you can use to look for competitors.
NOTE: If the catalog is particularly large, please refer to the Onboarding Document Survey to get the priority ASINs. Work on them and strive to deliver to the brand before implementing. Then, work on the non-priority ASINs thereafter. If the catalog is small (15-20 listings), it is assumed that all ASINs must be worked on.
Understanding the Product
Knowing or understanding what the product is about plays an integral part of this process. For instance, if the product is about supplements, you may use supplements or vitamin-related keywords on Amazon. The same can be said when the product is about mattresses, mats, carpets, and etc. In other words, always pick a keyword that describes the brand's product and search it on Amazon.
Figure 1.
If the competition for a certain product/category is relatively scarce, you can process the brand's target ASIN on Helium10 Cerebro to get the top keyword that’s ranking for that listing.
Helium10 XRAY
Begin by running Helium10 XRAY to identify the top competitors on Amazon. Be sure to have your Helium10 Chrome Extension installed before doing this. See figure 2.
Figure 2.
Then, click on the “Filter Results” and tick the box to hide sponsored products.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
Once the sponsored products are removed from the results, sort the BSR data from A to Z or in ascending order. Then, select the top 10 ASINs that are highly similar to your target product. Make sure that your top 10 competitor ASINs have the following criteria:
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High revenue
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BSR
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Reviews
In some rare instances, Helium10 fails to extract the BSR data; use the Revenue data anyway, and sort the Revenue data in descending order. If the Revenue data is not available as well, use Review Count as the key metric, still in descending order (figure 5).
Figure 5.
There are two ways of selecting the competitor ASINs and processing them on Helium10. You can either run a keyword search directly,
Figure 6.
or copy and gather all the competitor ASINs in notepad.
Figure 7.
The second way of doing it is especially helpful in circumstances where you have to go to page 2 or 3 when looking for more competitor ASINs and gather them to process on Helium10 Cerebro.
Also, collate all the brands from conducting H10 Xray. You may download a CSV file to extract all of them and add them to the last column of the MKL, which will be explained later on in this training material.
IV. Do a Reverse Keyword Search Through Helium10 Cerebro
After you have pasted the competitor ASINs into the tool, click “Get Keywords.” Be sure to set some filters before exporting the data, including:
Figure 8.
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Search Volume – the minimum should always be 100; leave the maximum search volume field empty
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Word Count – input 1
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Match Type – should always be organic (Figure 9); can be found by browsing more filters (Figure 8)
Figure 9.
Then, apply filters. Scroll a little bit down to see a table containing the comprehensive data. Sort the search volume in descending order. And export as a CSV file.
Figure 10.
V. Preparing your Worksheet
Access the downloaded file and rename it using the name of the product category as well as the brand's name. For example, “Vitamins (name of the product) - Get Super Natural (brand name).”
Figure 11.
Access the brand's folder in Google Drive and look for an existing Phase 1 SEO worksheet. If the b irands especially new and there is no existing Phase 1 SEO worksheet, feel free to create another folder within the brand's folder, and name it “SEO Work - (brand name).” Then, create a worksheet and name it using the format “(Brand Name) - Phase 1 SEO.” Copy and paste the lients Phase 1 SEO template to your worksheet.
Figure 12.
Click on “File” and select “Import” and upload the downloaded file from Helium10 Cerebro to your Google worksheet. See Figure 13.
Figure 13.
Delete some of the unnecessary columns except for the columns stated in Figure 14.
Figure 14.
Replace the header for column C (Position Rank) with the first competitor ASIN you input on Helium10 Cerebro. Insert another column to the left (beside the first ASIN) and add “MAG Score” as the header afterwards. If you want to keep your work appear organized and understandable by the readers/viewers, you may opt to highlight the headers and change the colors of the letters, as well as rename the tab using this format “MKL - (name of the product).”
Figure 15.
Then, apply the MAG Score formula to all the cells in column C. Refer to Figure 15 and 16.
Figure 16.
Figure 17.
The BSR data of every competitor ASIN shall be added on top of header row. This will guarantee that we are using high-ranking competitor ASINs by the moment the MKL and Phase 1 SEO will be constructed.
Figure 18.
Then, all the brands you’ve extracted from the CSV file must be added to the last part of the MKL (after column M). Freeze the sheet up to the last competitor ASIN (Column M). With this, the brand names column will not move into places when sorting the sheet. This is especially important if you are trying to skip all brand-driven keywords and use high-ranking keywords in your proposed search terms.
Figure 19.
Note: The SEO Team will NOT remove any brand keywords.
VI. Selecting the Keywords
Highlight the keywords with high search volume and MAG Score in bright yellow. For the search volume, the minimum should be 300; and 5 for the MAG Score. However, if the keywords are limited, you may adjust to using those keywords with lower MAG Scores.
Figure 20.
VII. Keyword Processor Using Helium10 Frankenstein
Copy all the yellow-highlighted keywords and paste them into Frankenstein. Be sure to tick the filters found in figure 18.
Figure 21.
Once done, remove the irrelevant keywords, including prohibited and any brand-related keywords from the results.
Figure 22.
VIII. Constructing the Search Terms
For the search terms, we highly recommend to stay under the length limit, which ranges from 246-249 characters, NOT bytes. Amazon has recently become stringent about this process and is now counting white spaces.
Here are the tips in constructing your search terms:
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Stay under the length limit (246-249 characters; not less than 246, not bytes)
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Include synonyms
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Include spelling variations; misspellings are welcomed
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Include abbreviations and alternate names
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As much as possible, search terms should all be in lower case
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No need for punctuations (!?:.,/-)
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Separate words with spaces
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Don’t repeat words within the Search Terms field
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Don’t include your brand or other brands in the Search Terms
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As much as possible, don’t include ASINs in Search Terms
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No need for stop words such as “a,” “an,” “by,” “for,” “of,” “the,” “with,” and so on
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Use singular or plural, no need for both
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No temporary statements such as “new,” or “on sale now”
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Don’t use subjective claims, such as “best,” “cheapest,” “amazing,” and so on
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Don’t use abusive or offensive terms
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Don't add medical terms
VIII. Other Search Attributes
The other search attributes, such as subject matter, intended use, target audience, and other attributes, have significantly less impact than the core search terms. We fill them in for SEO reinforcement. As for the keywords, utilize the unused keywords in your MKL (the ones that were not highlighted in bright yellow) and highlight them using a light yellow 3 highlighter. Be sure they are related.
Figure 23.
Here are the guidelines to consider when constructing your other search attributes:
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Subject Matter – 50 characters (spaces counted)
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Intended Use – 100 characters (space counted)
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Target Audience – 50 characters (space counted)
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Other Attributes – 50 characters (space counted)
IX. Hyperlinked Product Notes and SEO work dates
Each product note must be hyperlinked with its associated MKL. Doing this will save time looking for appropriate MKLs for anyone who wishes to access the worksheet. See figure 24.
Aside from this, the Asana task must be hyperlinked in the date section of SEO main worksheet. This is especially beneficial if we are working on audit tasks.
Figure 24.
Once done, send your work to your QA Pod Lead for review and approval; your QA Pod Lead will deliver the report to the brand.
SEO Phases + How to Determine SEO Phase Eligibility
PPT presentation can be found here.
Prepared by: Geoffrey B. Alama
Created: 01/25/2022
Last modified: 2/21/2022