What is the difference between a search term and a keyword on Amazon?

A keyword is what a seller targets in their listing or PPC campaigns. A search term is what a shopper actually typed into the search bar. They overlap heavily, but the Amazon Search Term Report reveals the precise shopper phrases that led to clicks — including long-tail variations a seller may not have anticipated.

What is the Search Terms field in Seller Central?

The Search Terms field (found under the Keywords tab when editing a listing) is a backend field invisible to shoppers but fully indexed by Amazon. It accepts up to 250 bytes and is the right place for synonyms, variants, and phrases not already in your visible copy.

How many search terms can I add in the backend field?

The backend Search Terms field accepts up to 250 bytes in total. Separate terms with spaces rather than commas. If you exceed the limit, Amazon may ignore the entire field rather than indexing up to the limit — so keep a running byte count.

What is the Amazon Search Term Report?

The Search Term Report is available to Brand Registry sellers in Seller Central under Advertising reports. It shows which real shopper queries led to ad impressions, clicks, and purchases, making it a powerful source of actual demand data for expanding and refining your keyword list.

Do Amazon search terms affect PPC campaigns?

Yes. In Sponsored Products, your keyword targets determine which shopper search terms trigger your ad. Reviewing the Search Term Report in your campaign console shows which queries matched your keywords and generated clicks — letting you promote high-performers to exact-match targets and exclude irrelevant terms with negative keywords.

What is an Amazon search term?

The phrase 'Amazon search term' is used in two distinct ways. For shoppers, a search term is the phrase they type into Amazon's search bar to find a product. For sellers, 'Search Terms' is also the official name of the backend keyword field in Seller Central — the 250-byte hidden field that Amazon indexes but shoppers never see. Understanding both uses helps you research more accurately and optimise your listing more effectively. From a shopper's perspective, a search term is simply the phrase they type into Amazon's search bar — for example, 'waterproof hiking boots' or 'non-slip yoga mat extra thick'. It is the expression of intent in that moment, and Amazon uses it to find and rank the most relevant products to display. Sellers study shopper search terms through keyword research tools, which report how many times per month a particular phrase is typed on Amazon. That figure is the monthly search volume — the primary metric for judging how much organic traffic a keyword can generate for a listing. In Seller Central, 'Search Terms' is the official label for the backend keyword field found under the Keywords tab when editing a listing. It accepts up to 250 bytes of text, is completely invisible to shoppers, and is fully read and indexed by Amazon's algorithm. This is the field commonly referred to as 'backend keywords'. Because shoppers never see the Search Terms field, you do not need to write for readability. Use it for synonyms, common misspellings, complementary product terms, and relevant phrases that did not fit naturally into the title or bullet points. Separate terms with single spaces rather than commas, and avoid repeating words already in your visible copy — Amazon only needs to see a term once to index it. The words 'search term' and 'keyword' are often used interchangeably, but there is a meaningful distinction. A keyword is what a seller chooses to target or include in a listing. A search term is what a shopper actually typed. They overlap most of the time, but real search term data — particularly from the Amazon Search Term Report — reveals the precise phrases shoppers used, including long-tail variations you may not have thought to target. For example, you might target the keyword 'yoga mat', but the Search Term Report could show that many of your clicks came from 'thick yoga mat for bad knees' or 'yoga mat with carrying strap'. Those actual shopper phrases are the gold standard for keyword expansion. Effective keyword research is really effective search term research: understanding the exact phrases your target buyers type and making sure those terms appear somewhere in your listing so Amazon can index and rank you for them. Search volume data helps you prioritise — the highest-traffic, most-relevant phrases belong in your title and early bullet points, where indexing weight is greatest. The backend Search Terms field then extends your coverage to lower-volume variants, synonyms, and contextual terms that support indexing without cluttering the shopper-facing copy. Together, the visible listing and the backend field give Amazon a complete picture of what your product is and which queries it should appear for.

An Amazon search term is the query a shopper types into the search bar — and also the name of the backend keyword field in Seller Central. Learn how both work.