How to Use Index Checker to ID Which Words Amazon Indexes for a Product

Whether you want to investigate which words Amazon has indexed for your own product(s), or you want to research which keywords are indexed for other competing product(s), Helium 10's Index Checker is the tool for the task.

In a traditional product catalog (or on Amazon), an index is a list of words associated with specific products and their locations. Amazon indexes words and links them to specific products so that their internal search engine can find and return results for products that are most closely related to the words customers are searching.

Helium 10's Index Checker quickly identifies not only whether a word or phrase is indexed, but also how Amazon indexes it--traditionally as an organically searched keyword, and/or by its URL string, and/or by the seller, or Storefront, that sells it.

To use Index Checker, you will need:

1) an ASIN

and

2) a set of relevant keywords.

If you already know which ASIN and keywords you want to search, you can simply copy and paste them into the appropriate fields in Index Checker (skip to step 4).

You can also bring in an ASIN from Cerebro and its sorted keywords through Frankenstein. For the sake of learning the Index Checker dashboard in this tutorial, we'll grab an ASIN from Amazon, run it through the ASIN reverse lookup in Cerebro, import the resulting keywords into Frankenstein, then copy and paste the final keyword list and the originating ASIN into Index Checker.

1. Find an ASIN on Amazon's website that you want to research. Open Amazon in a browser window and find a product to research. Scan down the product page to find the product's ASIN. If you've installed Helium 10's Chrome Extension, you'll find it posted in the additional data that appears after the product title and bullet points, or you can find the ASIN under the product information section towards the bottom of the Amazon product page. Copy the ASIN.

2. Open Cerebro in a new browser window and paste the copied ASIN into the appropriate field box. (Check out the introductory tutorial on Cerebro for more detailed instructions on how to use this powerful reverse ASIN research tool.) Click on Get Keywords. Once Cerebro identifies the keywords for that product, click on Export in the upper right corner of the dashboard, and select Frankenstein.

3. Helium 10 will open a new window featuring Frankenstein. If you want to filter the words using the check boxes, do so, click Process, then scan down to the bottom of the Frankenstein dashboard and click on Copy to grab the words for Index Checker. (To read more complete instructions on the filters, check out the tutorial on Frankenstein.)

4. Now, open Index Checker in a new browser window.  You can search on just the ASIN if you like. You will get results in three of the four results columns.  The Traditional Index tells you whether the product is indexed to come up in the results when a customer types that keyword or phrase into the search field on Amazon's site. The Field-ASIN Index column tells you whether the keyword(s) appear in the URL string for that product, when a customer clicks on the product in a broader search results page. Sellers cannot request their products' keywords appear here--it's an event that Amazon creates based on customers' organic searches and sales conversions. The Cumulative  column simply checks that the ASIN in your search has indexed in at least one way.

To get results in the Storefront Index , you need to also type or paste in the seller ID. First, let's do a simple ASIN index check.

5. Paste in the ASIN. Now, paste in the copied keywords from Frankenstein. You can also type in keywords if you like.

6. You may get a warning if the keywords run long, but you can just click Continue if you've already sorted them onto their own lines in Frankenstein. If you want, you can go back to Frankenstein, sort the list into one word per line. Make sure to remove duplicates before you copy and paste them into Index Checker.

7. Index Checker's green progress line alerts you that Helium 10 is checking which keywords in your list are currently indexed for that ASIN.

8. When the green line disappears, Helium 10 is done searching Amazon. Index Checker reports out which keyword(s) and phrases are indexing in which way (Traditional, Field-ASIN, and/or Storefront). A check mark means it is indexed. A dash means it is not indexed. An X means that the Seller's storefront was not included in the search.

9. On occasion, you may want to search whether a keyword or phrase is indexed for a competitor's product because the seller may have used your brand name in its backend data, something that is against Amazon's Terms of Service (TOS) or rules. To check, you can add the Seller ID to your search, and Index Checker will populate the Storefront Index with results of which listed keywords or phrases appear specifically in the ASIN's backend.

To find a seller's ID, go back to your product page in Amazon. In the Buy Box, Amazon provides a link to the Seller's Storefront in Amazon. Click on it.

10. The link will take you to the Seller's Storefront. On the Storefront, you can find the Seller ID in the Amazon URL at the top of the browser  window.

11. Copy just the Seller's ID from the URL.

12. Go back to Helium 10 Index Checker and paste the Seller ID into the appropriate field. Click on Check Keywords again.

13. This time, the Storefront column will show checks and dashes. 

Generally, if a competitor's or an associated product is indexed for your brand name, it'll show up under the Field-ASIN column only. Amazon's system of indexing uses its own sales data and methodologies to index, in addition to seller keywords and organic searches.