Free Keyword Research for Merch: Five Methods That Work

A design nobody searches for is a design nobody sees. Many Merch sellers guess at their keywords, or pay for a tool before they know what questions to ask it.

You can do solid keyword research for free, with Amazon itself and a couple of public tools. This guide shows five methods and how to combine them.

What a keyword is, and what you want from one

A keyword is a word or phrase a shopper types into the search bar, like "retired teacher shirt" or "axolotl gifts for girls".

For Merch, a good keyword has three things:

• Demand: people actually search it.
• Buying intent: they want a product like yours, not information.
• Room: the results are not already full of hundreds of near-identical shirts.

No free method measures all three perfectly. That's fine. You combine a few rough signals into one decent decision.

Five free methods

Each method answers a different question. Use at least two before you trust a keyword.

Method 1: Amazon autocomplete

Amazon's search bar suggests phrases as you type. Those suggestions are based on what shoppers search, so they are the single best free hint about real demand.

How to use it:

1. Open Amazon in a private or logged-out window, so your own history doesn't color the suggestions.
2. Type your seed word plus a product word: "beekeeper shirt".
3. Write down every suggestion.
4. Now add letters: "beekeeper shirt a", "beekeeper shirt b", and so on. Each letter brings new suggestions.
5. Try the word in front too: "funny beekeeper", "retired beekeeper".

Suggestions that show up early and often tend to be searched more. Amazon does not show numbers, so treat the order as a hint, not a measurement.

Tip Select the right department first if you can (for example Clothing, Shoes and Jewelry). That nudges suggestions toward products instead of books or tools.

Method 2: Related searches and filters on the results page

Run a search and look around the results page, not just at the products.

• Related searches sometimes appear near the bottom or top of the results. They show what else people look for around your idea.
• The filter sidebar (department, style, occasion and similar) shows how Amazon itself groups this kind of product. Those group names are words shoppers use.
• The number of results at the top ("1-48 of over 2,000 results") gives a very rough sense of how crowded a phrase is. Compare phrases against each other rather than reading too much into one number.

Method 3: Read competitor listings

Find shirts on the first page for your phrase, especially ones that look like other Merch designs (simple product pages, a plain brand name, the standard Merch fabric bullets).

For each, note:

• The words in the title. Which phrases appear again and again?
• The bullets. How do they describe who it's for and when to wear it?
• Gift angles and occasions that keep coming up (retirement, birthday, Christmas, Father's Day).

You are not copying their text. You are learning the vocabulary of the niche. If eight sellers all say "bee lover" and nobody says "apiarist", that tells you something about how buyers talk.

Method 4: BSR as a demand signal

BSR (Best Sellers Rank) is a number on each product page under Product details. A lower number means the item has sold more recently compared with others in that category. Amazon describes it as based on sales, updated hourly, with recent sales counting more than older ones.

How to use it for keywords:

1. Search your phrase.
2. Open the top 10 to 20 shirts that look like Merch listings.
3. Note each one's BSR in the main clothing category.

What you are looking for:

Keep in mind:

• BSR is a snapshot. One sale can move a product's rank a lot for a while. Check again a few days later.
• BSR is relative and per category. Compare shirts with shirts, in the same marketplace.
• BSR says a product sold, not which keyword sold it.

Note There is no official "good BSR" number. Sellers quote different thresholds, and they shift with the season. Compare within the niche you are researching.

Method 5: Google Trends

Google Trends shows how interest in a search term changes over time, on a scale from 0 to 100. It is about Google searches, not Amazon, but it answers useful questions:

• Is this rising, flat or fading? A hobby climbing for three years is a better bet than one that peaked last spring.
• Is it seasonal? "Pickleball" and "Halloween teacher" have very different shapes across a year.
• Which wording wins? Compare up to five terms, like "pickleball" vs "paddleball".
• Shopping interest. Switch the dropdown from Web Search to Google Shopping to see product-search interest.

Use five years as the time range to see real patterns, then the past 12 months to see where you are now.

Putting it together: a 20-minute routine

Say you want to make a design for beekeepers.

1. Autocomplete: list 15 to 30 phrases ("beekeeper shirt funny", "beekeeping gifts for men", "bee keeper dad").
2. Google Trends: check that beekeeping interest is stable or rising, and when it peaks.
3. Search the best 5 phrases on Amazon. For each, note the result count and the BSR of the top Merch-looking shirts.
4. Read 10 competitor listings and note repeated words and gift angles.
5. Pick one main phrase for the title and two to four supporting phrases for the bullets.

Write it down in a simple table:

Then write the listing. Our guide on writing Merch titles and bullets covers where each phrase should go.

Mistakes to avoid

• Researching only one word. "Dog" is not a keyword. "Dog mom hiking" is.
• Trusting one signal. Autocomplete without BSR, or BSR without autocomplete, misleads you.
• Ignoring trademarks. A popular phrase can be popular because it belongs to a brand. Check before using it, as explained in our trademark check guide.
• Stuffing. Finding 30 keywords does not mean using 30. Pick a few.

After launch: your ads are a keyword tool too

Once a design is live and advertised, Amazon's search term report tells you exactly what shoppers typed before clicking your ad. That's the most honest keyword data you will ever get, because it's from your own buyers.

If you are new to ads, start with Amazon Ads for Merch beginners. MerchPPC's Advertising console shows those search terms with spend, sales and orders, next to what each product can afford. Terms that spend and never convert are candidates for negative keywords, which MerchPPC can stage for you to approve before anything is sent.

The short version

• Start with Amazon autocomplete, in a logged-out window, letter by letter.
• Read results pages and competitor listings for the words buyers use.
• Use BSR to confirm people buy, comparing within the niche.
• Use Google Trends to see direction and seasonality.
• After launch, let your ad search terms teach you the rest.