Walmart keyword research: Walmart's search reports, where to find keywords and where to put them

Walmart keyword research means finding the one or two phrases shoppers type for your item and using each of them once in the title, the key features and the description, which is exactly what Walmart's keyword guidance asks for. Walmart gives you the data to choose them: the Search Insights reports in Seller Center show which searches already bring shoppers to your item, how often a phrase is searched on Walmart, and which items shoppers click for it. The rest of the work is placing those words where Walmart reads them, and filling every attribute that is true of the item, because attributes drive Walmart's filters and search.

Walmart's keyword guidance asks for restraint: fewer keywords, used once, in clean titles.

What does Walmart say about how search finds items?

Walmart's guidance points to two things: the words and attributes in your listing, and how shoppers respond to it. On the words, Walmart's keyword guidance says keywords "should be relevant to how a customer would organically search for an item based on the item name and key features" and "shouldn't include excessive or irrelevant words". Walmart Canada's listing quality dashboard guide groups the title, description, key features, images and attributes under content and discoverability, and names brand, manufacturer part numbers, colours and size as the attributes that typically drive discoverability.

On the response, Walmart's catalogue performance report ranks each item against others in its product type on four funnel measures: impressions, clicks, add-to-carts and sales. A low rank score means high performance. Walmart's guides do not say how its search weighs any of this, so work on what it does tell you: the right words and attributes, and a title, main image and price that turn an impression into a click and a sale.

Where do you find keywords for Walmart?

The best keyword source for Walmart is Walmart's search data, found in Search Insights under Analytics in Seller Center. Items must meet Walmart's eligibility requirements before they receive a sales rank. Three reports there matter:

Walmart Canada's SEO guidance also names outside tools such as Google Trends, Keyword Surfer and Keyword Planner for finding high-volume keywords. Use them to widen the list, then check every phrase in the related keyword report.

How do you read the related keyword report?

The related keyword report turns a seed phrase into a list of real Walmart searches, ranked by how often shoppers type them. Enter a plain description of your item, such as "insulated water bottle", choose the reporting period, and the report returns related searches. Three columns tell you what you need:

• Queries: the related searches themselves.
• Frequency rank: how popular each phrase is. A rank of 500 means the phrase was the 500th most searched query in the period, so a lower number means more searches.
• Top clicked products: the items shoppers clicked most after searching that phrase.

Open those items. If they are the same kind of product as yours, the phrase is a match. If they are a different product, the phrase means something else to Walmart shoppers, and a high frequency rank will not help you.

How do you use the search query report?

The search query report shows which searches already bring shoppers to one of your items, for a month or a calendar week you choose. It gives each query a query score, which ranks it by the traffic and sales it brings that item; a lower score is stronger. Beside it are your impression share, click share and add-to-cart share for that query, each measured against every other item shown for it.

Read the shares together:

1. High impressions, low clicks: shoppers see the item and pass. The title or main image is not answering the search. Check that the phrase, or its plain meaning, sits near the front of the title.
2. Clicks but few add-to-carts: the listing draws shoppers in and loses them. Look at the price, the key features and the images against the most clicked product the report names.
3. A strong query you never targeted: shoppers have told you how they describe your item. Consider making it a primary keyword.
4. A query you targeted that never appears: Walmart does not connect your item to that phrase. Check the attributes and product type before you change the words.

The report covers Walmart search results only, not other ways shoppers find items on Walmart, so treat it as a search tool rather than a full traffic report.

How many keywords should a Walmart listing target?

Walmart asks you to "select one or two primary keywords to use once in your product title, description and key features." That is the core rule of Walmart keyword placement. Walmart Canada's guidance names two things to avoid: "Repeating the same word in a single title or description" and "Including keywords that are not relevant to your item."

Choose the primary keywords by three tests: the phrase describes your item exactly, shoppers search it on Walmart (a strong frequency rank), and the top clicked products for it are your kind of product. The rest of the list belongs in the description and the attributes.

Where should keywords go in a Walmart listing?

Each part of a Walmart listing has a job for keywords:

The title. Walmart Canada's guidance gives an order, most important first: "Brand + Item Name + Model Name (if applicable) + Style (if applicable) + Key Attribute + Pack Count (if applicable) + Size (if applicable)". Put the primary keyword in the item name position. The US product details policy sets the ceiling at 150 characters and rules out repeated keywords and promotional phrases such as "free shipping", "best-selling" and "top rated".

The description. Walmart Canada's SEO guidance suggests using specific three to four word phrases as long-tail keywords, ideally in the description. Walmart Canada's listing quality dashboard flags a description that carries fewer keywords than the average for its item type and subcategory, so a thin description costs you.

The attributes. Walmart Canada's guidance is direct: "Fill out all relevant attributes to improve filtering and search performance." A shopper who filters by size, colour or material sees only items whose attributes say so. Supporting words such as "stainless steel" or "2 pack" do more work in an attribute than repeated in the title. The article on Walmart listing optimisation covers each field's full rules.

What does keyword stuffing cost on Walmart?

Keyword stuffing costs you shoppers, and Walmart says so: overloading a title or description with keywords creates "a poor customer experience" and "may increase your item bounce rate." Its Canadian guidance also warns that a title with too many repeated words, or one that is too long, can lose ranking on outside search engines such as Google, or drop out of their results altogether. Repeated keywords in a title break the US product details policy as well.

How do keywords work for Walmart variants?

Walmart's catalogue performance report treats a variant group as one unit: for items in the same variant group, Walmart says the search ranking reflects the performance of the group. When you set up the group, the primary variant suggests which one Walmart highlights in search, but Walmart picks the variant to show from what the shopper searched, and it may not be the primary one. Walmart Canada's guidance ties attributes to filtering and search, so fill the colour and size attributes on every variant: for a search such as "navy 32 oz bottle", they are the values that describe the navy 32 oz variant.

A Walmart keyword research checklist

1. Open Search Insights and use the catalogue performance report to find items with weak impression or click ranks.
2. For each, run the search query report for the last month and note the queries that already bring shoppers.
3. Enter a plain description of the item in the related keyword report and list the phrases with strong frequency ranks.
4. Check the most clicked products for each phrase and drop any phrase that leads to a different kind of product.
5. Pick one or two primary keywords.
6. Write the title in Walmart's order, with the primary keyword once and no repeated words.
7. Use the primary keywords once in the key features and once in the description, with long-tail phrases in the description.
8. Fill every true attribute, including on each variant.
9. Rerun the search query report after a few weeks and compare the shares.

How Commicorn helps

Commicorn makes Walmart listing images and copy from your product photos, to Walmart's rules, with your chosen keywords placed once in the title, key features and description. Start free.

Questions sellers ask

What is the best keyword tool for Walmart?

Walmart's Search Insights reports in Seller Center are the best source, because they show real Walmart searches: the related keyword report ranks phrases by how often shoppers search them, and the search query report shows which searches bring shoppers to your item. Items must meet Walmart's eligibility requirements before they receive a sales rank in the catalogue performance report.

How many keywords should I use in a Walmart title?

Walmart asks for one or two primary keywords, each used once in the title, description and key features, and its product details policy rules out repeated keywords in titles of up to 150 characters.

Does Walmart have backend search terms like Amazon?

Walmart's keyword guidance names the title, description and key features as the places keywords go, and it describes no hidden search-term field like Amazon's. Supporting words belong in the attributes, which Walmart Canada's guidance ties to filtering and search.

What does frequency rank mean in Walmart's reports?

Frequency rank shows how often shoppers search a phrase on Walmart: a rank of 500 means it was the 500th most searched query in the period, so a lower number means more searches.

Why does my Walmart item not show for a keyword in its title?

The words are only part of it. Walmart's catalogue performance report ranks items against their product type on impressions, clicks, add-to-carts and sales, and Walmart ties filtering and search to attributes, so check the product type, fill the attributes and compare your listing with the most clicked product for that query.

The last word

Walmart keyword research is a narrowing exercise. Find the one or two phrases Walmart shoppers type for your exact item, prove them with the related keyword report's most clicked products, and use each once in the places Walmart reads. Put everything else in the attributes, where the filters find it.