Finding Keywords Your Competitors Have That You Don't
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Why This Tool Matters
Amazon decides which books to show in search results based largely on whether the searched phrase appears in the book's listing. If your competitors have phrases in their titles and descriptions that you don't, Amazon surfaces their books to shoppers — and not yours — even if your book is better.
You can't see your competitors' keyword strategies by reading their listings yourself — there are too many 2–4 word phrase combinations to evaluate manually. The Keyword Gap Map does this automatically: it extracts every multi-word phrase from your competitors' listings and shows you exactly which ones you're missing.
How It Works
Here's what happens behind the scenes when you run the tool:
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1
We scrape your listing
Your book's title and description are fetched from Amazon and broken into 2–4 word phrases.
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2
We find your top competitors
PublishRank identifies your top 8 category competitors — the books currently ranking above you in your primary category.
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3
We extract all their phrases
Every 2–4 word phrase from each competitor's title and description is collected. This can be thousands of phrases across 8 books.
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4
We surface your gaps
Phrases your competitors use but your listing is missing are ranked by how many competitors include them. The more competitors use a phrase, the more important it is.
Takes 1–3 minutes the first time. Competitor data is cached for 24 hours, so re-runs on the same ASIN are much faster.
Understanding Your Results
Results are organised into three groups:
High Gaps
Highest PriorityPhrases used by many of your competitors that are completely absent from your listing. These are the biggest opportunities — if you add them, you immediately become eligible to rank for searches your competitors are winning and you're not.
Medium Gaps
Worth ConsideringPhrases used by some competitors. Lower urgency, but still worth adding if they're relevant to your book's content and fit naturally into your listing.
Strengths
Your AdvantagesPhrases you have that your competitors are missing. These are your differentiators — phrases where you're the one showing up in searches and they're not. Protect them.
Where to Add the Gap Phrases
Once you know which phrases to add, here's where to put them — in order of impact:
- Subtitle — the easiest place to add a keyword phrase naturally. One or two new phrases can often fit without rewriting your whole subtitle.
- Description — work gap phrases into the natural flow of your description. Amazon indexes the full text. Don't stuff — write for the reader first.
- Backend Keywords — your 7 keyword fields in KDP Bookshelf (50 characters each). This is the safest place to add exact phrase matches without affecting your listing's readability.
After updating your listing in KDP, run the Listing Optimizer again to confirm your score improved and there are no remaining quick wins.
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