WordPress Amazon Affiliate Search Analytics: What to Write Next
Quick answer: the search box on your site is a keyword tool nobody else can see. Every term a visitor types is a request in their own words. Search analytics for an Amazon affiliate site on WordPress means storing those terms, grouping them, checking them against what you have already published, and writing the gaps. PaapiPlugin's Analytics add-on stores the terms; the five-step routine below covers the rest.
You open a keyword tool, type your niche, and get the same list every other affiliate in that niche is looking at. Then you pick a phrase, write the post, and wait to find out whether your own readers cared.
Meanwhile, if your site has a product search box, your visitors have been telling you what they want the whole time. They type it in, word for word. Unless something stores those terms, they are gone the moment the results load.
Why your own search box beats a keyword tool here
A keyword tool estimates what people across the whole web type into a search engine. That is useful for sizing a topic. It can't tell you what the people already on your site came for and did not find.
Your on-site search terms are the opposite kind of data. The sample is small, and it's yours alone. Each term comes from someone who was on your page with a product in mind, typed in the words they would use in a shop, and had no reason to dress them up.
That's what people mean by first-party keyword data: terms you collected yourself, from your own visitors. No third-party tool can sell it to you, because it only exists on your site.
A display-only plugin has nothing to read
You only get this data if visitors have somewhere to type. A plugin that only displays products you picked ahead of time, in boxes and tables, gives them nowhere. Those displays do their job on a review page, but they can only show what you chose. They leave no record of what the visitor wanted instead.
You want both. Keep the product boxes and comparison tables on the pages you curate, and add a search box for everything you didn't think to cover. PaapiPlugin is built that way: everything a display plugin does, plus live Amazon search on your own pages.
The search box goes on a page with one shortcode:
There is a full guide to the shortcode and its options if you have not set it up yet. You can try the box on the demo page first.
What Amazon affiliate search analytics records on a WordPress site
The free version of PaapiPlugin gives you the search box. It doesn't store what people type, and neither does Premium on its own. Storing search terms is the job of the Analytics add-on.
With the add-on installed, the plugin records:
Site administrators' own activity isn't tracked, so an admin checking the search box doesn't add to the counts. The add-on works the same whether your search runs on your own Amazon API credentials or on the Managed API.
What you see in the dashboard
The dashboard shows total searches, total clicks, click-through rate and impressions, alongside a searches-and-clicks chart, a top products list and a filter-usage chart. The part this routine leans on is top search queries: the ten most frequent queries for the date range you choose. You can set that range to the last 7, 30 or 90 days, or a custom one.
Ten is enough to spot your biggest themes. For the long tail you need everything, and that's in two places: the events log, which you can filter by event type (no-result searches included), and the export, which gives you the raw events as CSV or JSON.
On privacy: the add-on sets no cookies and stores no IP address, user ID or user agent. It uses a random session ID per browser tab instead. The data sits in your own WordPress database and isn't sent to an external service.
A five-step routine for picking what to write next
1. Pull the terms
Set the dashboard's date range and read the top search queries list first. Thirty days is a sensible window to start with; a week of searches is thin on a smaller site. Then export the raw events as CSV and open the file in a spreadsheet. (A spreadsheet is plenty. You don't need another tool for this.) Filter the Event Type column to search_submitted and no_results. The term itself sits inside the Event Data column.
Events are kept for a retention period that defaults to 90 days, so save each export if you want a longer history.
2. Group them
Raw terms are messy. People misspell things and ask for the same product several different ways. Fold those together until you have a short list of groups with a count next to each. While you're in there, mark the qualifiers people attach, such as a price ceiling or a use case. A qualifier that keeps recurring is usually a post of its own.
The category and sort stored with each search help here: they show which department the visitor was shopping in and how they wanted the results ordered.
3. Compare the groups with what you already cover
Take each group and search your own site for it. You'll land in one of three places. You have a post that answers it well, in which case link to it from the page where people were searching. You have a post that mentions it in passing. Or you have nothing.
Each event carries the URL of the page it happened on, so you can see where people were when they searched. Searches for kettles coming from your grinder review tell you something different from the same searches on your homepage.
4. Write the gaps
Start with the biggest group you have nothing for. Use the visitors' wording in the title and headings, since that's the phrasing a real person chose. A thin mention becomes a section or a full post. A recurring qualifier becomes a roundup built around it.
Then go through the no-result searches. Some are typos. The rest are often questions typed into a product search, things like how to clean or fix something. A product search can't answer those, but a post can, and the person asking was already on your site.
5. Re-check next month
Run the same export a month later and compare the two lists. New terms at the top are next month's candidates. Terms you wrote for deserve a second look: are people still searching for them from the same pages, and is the new post linked from those pages?
Search terms tell you what people wanted. They don't tell you what they bought. For that, keep reading your Amazon Associates reports, and see our guide to Amazon affiliate conversion rate for what moves that number.
What a month of search terms can look like
Say you run a home coffee blog, and your export for the month groups like this. The terms are made up to show the method.
| Group of searches | What you already have | What to write |
|---|---|---|
| burr grinder under 100, cheap burr grinder, budget grinder | One review of a single high-end grinder | A budget grinder roundup, titled in their words |
| gooseneck kettle, pour over kettle | A passing mention in a brewing guide | A kettle comparison, linked from the brewing guide |
| how to descale espresso machine (no results) | Nothing | A descaling how-to that links to the descaler you recommend |
A keyword tool might have suggested all three topics. What it couldn't tell you is that these are the ones your own visitors asked for this month.
What it costs
The Analytics add-on is $19 a year and needs a Premium license, which starts at $39 a year for one site. One add-on purchase covers every site on that license. So the smallest setup that records search terms is $58 a year for one site (see the pricing page).
Weigh that against one post. A post aimed at a keyword you guessed costs you the same evening as a post aimed at a term your visitors typed last week. The second already has readers asking for it.
If you aren't ready to pay for anything, install the free plugin and put the search box on a page. It won't store the terms yet, and the add-on can come later.
Frequently asked questions
Does the free plugin record what visitors search for?
No. The free plugin and Premium on their own do not store search terms. Search-term tracking comes with the Analytics add-on, which costs $19 a year and requires a Premium license, from $39 a year for one site. One add-on purchase covers all sites on the license.
How do I see every search term, not just the top ten?
The dashboard's top search queries list shows the ten most frequent queries for the date range you choose. For the full list, export the raw events as CSV or JSON, or read the events log. The log can be filtered by event type, including searches that returned no results.
Does search tracking use cookies or store IP addresses?
No. The Analytics add-on uses no cookies and stores no IP address, user ID or user agent. It uses a random session ID per browser tab. Events are stored in your own WordPress database and are not sent to an external service. Site administrators' own activity is not tracked.
How long are search terms kept?
Events are kept for the retention period, which defaults to 90 days. The dashboard can show the last 7, 30 or 90 days, or a custom range. If you want a longer history for comparing months, export the raw events as CSV or JSON each month and keep the files.
Can a plugin that only displays products give me search data?
No. Search terms only exist where visitors can type a search. A plugin that only displays products you chose has no search box, so there is nothing to record. To collect them you need a search box alongside your product displays, plus something that stores the terms.
See what your visitors would type
Try the live search on the demo page, then put the same box on your own site with the free plugin. When you want to keep the terms, add the Analytics add-on.
See the Analytics add-on →
