Listing Indexation Audit

When to use this

• 60-90 days post-launch and organic rank refuses to move
• PPC for a keyword performs well but the ASIN never shows organically
• After a backend keyword edit, verifying nothing was silently stripped
• Pre-launch sanity check, confirming indexation before scaling PPC

The framework. The Indexation Matrix

{ASIN} {keyword}

Root cause diagnosis table

Step by step

1. Build the target keyword list. Top 30 commercial-intent terms for the product. Pull from Helium 10 Cerebro, Brand Analytics top search terms, or the seller's known target list.
2. Run the matrix. For each keyword, search "{ASIN} {keyword}" on Amazon. Log INDEXED, NOT INDEXED, or PARTIAL.
3. Build the heatmap. Visual grid, green for indexed, yellow for partial, red for not indexed. Sort by search volume descending.
4. Diagnose root causes. For every red row, walk through the diagnosis table. Identify the most likely cause.
5. Check backend search terms. Edit > Keywords. Confirm under 250 bytes, no duplicate words across title and backend, no restricted terms.
6. Check for prohibited claims. Words like "FDA approved", "best", "cure", "kills bacteria" without certification, "organic" without USDA cert. These get silently stripped from indexation.
7. Generate per-keyword fix list. Specific, actionable. "Move 'antibacterial' to backend, remove 'kills 99% germs' from bullet 2".
8. Run the quality check, then submit edits.

Output format

## Indexation Audit. [ASIN]

**Heatmap (top 30 keywords sorted by search volume)**
Keyword | SV | Status | Where it appears | Diagnosis
[rows]

Indexed: [N] of 30
Partial: [N] of 30
Not indexed: [N] of 30

**Backend health check**
- Byte count: [N] of 250
- Duplicates with title: [list]
- Restricted terms detected: [list or "none"]

**Fix list (ranked by SV impact)**
1. [Specific edit] - unlocks [keyword] - SV [N]
2. [...]

Worked example

• "blackout sleep mask" (SV 14,800): in title but missing. Diagnosis: title is 187 chars, Amazon truncated. Fix: shorten title to 145 chars, prioritize this term in first 80 chars.
• "anti aging eye mask" (SV 5,400): in bullet 4. Diagnosis: bullet has "FDA approved" claim, full bullet got filtered. Fix: remove FDA claim.
• "silk sleeping mask" (SV 9,100): not in any field. Diagnosis: missing. Fix: add to backend search terms (uses 18 bytes).
• 5 more similar.

Quality check

• Search performed on amazon.com logged out or in incognito (personalization off)
• Search includes the ASIN to force-find regardless of rank
• Backend byte count measured in UTF-8 bytes, not characters
• Restricted terms checked against current 2026 prohibited claims list
• Variation parent and child both checked if listing is varied

Common mistakes

• Searching by keyword only. Without ASIN you cannot tell if the listing is indexed but just ranked low.
• Using character count for backend. Amazon uses bytes. Non-ASCII chars count as 2-4 bytes.
• Duplicating title words in backend. Wastes the 250 bytes, no ranking benefit.
• Ignoring partial status. Partial means a variation issue, easy to miss.
• Not re-auditing after edits. Index updates take 24-72 hours. Re-run the matrix to confirm fix took effect.

Built by Jay GPT Pro