When you're using tools to analyze competitor listings, sellers tend to fall into two distinct camps. One group looks for overwhelming strength as a sign to stay away, while the second group looks at that same strength to find specific, exploitable weaknesses.
Camp A: Identify and Avoid the Strongest Competition
The first school of thought is fundamentally defensive. The goal here is to use a listing analyzer as a filter during the product research phase to gauge the difficulty of a niche. On the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley Sutton often talks about this as a crucial step in his launch strategies, like the Maldives Honeymoon Amazon Launch Strategy. The idea is that while you can get any product to page one temporarily, you won't "stick" if all the top competitors are incredibly strong.
The method is straightforward: you run your top 5-10 competitors through a tool like Helium 10's Listing Analyzer. If it shows that for all the main, high-volume keywords, every single competitor has a perfect listing optimization score and a top 10 organic rank, that’s a major red flag. Proponents of this view would argue this isn't a battle worth fighting. It’s better to find a different niche where the competition is less optimized and you have a real chance to become a dominant player yourself.
Camp B: Find Gaps the Competition Overlooks
The second, more offensive strategy argues that strong competitors aren't a warning sign, but a roadmap. This camp believes that no matter how dominant a competitor is, their keyword strategy is never perfect. The goal is to analyze their listings not to see their strength, but to find the "opportunity keywords" they've missed. Bradley Sutton brings this up frequently as well, noting you should look for the keywords where maybe only a couple of your competitors have realized their value.
This approach involves using tools to find where the leaders are strong, but then digging deeper to see where they are weak or absent. You’re looking for valuable keywords with decent search volume where most of the top players aren't ranking on page one. These are your entry points. By focusing your title, bullets, and initial PPC campaigns on these less-contested keywords, you can start generating sales and climbing the ranks without going head-to-head with the Goliaths of the niche on day one. This is the essence of smart Amazon keyword research.
I firmly believe the second camp has the more sustainable and profitable long-term strategy. The reality of ecommerce today is that almost any product with real demand is going to have strong competition. Simply avoiding them (Camp A) means you'll likely be limiting yourself to smaller, less attractive markets. The proactive approach of Camp B is how you build a real brand. It’s about being smarter, not just avoiding a fight. Finding those keyword gaps is how you gain initial sales velocity, which signals relevance to Amazon’s algorithm and helps you earn ranking authority, especially during the critical Amazon "Honeymoon Period".
For a new seller choosing your first product, the Camp A analysis is a healthy, pragmatic first step. Use it as a quick check to ensure you aren’t trying to enter an absolute bloodbath with a limited budget. But once you’ve chosen a viable product, you should immediately pivot to the Camp B mindset. Your entire launch and optimization strategy should be built around identifying and capturing those opportunity keywords. This is how you carve out your own space on page one.