As an eCommerce business, one of the skills that you will need to learn (and how to master!) is Amazon SEO in order to help improve your product ranking on Amazon.
This essential part of any optimized listing can help move your product ranking on Amazon. What does this mean for your business and sales? The higher up your listing is in search rankings, the more potential customers and sales that you will have.
But how do you do this? Where do you start? We are here to demystify Amazon’s search algorithm and give you the skills that you need so you can get busy selling successfully on Amazon!
All About Amazon's Search Algorithm
Compared to Google, the product search algorithm for Amazon is much different. When searching for a product on Amazon, the results of that search are often delivered using a two-step process.
First, relevant results from the search are pulled from the catalog. Then those results are ranked by relevance. Factors that are included in these results are key performance metrics, business metrics, human judgment, and analysis. All of these factors play a pivotal role in these rankings.
In addition to these rankings, positive reviews are essential to building and maintaining a successful listing that constantly generates revenue.
To maintain a good conversion rate, you also need to have a fully optimized listing. This means that your listing will have competitive pricing, visually engaging high-quality images, compelling listing copy, and ideally, A+ Content that showcases your product in the best light possible to draw in your customers.
Your products also need to be relevant in order for your product ranking on Amazon to rank higher in search results. On top of all these factors, positive seller feedback is also important. To learn more about starting out the right way on Amazon, click here.
Product Ranking on Amazon
The Facts You Need to Know
Gaining traction in terms of a higher product ranking on Amazon is a circular process. More sales equate to a higher product ranking on Amazon, and these higher rankings ultimately lead to more sales.
To help your listing get the boost that it needs to stand out on Amazon, the number of product reviews is important, as well as the quality of the reviews.
Another tip to stay on top is to make sure that all customer questions are answered on the product listing page itself. Potential customers can see these answered questions, which shows that you are a responsive seller. Responding to customer questions can also help you rise in the rankings and play a crucial role when it comes to your conversion rate.
Lastly, when including images, make sure to adhere to Amazon's image guidelines. Each image should be a minimum of 1,600 x 1,600 pixels, and the zoom feature should be enabled so the customer can click on the image and view the product in closer detail.
Tips for Higher Product Ranking
The following are a few ways you can start achieving a higher product ranking on Amazon to increase your sales.
It’s no secret that first impressions are everything! When you use a good product title, the conversion rate of your listing will naturally improve – typically within a short amount of time.
Doing your research and making sure that your keywords are relevant is well worth the investment. We cannot stress this enough: it is essential that your title contains relevant keywords from a fresh round of keyword research.
In addition to this, your title should start with your brand name, be easy to read, and under 200 characters. Ideally, the first five words in your listing title should be the most relevant.
Avoid the urge to stuff as many keywords into your title. Overly wordy titles are discouraged on Amazon, and oftentimes, they only serve to deter or confuse potential customers. Include only the most relevant information about the product, which may be the color, size, quantity, who the product is intended for (infant, child, adult), the intended use, or compatibility, if applicable.
We also recommend regularly performing listing audits to ensure that your keywords are still as relevant as they were when you incorporated them into the copy.
Bullet points are a convenient way to find out more about a product. However, an added bonus is that when you list all the product features in this format, you make it much easier to read the important facts about your product.
Bullet points allow you to utilize even more keywords from your keyword research to help increase conversions and ranking. When crafting your bullet points, always make sure to lead with the most important information first, then work down to care or installation instructions, ingredients, intended applications, color or size options, etc.
The description is where you can really paint a picture of your product while expanding on important features and key selling points. What makes your product stand out from the competition? Do you have a compelling brand story to tell? How is your product made?
If a customer scrolls all the way down to the description area, chances are that they want to know more about your brand and the product! This area gives you more room to write about your brand story, uses of the product, and other tidbits that make your product unique.
The description area is a great place to include more keywords, and we typically recommend using any keywords that did not fit into your title or bullet points here. As discussed above, including keywords at every stage of your product listing page helps to increase customer engagement as well as your conversion rates. It’s a win-win!
Have you ever clicked on a product on Amazon only to find that there is zero information on the specifications to be found? Leaving out key specifications or technical features can frustrate potential buyers and keep them scrolling for another option.
If your product is one that has numerous and important specifications, then you can list these specifications in the description area. This way, you can proactively answer any questions potential buyers may have, and avoid unnecessary returns down the road.
This information should include the size of the product, the weight, color, and any other information that provides specifics for your listing.
As we mentioned above, performing a listing audit is a way to be proactive in identifying high ranking keywords that are missing from your listing, or keywords that simply take up space and aren’t generating clicks or sales.
While there is a character limit on Amazon when it comes to backend search terms, you can use a keyword planner to help get around this. It is important, however, that you never provide irrelevant or misleading information. Don't include content that is too long either, and only use a single space to separate your keywords.
This is one of those details that often gets overlooked by sellers on Amazon. It may seem obvious, but double checking to see if your product is in the correct browse node is incredibly important to the success of your listing.
The browse node helps determine which products you are competing against, along with the relativity of your product. This also impacts your keywords. The browse node that you are in will impact the precision of the keywords that auto PPC suggests targeting.
A good tip for finding out which browse node you’re in is to take the URL of your detail page and delete the canonical portion of the link. Once you do this, the listing will automatically auto-populate the browse node above the main image on your product listing page.
Although often overlooked, one of the most important factors in ensuring that your listing gets top billing all comes down to the price. Is it too high compared to competitors’ products?
The price you choose for your products also influences your conversion rates and sales and can affect your ranking on Amazon as well.
It can be extremely difficult to gain traction and organic reach on Amazon if you’re launching a new product or are a new seller. Amazon’s search results take reviews into account, the lack of reviews or sales for a newly listed product can pose a challenge.
Although learning Amazon SEO is time consuming, it is by far the quickest way to jump-start your ranking. If you fall into this category of sellers, then we recommend investing in Sponsored Ads until your ranking catches up to your competitors.
Final Thoughts
These are just a few tips you can use to help improve your product ranking on Amazon. In addition to these helpful tips, there are several others you can learn to use, including understanding how negative seller feedback can hurt you in the search results.
