Your business and brand can get a huge boost by taking advantage of Amazon’s expansive platform. If you sell your goods through the global eCommerce leader, you can connect with a much larger segment of customers than you might reach on your own. You’ll also gain the reach and logistical might of Amazon’s distribution network.
However, it’s impossible to gain these benefits if your products don’t appear in a shopper’s search results. If you want to be successful, you need to ensure that your listings appear at or near the top of your customers’ searches. This is easier said than done and requires in-depth knowledge of Amazon ranking factors and all the techniques used to influence them.
Read on to learn some Amazon SEO tips and how you can improve your ranking.
The Basics of Amazon’s Algorithm
At the heart of Amazon’s worldwide retail empire is its search algorithm, which is constantly processing requests and returning recommendations for millions of shoppers every single day. Within just a few fractions of a second, it needs to determine what someone may have been looking for based on a few keywords, and how likely that person is to buy whatever appears. How Amazon keyword ranking works is extremely complex, but it can be distilled to two basic steps.
First and foremost, the algorithm seeks product listings that feature the precise keyword entered by the shopper into the search bar. For example, someone looking for a new electric toothbrush may type “electric toothbrush.” This means any listing that doesn’t feature those two words is ignored. This is important because if you sell electric toothbrushes but describe them only as “battery-operated” in your copy, they may no appear in that particular search.
Next, Amazon ranks every listing matching the keywords. It does this by examining the performance of each product based on click-through rate, conversion rate, and sales. This means that pages that are viewed by more people and lead to more sales appear higher on the rankings than those with lower rates of conversion.
Building Better Pages
Now that you understand the factors that influence the Amazon algorithm, it’s time to talk about how you can improve your Amazon ranking. There are three main places in which you can change your content to obtain better results. These are the product title or header for the page, the product descriptions and your keyword usage. Following some of the proven strategies could have a significant impact on your Amazon listings’ SEO and make it easier for your items to appear toward the top of the list.
Product Title
When it comes to optimizing your product title, it’s important to note that you only have a limited amount of space in which to work. These titles should be quick and concise, delivering only the most relevant information to the algorithm and the customer. Amazon’s guidelines specify that a title should contain:
- Product name
- Brand
- Materials
- Quantity
- Color
This means you shouldn’t waste time and characters with subjective terms such as “best” or “great.” Sellers who try to stuff their titles with keywords only end up hurting themselves because consumers won’t be able to find the details they need when scanning the list of results. However, trimming your title too much could mean you’ll have a lower chance of shoppers clicking through to see the page. It’s a delicate balance that you need to strike. If you’re having a difficult time, search for similar products to yours and note how the top results describe the item.
Product Description
The next area for improvement is the description of your product. It’s generally a good idea to provide bullet points listing features and specifications such as dimensions. This makes it easier for users to see all of the necessary information at a glance, which often improves conversion and sales, helping drive your pages closer to the top of the listings. Bulleted lists are also preferred by the algorithm because it doesn’t have to work as hard to find keywords.
As with the title, take care not to simply blast keywords all over the page indiscriminately. This might improve your chances with the algorithm slightly, but it tends to confuse shoppers and reduce your conversion rates. Also, it’s important to remember the importance of quality images. They don’t help with SEO directly, but their positive influence on click-through and conversion can help push your products closer to the top.
Keywords
Finally, the keywords you choose can have a powerful impact on your success in the world of Amazon. As with the title, the best way to determine which keywords to use is to see what your most successful competitors are doing. Examine pages for the top search results and take note of the words that appear most often among them.
This is where partnering with a marketing analytics firm can be exceptionally helpful, as its experts will be able to comb these listings and give you a clear idea of the search volume for each keyword. Once you have these surefire words collected, you can build your content around them for maximum effect.
Trust ClearCut’s Expertise
ClearCut Analytics has the experience and capabilities necessary to make the most of your SEO on Amazon. We can guide you through the process of optimizing your pages to achieve better results within the algorithm. In addition, we can provide real-time insights, such as competitor ASIN analysis to see where your products fall compared to others. If you would like more information or want to request a demo, get in touch with us today.