It is impossible to talk about optimization or mention SEO without bringing Google into the discussion. Amazingly, Amazon SEO is now emerging as one of the fastest growing avenues in the industry. You can’t ignore Amazon when thinking about online shopping. This is because Amazon.com has proved massively popular with customers who need to do a bit of research about specific products and services that they wish to purchase.
Google ranks websites. Amazon ranks products and services. In this regard, you would be mistaken to ignore either Google or Amazon. You need both for the success of your online business, especially if you sell products and services online. Amazon has always relied on its A9 algorithm to rank products well. Your product needs to satisfy the right criteria to enjoy good ranking using this algorithm, and these include:
- Good reviews
- Keyword research
- Strategic pricing
- Structured descriptions
How your product ranks on Amazon is a huge determining factor. Therefore, you should never ignore or underrate Amazon listing. More importantly, your success depends on your ability to integrate Google and Amazon properly. What this means is that you need to find ways of driving customers from Google and straight to your sales page on Amazon. To enjoy better ranking through the A9 algorithm requires a huge improvement on the sales conversion rates.
It’s wrong for you to imagine that the success of your online business purely hinges on adhering to the demands that Google has put in place. Excellent ranking or listing on Amazon requires adherence to the best SEO principles. You cannot ignore SEO simply because your focus is on Amazon. Some of the SEO principles that you need to adhere to and guarantee the success of your online business include the following:
- On-Page Optimization on Amazon
- Off-Page SEO
- Understanding Link anatomy and the links to use
If understanding the basic principles of SEO is something you struggle with, improving your Amazon SEO would be just as impossible to appreciate fully. Your next goal involves striving to understand the SEO principles that Amazon considers the most important. As the A9 algorithm shows, Amazon uses different criteria from anything that you might be accustomed to in Google or other major search engines.
If your sales page is to enjoy better ranking on Amazon, it must respect the following criteria:
Table of Contents
Product Titles
You can’t succeed in Amazon without product titles. Spend time developing your skills at creating eye-catching titles that can market your products better. In fact, good product titles make it easier for customers to find what they need. The good news here is that Amazon provides ample space to work with in developing excellent product titles. Your titles can be as long as 500 characters.
Product titles should contain manufacturer, color, brand, type, size, compatibilities and year.
Keywords
Learn how to use keywords properly in Amazon and your sales page will enjoy higher ranking. The sales page should contain general keywords. The sales page should also contain specialized or niche-related keywords that make your products unique. Remember that Amazon is a marketplace of similar products. Therefore, you should endeavor to make your products as unique as possible by using the right mix of keywords.
Product descriptions
The biggest mistake you can make is to list a product on Amazon without the accompanying description. A well-crafted description makes it much easier for customers to understand what the product is all about. A good description sells the product. Writing the description requires a bit of creativity. A creatively written description provides customers with a better understanding of the benefits they will derive from using the product. The description should address:
– Who
– What
– Where
– When
– Why
– How
Category
Can customers place an order if they don’t know the category in which your product belongs? No, they won’t. All the products that you sell on Amazon should be in the right category. It’s true that some products are impossible to place or restrict in specific categories although this is a rare occurrence. Spend some time searching Google or Amazon to identify the category where your products fit.
Customer reviews
Learn to appreciate and value everything that your customers say about your products. If you don’t, expect to see your sales page suffering through poor Amazon listing. In Amazon, customer reviews matter greatly. You should strive to see that your product enjoys or keeps attracting positive reviews. Positive reviews lead to higher Amazon ranking. By doing this, you will convince customers that you are a real, trustworthy and dependable merchant.
From today, what you need to understand is that Amazon is also a search engine. If your product is not on Amazon, the competition would have a field day overtaking you and attracting more customers. People use Google to obtain information. People who use Amazon.com are mostly buyers. Therefore, find ways of making it easier for the buyers to order or purchase the products that you sell.
A product that ranks higher on Google attracts clicks. A product that ranks higher in Amazon attracts actual buyers. Therefore, to benefit from good ranking through the A9 algorithm, you need to understand how it works. Understand the workings of the algorithm and design your Amazon sales page on the variables that it considers the most important. Some of the variables that you must consider are:
- Recent Sales: The A9 algorithm doesn’t pay too much focus on the total number of sales that you’ve made since creating the sales page. It’s only interested in the number of sales that you’ve made in the recent times. If the algorithm is to rank your products highly, find ways of making sales consistently and continuously. However, this should not be your focus, rather one of the steps that you take to enjoy better ranking.
- Verified Reviews: Verified reviews are some of the most important factors or determinants of Amazon page rankings. A verified review simply means that a customer not only purchased the product via Amazon, but also used it before leaving a review. Amazon keeps a record of the verified reviews, which prove that the reviewer purchased the product. Make it one of your main objectives to attract as many verified reviews as possible to your Amazon sales page.
- CTR vs. CTS: A higher CTR, or Click Through Rate, shows that somebody found exactly what they wanted. The A9 algorithm considers CTR when ranking products on Amazon without ignoring CTS, or Click to Sales. Your goal is to ensure that your products enjoy higher Click to Sales. CTS is more important than CTR in improving product rankings in Amazon. Despite a lower CTR, your products would enjoy better ranking with higher CTS.
- Sales Page Content: Don’t ignore words. Text is just as important as images in the world of search engine optimization, especially Amazon SEO. Therefore, confirm that the content on your sales page adheres to principles such as keyword density, text ratio and headers among others. However, it’s worth noting that content placement and structure is more important in Amazon than it is in Google.
- Special Keywords: Before uploading your products, provide Amazon with the seven keywords that it needs. The keywords are not for public consumption, but internally important to Amazon. The special keywords remain invisible to all search engines. The special keywords help you to identify the right category for placing your product. The success of your online business, especially when selling products on Amazon, depends on these special keywords and the other factors.
- Images: Each listing in Amazon requires between 4 and 5 quality images. If you can include a short video as well, you’ll never have a difficult time seeing your products climb the ladder in terms of rankings. A plain white background is mandatory for all images. What is more, the images must be free of watermarks and texts. Use photos and not illustrations of drawings. The recommended size of all images that appear as part of each listing is 1,000 x 1,000 pixels.
Finally, every factor listed here is crucial to enjoying a better Amazon ranking. Therefore, don’t ignore any factor. Most merchants on Amazon aren’t doing everything they should to improve their rankings. It’s worth remembering that Amazon contains hundreds of millions of products. Consequently, you must do whatever it takes to make your products unique so that they stand out from the competition.
