September 29, 2021

Amazon SEO: How to Rank Higher

Learn Amazon SEO and How to Rank Higher

Welcome to another Momentum Monday Marketing blog! Today we’re going to talk about Amazon SEO and How to Rank Higher. We suggest following along so you can learn how to get your products selling on Amazon in no time!

Amazon SEO and How to Rank Higher

If you’re reading this, chances are good that you’ve been pushing hard towards the goal of running a successful Amazon business. 

So why is it that after doing extensive product research, determining which product models work best, and spending countless late nights setting up your company, you’re failing to draw customers in?

Often, the solution to this sales slump lies in properly implementing Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

This practice focuses on creating product listings for your stock that focus on increasing visibility and breaking into the top search results for Amazon’s portal. In this article, we’ll be diving more into how SEO works, how Amazon’s algorithm is designed, and key tips to rank higher than ever before!

Let’s start with the basics:

amazon seo

What is Amazon SEO?

Just like Google, Amazon also runs its own search engine, based on an algorithm named A10. Amazon Search Engine Optimization (SEO) essentially focuses on understanding how A10 ranks search results, reads product listings, and decides which products match best with Amazon’s customers.

This can be effectively applied to any product model, whether you’re looking to dabble in retail arbitrage or create a private label. More on the latter in this article.

SEO can be achieved by several techniques, such as image optimization, keyword usage, correct pricing, and many other factors.

How Does Amazon's A10 Ranking Algorithm Work?

In a nutshell, Amazon’s ranking algorithm works quite similarly to Google’s – both aim to deliver the most relevant, ideal results to shoppers/searchers.

Previously, Amazon’s system used to work on the A9 Algorithm, which was fairly limited in scope. It used to rank product listings based on:

  • Sales History: How many products are sold over a specific period.
  • Text Matching: Checking how relevant the product title, description, and product copy are to the search query.
  • Price: A9 compares your product’s price to competitors – more profitable/costlier items would receive preference.
  • Remaining Stock: If you run out of stock, A9 would place a penalty on your product listing.
Amazon SEO: How to Rank Higher

While there are other factors that influenced product listings under A9, the primary idea was to focus on product details over consumer behavior. A10 takes the exact opposite approach.

As a result, A10 is largely focused on search result accuracy and giving customers what they need over profitability. 

While Amazon has not released an official list of A10 ranking factors, detailed research from various SEO experts tells us that the following factors are key:

Amazon Ranking Factors For A10

Seller Authority

Perhaps one of the most important compiled metrics on Amazon, this refers to the authority of the seller to whom the product listing belongs.

This can be affected by a variety of factors, such as:

  • How long the seller has been active on Amazon
  • How high their feedback ratings are
  • Sales performance metrics
  • How wide the seller’s product range is

Combined, these form a major chunk of A10’s ranking factors.

Impressions

This refers to how often the product is featured anywhere connected to Amazon on the web. This includes Amazon itself, affiliate links, and partner websites.

With more views, your product ranks higher.

Internal Sales

Not all sales on Amazon are initiated through search results – a fair portion of them come from Amazon flash sale recommendations, “frequently bought with” tabs, and many other points of interest.

A product that garners sales figures from these points ranks higher under A10.

Organic Sales

Sometimes, customers simply know about your product and find it without the prompting of any ads or promotions. This number goes up as more people search for your product naturally, find the product page, and make their purchases.

Off-Site Sales

Arguably part of one of the biggest changes between A9 and A10, Amazon has put a lot more weight on sales that are generated from off-site web traffic, as compared to the previously higher weightage assigned to PPC Sales, which we’ll get to in a moment.

PPC (Pay-per-click) Sales

While this isn’t as important as it was previously, it certainly matters when it comes to your overall rankings. This refers to all sales generated by PPC ad leads.

Amazon Sponsored Product ads

Click-Through Rate

Click-Through Rate or CTR refers to how often your product link is clicked upon when it shows up in search engine result pages.

Conversion Rate

A classic online sales metric, conversion rate relates to how often your product is viewed and subsequently sold to a customer.

Sales History

Your overall sales performance across time is a major factor that plays into your product rankings. To stay on top of this, make sure that your products are always in stock.

While these key factors may not seem that manageable with SEO, a deeper look reveals that there actually are several ways in which you can optimize key parts of the Amazon algorithm game.

5 Amazon SEO Techniques You Can Use To Rank Higher

1. Use Excellent Product Photos

Amazon has recently dedicated more attention towards the visual elements of their seller pages. This means that you’ll want to invest a bit more in creating the best possible images for your products, giving you better CTR results and generating more page interest.

You can do this by first reviewing Amazon’s image requirements, then taking clear, professional-quality photographs that feature your product’s best angles and features. You may also want to use some graphic design solutions, depending on your product and brand identity.

2. Look At Your Competitors' Listings

It’s often said that there’s no better teacher than your rival. This saying is doubly true for anyone working in e-commerce. Properly analyzing your competition can reveal the secrets behind their success and key weaknesses in their strategies, giving you an informed opinion about what works and what doesn’t.

3. Aim To Cultivate Product Reviews

While sales rule the roost of your product ranking efforts, you can further push SEO gains by encouraging customers to leave product reviews on your Amazon page.

Amazon Product Reviews and SEO

The simplest way to do this is to use Amazon email marketing tools to simply ask for reviews. You can go even further by incentivizing reviews through discount codes, or by redirecting negative reviews to private email chains.

4. Perfect Your Product Listing Game

Perhaps the most important variable from an SEO point of view, your product pages’ titles, bullet points, details, and descriptions all add up to affect both rankings and customer interest. 

Before you begin, make sure to use tools to find out which keywords work best with your products.

Listing Title

This is likely to be the very first thing your customers will notice and is, therefore, of paramount importance. According to Amazon themselves, you can improve this by including the following elements:

  • Brand name
  • Product name
  • Material/Key features
  • Product type
  • Color
  • Size
  • Quantity/Volume

Product Bullets

Simply make sure to use keywords here that don’t fit well into your listing title. You can also use this section to highlight product features.

Product Descriptions

While this doesn’t directly contribute to Amazon rankings, it can have an effect on overall visibility, especially through external search engines. 

Make sure to use your storytelling skills here. Draw in your potential customers and use powerful CTAs to give your products a conversion rate boost.

5. Capitalize on External Links

Unlike previous generations of Amazon’s algorithm, the current version gives a lot of ranking importance to how popular your product is on external web pages.

This means that you’ll want to work on affiliate marketing/guest post campaigns. These will not only increase your ranking within Amazon, but will also give your overall SEO performance a serious improvement over time.

Wrapping It Up

As the world’s biggest online marketplace, there’s no questioning Amazon’s influence over the way we approach running an e-business.

There’s an important lesson to learn here, especially with respect to Amazon’s latest algorithm changes, and that’s to view the situation from a customer’s point of view.

Hopefully through this article, you’ve now learned a bit more about how these systems work, and how to best approach optimizing them with SEO.

Thanks for learning more from about Amazon SEO and How to Rank Higher. Contact us if you're looking to get your Amazon Products selling!

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