Amazon’s e-commerce site functions similarly to every other search engine. It crawls your product detail pages, indexes your content, and attempts to match shopper’s searches with the most relevant products on the search engine result pages (SERPs). Having a well-rounded and strategically executed search engine optimization (SEO) strategy on Amazon is just as critical for success as with any other search engine. The goal of this post will be to help you understand the Amazon SEO environment. Part one will break down Amazon SEO, and Part 2 (coming soon) will give you seven ways to improve your product detail pages.
What is different about Amazon SEO from traditional SEO?
Within Amazon, there are five critical factors you need to consider when optimizing your listings that are unique to Amazon. They are the search bar, filters, the result pages, Amazon sales rank, and finally, the impact of Amazon Ads.
Five components of Amazon SEO that are unique to its site:
- The Amazon Search Bar
Similar to any other search engine, many Amazon shoppers begin their search by typing in what they are looking for in the search box. The search bar auto-fills based on the most popular searches on Amazon and updates based on the searches shoppers enter. This can be a goldmine to create a short list of key phrases that shoppers enter related to the product you’re selling.
- Search Filters
Amazon shoppers can also browse and refine their searches by using filters, such as reviews, price, brand, Prime, etc. Shoppers also can find the products Amazon groups as Best Sellers, New Releases, Gift Ideas, and other collections. If your products are not optimized for the filter selections shoppers make, your products will not be visible when a search is made. Ensure that all relevant information is complete for your listing even if it’s optional. Many times, these optional fields are what show in search or category filters.
- Search Results Page
This is where most shoppers find the top products related to their search or filter settings where price, reviews, delivery speed, and other factors can be compared. The higher your listing appears on this page, the more likely for conversions. Ads also play a role here, where ad placements are intermingled with the organic search rankings. The ads can appear the same as the organic search placements, but they are only differentiated by a “Sponsored” tag in the corner of the tile. Otherwise, the page tends to be broken up with banner, headline, and video ad placements that can draw the eye away from the organic results.
- Amazon Sales Rank
Your product’s sales rank is critical to its success appearing in search results organically. The Amazon algorithm not only looks for how relevant your product is to a shopper’s search, but it also looks for how often the product is purchased when that search is conducted. A better sales rank equals a better placement on search results for both organic and paid ads.
- Sponsored Products and Ads
Amazon has long touted the “Amazon Flywheel Effect” of its advertising platform. The thought is that once a product starts selling, it will continue to as long as ads or organic rankings continue to climb, creating a flywheel that increases sales momentum. When done well, ads can be a huge benefit to launching a new product, revitalizing an old listing, or maintaining sales in a highly competitive market, but it can only be achieved with a solid SEO strategy at its back.
Now that we have an understanding of what Amazon SEO is and the factors that can impact it, how do we go about building a strategy to gain success? Follow along in part 2 of our Amazon SEO post.
