Amazon SEO: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners

"The success factors for Amazon are comparable to the success factors for Google: Who is at the top wins," says Franz Jordan, founder and CEO of Marketplace Analytics in his presentation at the AMZCON. For many small traders, it's extremely important where their own products are on Amazon, much more important than positioning on Google. A thesis that is as obvious as it is correct - that's why we have summarized the lecture on the Amazon ranking factors for beginners in an extensive guidebook.

Marketplace Analytics, as well as Amalytix, Sistrix and Xovi, which recently featured on AMZCON's Amazon tools, is an analytics suite that provides retailers with a variety of analysis opportunities from market bestsellers to bestsellers and product research. Due to the broad database, the experts of Market Analytics can draw many conclusions, which are also included in the presentation.

How does the Amazon algorithm work in general?

Make sure that as many products as possible are bought on Amazon.

What is the goal of the algorithm? There are three parties to Amazon: first, the user who wants to shop, second, the seller who wants to sell products, and third, Amazon, who wants a commission. All three have the same interest and are only satisfied if there was a transaction.

Simplified, the goal of the algorithm can be expressed in a sentence: "Make sure that as many products as possible are bought on Amazon."

How does the algorithm do that? In principle, according to the logic "Simply sort the products according to the highest purchase probability". If ten iPhone cases appear and buyers buy the same case ten times, then this case will slip up in the sort order. 

Easier said than done, because about 250 million products are available in Germany on Amazon, in the US there are even about 400 million products. And with every inquiry, the products have to be arranged according to purchase probability.

Amazon breaks the problem down into two steps:

1. Out of 250 million products, the raussuchen products that basically fit the search. If all keywords match, then my product falls into the relevant set.
2. Amazon then sorts it by purchase probability: performance (the better) and relevance factors (the more appropriate).

Amazon SEO and Ranking Optimization: How do I position my products better on Amazon?

Simply put, more sales = more ranking. Although this may be a bitter pill for many small traders, after all, the better ranking should lead to more sales. But do not despair, Jordan advises.

Because paragraph depends on these two factors:

"Traffix x conversion rate = paragraph"

And both factors can be influenced by the seller.

1st factor: Optimize traffic

Merchants need to drive more traffic to the product page, either by using more keywords or by optimizing existing keywords. Amazon offers space during the creation of the product detail page in the titles, attributes, product description and search terms.

1st step keyword research

There are several approaches to this:

• Brainstorming (time consuming and inaccurate).
• Autocomplete: Enter the main keyword in the Amazon search and look for additions.
• Search terms in the Amazon search result, which generates content in terms of new keywords.
• Watch the contest: Enter the keyword and see which keywords are used by the highly ranked competitors in the titles.

2nd step optimize keyword

Enter the keywords in the product: In the title, in the attributes, the bulletpoints, in the product description and in the fields "search terms" in the Amazon Seller Central.

Note:

• Enter all researched terms.
• Do not repeat keywords, the frequency does not affect the ranking.
• The three different fields have a different relevance: the title is most important and currently the search terms are more important than attributes.
• Submit without separators, no repetitions, no different spellings, hyphens are possible, no semantics and as many different terms as possible.

2. Optimize factor conversion rate

10, 58 is a good Amazon conversion rate.

Often, retailers ask what an optimal conversion rate looks like. In preparation for the conference, Marketplace Analytics looked at many products in different categories. To then calculate a conversion rate from a sample of 10,000 Asins: in median this is 10.58.

Title

Describe the product as precisely as possible. Structure your tracks neatly to maintain your reading fluency and use the most important keywords.

Gym ball including pump Fitness ball sitting ball in 65cm or 75cm in 7 colors

Keyword + Uniqueness + Keyword + Keyword + Property + Property

Fill the attributes attractively

The attributes are the article description, here the sales talk takes place, as it takes place in the trade - or should take place.

5 bullet points:

• Capital letters, no punctuation at the end of the sentence (purely formal)
• To provide all information for an informed purchase decision
• Not just product features, but customer benefits
• Insert keywords without hindering reading flow
• Use reviews as a source of content

Product description

The product description is controversial in the industry, but there are certain things that a trader should do and things a trader should not do: Write a structured text, not a dull text block. Use the formatting options if you can. Which may be technically dependent on the category.

Otherwise, traders should try to balance between conversion rate and keyword, too many keywords will reduce conversion and vice versa.

Reviews

Are generally a hot topic and play a big role in the ranking factors, but unfortunately the rating is very low. Dealers need more reviews and better reviews to positively influence the ranking. From fake ratings dealers should keep their fingers out, warns Jordan urgently.

The reviews can be influenced as follows:

• Product testing is Amazon-compliant, controllable by the merchant, but most product test providers generate an unverified purchase.
• Package inserts are also compliant with Amazon rules, produce a verified purchase, but are not taxable.

Options for bad reviews:

• Adjustment / Deletion by customer (customer has 90 days for adjustments)
• Erase by Amazon (almost never happens, only in case of abuse in case of insult)
• Comment publicly (take a position, fix the problem in the comment)

Price

A Marketplace Analytics data analysis with around 100,000 keywords has focused on how the price distribution is based on these keywords. After a clustering it turns out that the first positions are not necessarily the cheapest ones. Jordan states that he personally has the feeling that the Amazon spreads very broadly on the front pages to show a price range.

Jordan could not be wrong, the technology is already known as retail framing. For example, electronics discounters on head pallets always place three prices side by side: a low, a medium and a high price - most customers do not want the supposedly worst or most expensive version and thus opt for the "golden mean".

Images

Jordan explains how important product images are on the basis of a real example. A customer has presented a TV table with a CRT monitor, everything cool optimized and still lands the Angbeot only on page four.

Then the CRT monitor was replaced by a fancy flat screen TV, as a result, the product wandered on page one and the sale went through the ceiling. Images play an extremely important role.

• Check formal factors: correct presentation, right environment, right angle, right light. Cut off edges and put product in focus. White background.
• Much does not always help a lot, but play it safe: All seven pictures in, in the correct resolution.
• But just note the environment: see TV. What is the presentation that picks up the customer correctly?

FBA, Fulfillment-by-Amazon

Generally, Jordan confirms the general assumption. that the sales increase through FBA. Marketplace Analytics has not yet learned how much it is rising.

Conclusion on Amazon SEO and Ranking Optimization: There is no Silver Bullet

The interaction of several factors leads to a good ranking. There is no Silver Bullet: One shot and everything is done, that is not possible. What remains? A good ranking on Amazon is more than SEO, but also external SEO measures are helpful, because compared to Google, there is no separation of paid or organic traffic. Everything that leads to an increase in traffic organically raises the ranking.