Nearly 50 percent of U.S. online transactions take place on Amazon. The ecommerce giant continues to grow its market share across a diverse range of product categories – a viable opportunity that should not be ignored.
Yet, brand manufacturers and sellers alike struggle to understand the factors that impact whether their products are visible to the millions of users buying on Amazon.
Amazon’s A9 Algorithm
A9 is Amazon’s organic product ranking algorithm that is composed of direct and indirect factors used to match users’ search queries to products they are most likely to purchase.
Half of the battle of selling on Amazon is making sure your products get found.
According to Amazon’s own data (as of 2019):
- 70 percent of Amazon customers never click past the first page of search results.
- 35 percent of Amazon shoppers click on the first product featured on a search page.
- The first three items displayed in search results account for 64 percent of clicks.
- 81 percent of clicks are on brands on the first page of search results.
Competition in Amazon’s SERPs only continues to grow. Understanding how the A9 algorithm works and what it takes to show up on the first page of Amazon’s search engine results pages is really important in terms of driving incremental sales for your business and for launching new products.
Amazon SEO Factors
Here are some tips on how you can utilize some important Amazon SEO factors in your favour:
- Maximize all the keyword character space that Amazon gives for titles, bullet points, and descriptions which essentially make up the indexable on-page content of your Amazon detail page.
- Aim to use unique product descriptions instead of using the same exact duplicate content when uploading your products to other online shopping platforms to avoid cross-platform content cannibalization.
- Channel-specific success requires channel specific strategies. Content needs to be differentiated for each of your marketing channel.
- Amazon is not using the number of reviews and the review score alone to show where products rank. Where the reviews come into play is that it has an impact on conversion rate.
- A product that is reviewed better and has more reviews is more likely to convert at a higher rate than a product that has fewer reviews. The conversion is what drives the sales velocity. That’s how reviews actually impact the search ranking. The number of reviews alone isn’t a ranking factor.
Conversion Rates
Conversion rates are key when it comes to successfully implementing Amazon SEO and leveraging the power of its Algorithm. Here are some ways this can be done:
1. Advertising = The Most Powerful Lever to Increase Sales
Advertising is the most powerful lever that can increase your sales. There are various types of paid placements on Amazon including:
- Headline Search Ads
- Product Display Ads
- Sponsored Products
2. Producing Premium Content
Half the battle when selling on Amazon is getting people to find your products and using advertising to drive them back to your product detail page.
Like any other marketing initiative, the goal is to maximize the rate at which those buyers convert. If you get a hundred people to your page, not all of them are going to purchase.
To mimic the experience of a shopper purchasing a product in a brick-and-mortar store through the two-dimensional medium of a screen, you have to use a combination of your:
- Images
- Reviews
- Coupons/promotions/discounts
- Written content
- High-quality images
3. 2 Types of Audiences for Your Content on Amazon
You’re actually writing that content for two types of audiences on Amazon:
- The machine – Amazon’s A9 algorithm. Amazon is indexing and using your content for text match relevancy against a keyword query that customers are putting in the search bar
- Actual human shoppers who make it to your detailed page
In conclusion, if you understand, implement and consistently regulate the above Amazon SEO / Algorithm strategies and tactics, you will see a strong improvement in your sales, branding, customer satisfaction and overall store growth.
