AN AMAZON SELLER’S GUIDE TO UTILIZING KEYWORDS, AMAZON A+ CONTENT, AND BEST SELLERS RANK TO ORGANICALLY APPEAR AT THE TOP OF SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS PAGES ON AMAZON AND GOOGLE
Amazon search engine optimization (SEO) is the ultimate hack for brands to drive traffic, gain product visibility, and increase conversion rates. Amazon’s A9 Algorithm favors products with the most sales. Thus, more conversions equal more visibility. Brands that optimize their product listings for Amazon SEO tap into a cycle that keeps giving.
Amazon SEO
“Amazon SEO is the process of optimizing product listings to help them rank higher in product searches on Amazon.com,” says Amazon. “Keywords are the words and phrases people look for when searching for something online.”
Powerful Amazon SEO is like a GPS — keywords and phrases are the routes that lead shoppers to their destination, the product page. Any brand can use SEO to rank organically on Amazon’s search engine results page (SERP), making this marketing tactic one of the most accessible. Business growth and consistent sales are crucial to Amazon brands. With SEO, they can easily have both.
Amazon’s A9 Algorithm
Each search engine platform like TikTok, YouTube, Google, and Amazon has its own algorithm that helps organize search results. Algorithms provide searchers precisely what they want as quickly as possible based on the SEO keywords entered into the search bar.
Where Amazon’s A9 algorithm differs from other search engine platforms is its favoritism of sales conversions. The algorithm prioritizes products with long sales history and high conversion rates. When consumers search for a product, Amazon’s A9 search algorithm will display search-related best-selling products highest on the SERP.
How Amazon and Google SERPs Work Together for Product Visibility
Every opportunity for text on Amazon is also an opportunity to rank on Google. When a brand lists a product on Amazon, Google also indexes it — strategic copy can increase a product page’s visibility and ranking on both SERPs. Since most shoppers also use Google to find products, brands must remember that keyword-heavy product pages equal more visibility on Google, resulting in a higher conversion rate.
Optimizing Product Listings with Keywords and Phrases
Keywords are a combination of words and phrases related to a product that shoppers search for on Amazon. These can include long-tail and short-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are precise and contain multiple terms related to a particular brand’s product. Short-tail keywords are broader and can relate to many brands’ products in a category. A sock company selling its products on Amazon would want to use both types of keywords like “ankle socks” and “blue organic cotton ankle socks for women.”
Brands can also use backend keywords to boost visibility and conversions. Sellers can add backend keywords to the “search terms” box in each product listing when editing an item. These terms are not visible to buyers but serve as an additional space to place related terms or acronyms related to the product.
Amazon Keyword Research
When using Amazon as a research tool, brands can discover which related keywords generate most frequently for their product category. Helpful questions all brands should address when doing Amazon keyword research include:
- Which keywords best describe the product?
- What phrases will shoppers search to find the product?
- What questions will shoppers have about the product?
Brands should strategically utilize each text component of product listings for SEO. When indexing, Amazon’s search engine heavily considers product titles, details, and descriptions.
Amazon Keyword Guidelines
Although fitting as many keywords as possible into product titles may be tempting, brands must maintain clarity and readability. In addition to Amazon’s product listing guidelines, the following recommendations will enhance SEO efforts:
- Avoid all caps
- Begin titles with the brand’s name
- Keep product titles between 60 to 80 characters long
- Don’t spell out numbers
- Don’t repeat any words
- Use all 2,000 characters allotted in the product description
Optimize Product Listings with Amazon A+ Content
Amazon A+ Content works hand-in-hand with keywords and phrases to boost a product listing’s ranking on Amazon’s SERP. Brands enlisted in Amazon Brand Registry can utilize the Amazon A+ Content to add dynamic professional product photography, videography, and graphics to product and storefront pages. Content can include banner images, product features, and text.
Amazon’s A9 algorithm favors product listings with Amazon A+ Content that complies with established guidelines and terms of service. The following policies will help brands optimize their product pages for a high ranking on Amazon’s SERP:
- Image resolution should be at least 72 DPI but remain under two MB
- Animated images are not allowed
- Files must be JPEG, BMP, or PNG
- Images should be RGB, not CYMK
- All graphic text must be large enough to read on mobile devices
- All images must load properly in Amazon’s preview function
Utilize Amazon Best Sellers Rank to Optimize Product Pages
Amazon Best Sellers Rank (BSR) significantly affects how Amazon’s A9 algorithm ranks product pages. Unlike other components of Amazon SEO, BSR calculates the ranking of a product compared to others in the same product category. Brands that rank number one in a category with at least one hundred products receive the Best Seller Badge, the ultimate win for an Amazon brand’s SEO. Factors that contribute to a BSR badge include account health and product pricing.
Account Health
Amazon determines account health by a seller’s adherence to Amazon’s terms of service and regulations for product listings. Brands with excellent account health have optimized product listings. Factors include preventing late dispatches, order defects, and cancellations. Brands must ensure customers are consistently fulfilled and happy with their products.
Product Pricing
Pricing is superior for leveraging any optimizing strategy. An inaccurately priced product will not sell, no matter how optimized the product page is. Amazon’s automated pricing tool helps sellers adjust prices to represent trends accurately.
Call in an Amazon SEO Agency
POLA Marketing’s SEO team can relieve Amazon business owners from the time-consuming work of implementing the right SEO strategy. POLA’s SEO content writers have years of experience ensuring every copy element contains impactful keywords to appear on Amazon’s SERP. For more information, contact us at (polamarketing.com/contact/).
