In effect, Amazon is one of the world’s biggest search engines and rivals Google as a first port of call for consumers researching products.
As Amazon search has become more and more important to merchants, a new discipline of Amazon Search Optimisation has emerged, focused specifically on improving performance in the Amazon search
What is Amazon Search
When a user performs a search on Amazon, Amazon will try an generate a list of results most relevant to that query. The Amazon search algorithm is called A9 and has two equally important ranking factors:
- Keyword optimisation – In principle, a product can only be found with the Amazon search if the product page contains the keyword(s) a customer is looking for. Keyword optimization ensures that a product can be found for all relevant keyword searches.
- Listing performance – How well a product ranks for these keywords in turn depends on its performance metrics. The performance metrics are traffic and sales, as well as click rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CR).
Keyword optimisation
For a product to appear in the Amazon search, the product listing must contain the searched keyword. Without it, the customer will not see your product. Include all the relevant keywords on your product page.
A listing contains many content areas and we will be discussing how to create an optimised listing later on.
When searching for keywords for your Amazon listings, use the following sources
- Use your head. Spend some time thinking about when they would buy your product, what kinds of questions they would have – even what kind of items they would buy instead of your product (either as a replacement or from a competitor).
- Amazon Autocomplete. Amazon itself can even be used for keyword research. If you tap a few letters in the search box, products automatically appear as suggestions. This autocomplete function is not arbitrarily generated, rather, Amazon displays the terms search for most. So, it makes sense that autocomplete actually provides you with a set of legitimate keywords.
- Related items. Look at products which are shown as Customers who viewed this item also viewed’
- Competitor products. In the title and the product information of other products are keywords which you haven’t thought of, but your competitors have!
- Keyword research tools. Tools such as Sellics Sonar will give you a list of popular keyword by category and ASIN
Keywords tools include:
- Sellics Sonar (free)
- Jungle Scout
- Helium 3
As a result of your research, you should have a list of keywords that covers all relevant queries from customers. Among that list should be, on one hand, your top keywords that are frequently searched for and reach as many customers as possible.
Listing performance
How well a product ranks for these keywords in turn depends on a listing’s performance metrics. These include the listing’s customer rating (product reviews and customer questions) as well as the sales performance of the listing.
- Sales Rank. More sales = higher rankings and higher ranking = more sales!
- Customer reviews. The number of product reviews you receive, and the quality of these reviews are important ranking factors.
- Price. As well as being one of the most important Buy Box factors, the price of your products also strongly influences conversion rates and sales
- Click through and conversion rate. Amazon will look at the historical sales performance of a listing when ranking search results
Gathering Reviews
An important way in which can increase your listing performance is by encouraging product reviews. You can increase your number of reviews in various ways.
- In general, a customer’s willingness to submit a review increases with excellent customer service. You could also use parcel inserts to prompt customers.
- Amazon also offers vendors and sellers it’s a fee-based programs for generating reviews: Amazon Vine (vendors) and the Early Reviewer Program (seller).
- Use Amazon’s request review button
- Send a review request via email. This can be automated using tools such as Feedback 5
****Always make sure you stay within the review guidelines of Amazon***
Managing Reviews and questions
If you are the manufacturer of a product, it is best practise to:
- Answer any negative product reviews. This helps to mitigate the impact of negative reviews
- Respond to any customer questions
