How to rank well on Amazon? Performing SEO on Amazon

Introduction

It all started in the year 1994! A company named Amazon was founded and established in Bellevue, WA. During the initial years, the journey was not so smooth for Amazon. People around the world were not familiar with the online shopping experience and took them a series of the year to put their trust in the brand. However, soon the consumer and the market started realizing the potential of online shopping, the ease and effectiveness of ordering a product through an online portal. It was amazing how the world changed in the favor of Amazon and soon everyone was on the internet. It was not very long that social media came into picture and applications like Facebook and Instagram was launched. People started spending more time on the internet and the number of people utilizing the internet for their needs increased at a tremendous pace.

Even the brands in the market started realizing the potential of the internet. They showed interest in reaching to their consumers digitally and approaching them to purchase their products. People around the world found the method innovative and convenient and thus they started spending their time on different digital platforms on the internet. The advancement was unstoppable and soon the term digital marketing came into existence.

The digital market has seen tremendous growth in the past 10 years. As more traffic grows on the internet, the need to market the product to the right audience increases. People used different techniques to generate traffic on their websites. Some of the most common techniques used by people to generate traffic are:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• Content Marketing
• Email Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing and many more.

The population of consumers on the internet is expanding at a tremendous pace. New brands are emerging to fulfil the needs of the consumers. Every day hundred’s of new businesses are entering the competitive world of marketing and advertising. All of them have something unique to offer to their customers. They are analyzing and developing an understanding of the current market trends. They are studying the existing scenarios and performing different tactics to attract customers towards their product. However, it becomes really difficult for new brands to make themselves visible to the right audience. Due to the changing trends in the market, it is hard to guess the next best step to predict the upcoming trends in the market. The uncertainty leads to the wrong strategy and sometimes to failure.

Brands use every possible technique to overcome the fear of failure. However, sometimes they make the wrong decisions in peer pressure and sometimes they hire the wrong people to work for them. According to a survey conducted by the Adscholars, nearly 90% failed businesses hired the wrong people to work for them which lead to failure. Therefore, it is always advisable to outsource your business to the pros, if you are unsure or uncertain of things.

Usually, the smaller brands do not have the adequate amount of resources to develop their team for digital marketing. Therefore, it is always advisable for them to hire help from outside. Outsourcing advertising firms have the right amount of experience and exposure to handle your business. Thus you can do research and find out the best outsourcing advertisement firm and pay them to get the job done. Trust me! It will save you a tremendous amount of money and effort.

Amazon is the biggest shark of the e-commerce business around the world with only a few competitors. The biggest reason for the success of Amazon is that it started at the initial stage of the emergence of the digital world. Now it is providing opportunities to millions of people to sell their product on its platform. However, it is not a charitable organization and does charge a hefty fee on every transaction. Yet, people find it profitable to sell their product on its platform. 

People have earned millions by selling their product on Amazon. The ease of selling provided by Amazon is admiring. With time using the right strategy, Amazon has gained the trust of its consumers. Amazon realized the true potential of the consumer market and it makes them comfortable in their homes. Now, a consumer does not need to leave home to purchase things that are required by them. All they have to do is move their fingers on their phone, explore through the wide range of products listed online and hit buy now! And just like that your order is placed and delivered to you with the most secure and fastest delivery around the globe.

Understanding the algorithm of Amazon

Before you start selling your products on Amazon, it is crucial that you understand the working of its algorithm. Getting to know the algorithm of Amazon will give you an edge to sell your product more effectively to your audience and you can devise a better strategy to sell more and you can be visible to the right audience at the most opportune time. It will also help you to improve your ranking among your competitors.

Amazon algorithm which is also known as A9 is a bit complicated. However, it is highly effective and it works flawlessly. Amazon algorithm is the reason the company has managed to achieve such a huge user base with sellers having the ease of doing the business.

The algorithm(A9) is named after its creator and it is the engine responsible for driving the Amazon to the top. A9 is a customer-centric algorithm and is designed to flash products which are best in terms of selling, having a great margin and provided by the sellers who value their customers. Therefore, if you want to be visible to your customers on Amazon, you have to make sure that you keep these three factors in mind.

It even allows the sellers to develop and set their algorithm to serve their customers more effectively. Recently, Amazon has made some effective changes in its algorithm getting more customer-centric. Hence, some people have started calling the algorithm A10 after these updates.

You do not have to be a programmer to understand the working of Amazon algorithm(A9). You can just get a basic idea of its functionality and plan your strategy accordingly. Here are the few basics that you must look into before setting up your store on Amazon and listing your products:

• A9 is a basic formula developed by the company to arrange the products according to the customer’s search and their preferences. It scans the products, reads through the descriptions, and analyzes the data attached to the product which is listed on Amazon’s marketplace. It is based on the technology of artificial intelligence(AI) and thus, works independently and smartly.

• The algorithm is smart and makes sure that it goes through the history of the customer’s last journey before presenting the customers with new preferences.

• The products which are placed on the front line are the best selling products on the platform, having an adequate margin and sold by the seller who has a customer-centric approach( Good service, value for money, on-time delivery and better return policy.)

• This is nothing new, mostly every eCommerce website has a similar algorithm placed in its core. However, Amazon keeps on evolving and always making the algorithm better for its customers.

• Four crucial metrics contribute to a better listing on Amazon. These factors are looked by the algorithm in specific detail before placing the product in the list:

1. The number of sales the seller has done so far and the revenue generated.
2. The relevance of searched keywords by the customer.
3. Best price for the product.
4. Availability of the product.

By following these simple observations, you can design a better campaign for your products and brand.

Key factors responsible for the ranking on Amazon

As we have stated above, the algorithm of Amazon is customer-centric and the more effective and efficient you are with your customers. There are better chances of you ranking in the top list. The four crucial factors that are responsible for the front line listing are:

• Sales: The algorithm analyzes your sales channel on the bases of your sales and value generation on the platform. It looks into your performance so far based on the dollars that you have earned for yourself and the platform.

• Relevant description and keywords: Secondly, it looks for the keywords that you have entered into your listing. The more relevant it is to the searched terms by the customer, there is a better chance that the algorithm will choose your product to be shown as the front line of the results.
• Pricing: When pricing your product you must pay extra attention and it is always advised to have a strategy for the pricing of your product. Most of the brands fail in business due to their poor pricing strategy. Several pricing techniques are available, some of the most crucial pricing techniques are:

Competitor based pricing technique: The formula for pricing your product based on this strategy is:

    Competitors Price = Your Product Price.

Cost-plus Pricing technique: The basic formula for calculating the pricing for your products using this strategy is:

    Cost Of Production + Margin = Cost of the final product (Cost-Plus Pricing).

Value-based pricing technique: This is the best strategy to price your product. According to the technique, you must price your product only after performing thorough market research and analyzing the value by checking every possible factor that can influence the pricing of your product. The formulae for pricing your product according to the value-based pricing is:

    Value of the product = Brand Advantage + Value of Product

Therefore, it is important to note that if your brand does not have an advantage of popularity, you must charge the customer only for the value of the product.

Benefits of SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the most crucial aspect of digital marketing. The technique helps you to stay visible to your audience, leading to high traffic on your page and website. It helps you to increase the credibility of brand and products and make you popular in the market.

For example, whenever we search something on Google, we only see the tops 10-20 results. Even though there may be a million more similar search results but we stick to the top results as we only trust them to be appropriate and related. Similarly, the top 3-5 results or links are among the most visited. This is because we don’t trust the credibility of other results shown by Google.

Similarly, if your website is listed and ranked among the top 5-10 search results on any search engine, there are high chances of people visiting it and trusting it for their work and even for purchasing products online. Hence, we provide you with several reasons why SEO can prove to be fruitful to your business.

• Better experience for the users: The users of the internet holds utmost importance in providing growth and revenue for any business running online. Therefore, it is crucial that you provide optimized and better experience to the users.
• The best source to generate leads: By optimizing your website or web page with SEO, you can generate leads effectively. The method has proven to be a sure shot success and helped millions of businesses to achieve unexpected targets in their businesses.
• Higher rate of conversion: The method not only helps in generating leads but also prove an asset when it comes to conversion. If you are looking to achieve high targets in your business, SEO can be the one good option that you can invest in wholeheartedly.
• Cost-efficient: Instead of investing hundreds of dollars on outbound resources, SEO can help you get inbound traffic and save all the extra money and investment that you will spend on outbound teams and data.
• Helps in getting physical customers to your stores: There is a higher chance that people who will see your store and website on the internet will visit your store or outlet physically.
• Increasing brand credibility: If you have a better rating and user traffic on your website, it will automatically boost the credibility of your brand.
• Created awareness for the brand: SEO is useful in creating brand awareness and will help your brand flourish in the market. The results and outcomes achieved by this technique are far more superior than any other method in the market.
• Makes your website mobile-friendly: SEO helps in optimizing your website according to the mobile interface. As most of the customers are using their phones to access the internet these days, it proves to be highly profitable in generating leads and in the process of conversion.
• A long term strategy for marketing your product: SEO proves to be a long term strategic approach and helps in expanding business over the years.
• Helps in establishing your business on social media platforms: The tool is useful for mobilising your business on social media websites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other useful platforms.

How to perform SEO on Amazon?

As Amazon is the big shark of the eCommerce market, it becomes important to understand how to perform SEO on its platform. There are almost ten-millions items listed on the platform and making your product outshine them all is very difficult. However, you can achieve this goal by performing SEO.

Just like any other SEO performed on search engines, it is easy to perform SEO on the platform of Amazon! You can use the technique of SEO on Amazon to make yourself visible to the audiences. Like any other search engine, customers use the search bar to search their queries on the platform. The algorithm of Amazon makes sure that it provides the user with the most relevant results by searching its catalogue through different categories. 

In research conducted by Adscholars, it was found that if the searches are relevant, customers won’t even pass the first page on the website. Therefore, it is crucial that the products are described and the keywords are placed appropriately. 

It is important that we set our priorities right, the reason to use the platform of Amazon is to sell products. Amazon wants to strike the perfect balance between the customer and the seller. It wants the customer to be happy and the seller to earn more money by bringing back the customers to the platform for every purchase that they make.

Keywords are the most crucial factors that will affect your listing on the platform. Therefore, it is crucial that you place them correctly and according to the relevance of the product that you are selling. We will discuss more the usage of keywords on the platform in the upcoming headings.

What not to do when performing SEO on Amazon

People often tend to get carried away while listing their products on eCommerce websites and they tend to overdo things to make sure that they rank well! However, overdoing things results in poor ranking as the algorithm is not able to determine the correct path for your product.

People usually write lengthy, irrelevant descriptions for their products in the listing which leads to improper search results by the platform and the products lands to get poor ranking in the list shown in the search results. 

As we have mentioned, keywords are the most crucial aspect if you are willing to improve the ranking of your product in the listing. Therefore, it is highly relevant that you place the right keywords in the listing of your product. For example, a product “ Frypan” should not be labelled as “egg pan” or “ Pancake maker” in keywords as it can lead to confusion for the algorithm and the product will not be listed in the top searches if someone is looking for a “ Frypan” in particular.

Therefore, it is always advisable to keep your keywords simple and relevant according to the description of your product.

Also, you must not try to spam the algorithm by putting any fake links or by providing fake rankings to your competitors. These shortcut methods can put you in huge trouble and you might end up losing your credibility on the platform. There are high chances that your account might get suspended due to foul play or behavioral misconduct.

Performing keyword research

Performing keyword research is a crucial part of the listing of the product. There are hundreds of tools available in the market that you can use to see the most appropriate searches made by the people on the internet for any particular product. 

You have to be particular when putting the keywords in your listing. The algorithm on the Amazon platform also checks for the bounce-back time of the customer. Let us say that a customer clicks on your listing but leaves quickly after exploring the items. This will raise a doubt in the mind of the algorithm that probably the item is not relevant to the search result. Therefore, there is a huge chance that the platform will not show the same result in the future for the searched keyword and it will skip your product due to irrelevance. 

Hence, using the right tools and placing the right keyword is very crucial. 

Some of the best tools available for searching the keywords are:

• Amazon keyword tool
• Google Keyword planner
• Keyword tool

Also, the title of the product must be crisp and clear. It will help the algorithm to have a better understanding of your product and you will be able to grab the best rankings on the list.

Using Amazon keyword tool for searching relevant keywords

If you are willing to use the keywords for the SEO of your products on Amazon and looking for keywords, we would recommend you to use the Amazon keyword tool for the best keywords. It is the best way to find the most relevant keywords for your listing on Amazon.

Here, you must understand that Amazon is not just a selling platform. It is a smart selling platform which is innovative and not traditional in its approach. It provides every possibility for the seller to help enhance the selling experience for their customers. By providing efficient tools and techniques to its sellers, it helps Amazon to increase its credibility in the market, and it has proven to be highly effective for the company so far.

You must understand that keywords are not just for SEO. Keyword proves crucial when you are looking for the conversion on the platform. Planting the right keyword in your listing will not only help you to increase the traffic and appear in listings, but it will also help you to generate the right traffic for your product which will have the greater chance of a conversion.

If you are unfamiliar with the conversion rate and do not know how to calculate it for your brand here, we have the formulae which will help you to calculate it the right way:

Conversion rate = Number of sales/ Number of page views x 100

Achieving a high conversion rate is crucial. You must understand that a greater conversion rate is fruitful for both revenue and credibility of the brand. It will help in increasing the visibility, relevance and conversion of your brand and products.

One of the best ways to achieve them is keywords. As the algorithm A9 gives special importance to the factor!

Amazon already has the largest user database. All you have to do is utilize it effectively. However, if you perform the SEO for your products there are chances that you can increase the proportion of your sales twice in just a few months’ time frames.

To use the tools for keywords on Amazon, you can download extensions like KDSPY, which is a valuable tool working effectively with the platform. Then you can search for the desired product on the tools and lookup for the conversion rate for the similar products, variation in prices, the keywords that are used in their listing and also check the best titles and modify them for your product.

Utilizing the Amazon search bar for keywords search

Amazon’s search bar is itself a magnificent tool for performing keyword research. It is always advisable to look for related keywords in the search bar to obtain the best efficient ranking on the platform.

Every time you enter something in the search bar of Amazon, it starts populating with related phrases that people search using those terms. These search terms are useful for both; consumer and seller. These search options are visible in the drop-down suggestions on the platform helps a consumer to search for the relevant product. Whereas, it helps the seller by assisting the customer to make the right decision while searching for products. The target automatically leads the consumer to the right path.

These suggestions are highly useful while performing SEO on Amazon. You can utilize these suggestions in the search bar as keywords, and the algorithm will choose your product as per the relevance of the products. As these suggestions are provided by the algorithm itself, there is a huge chance that putting these keywords in your listing will help your product to make the cut of top 10 relevant products on the first page.

You can try the same by searching for something in the search bar. For example: As soon as you enter “T-shirts” in the search bar, it will provide you with suggestions like “T-shirts for men”, “T-shirts for women”, “Round neck T-shirts”, “Polo T-shirts”, “Cotton T-shirts” etc. Thus, you can use these suggestions as your keywords, if you are selling t-shirts on your store at Amazon. You can perform similar searches for other products as well!

Optimizing your product listing

An optimized product listing can do wonders on Amazon. A well-optimized listing has a higher chance of being visible in the top 10-20 items. As we all know, no one wants to scroll through 100 pages to find the right product. People only check for the first few pages, and if they do not find what they are looking for, they go to the search bar and try a different search keyword for searching the same product. Thus optimizing the product listing can help you to achieve the milestone of being the best seller on the platform with millions of customers visiting your listing daily. 

Here we have the appropriate optimizations that you can perform on your listing to get the best results for your channel and store on Amazon:

• Optimize your store by using the techniques of SEO. If you are unable to perform SEO efficiently, you can always outsource SEO to digital marketing agencies who are experts in the field.
• You should optimize your product for all Amazon platforms i.e. Amazon business, Amazon Prime and Amazon for consumers.
• You should perform optimization on the pricing of your product and offer discounts in your listing prices.
• Optimizing the inventory and shipping method for your products can do wonders for your brand.
• Review management is paramount to achieve the goal of being the best seller on the platform.
• Investing in sponsored product ads has proven to be highly effective. In a survey, it was found that almost 55% of people visiting the platform click on the sponsored product advertisement. It will increase the viewership of your new product or an existing one.

An appropriate title for the products

The title is the first thing that a consumer notices while checking the product in a list. Amazon’s algorithm also looks for the most appropriate title matching the search term of the consumer. Therefore, one must pay undivided attention to the title.

By exploring the listings on Amazon, you will realize that people usually tend to write long length titles for their product. However, we would say that it is not the perfect way to put the title.

The title of your product must be crisp and bold to attract the attention of the customer. It needs to be relevant to the products, and you must not stretch it to lengths to prove your point. Also, you must include the primary keywords for your products in the title. It will make your products more visible to the algorithm, and it will pick your product on priority when the relevant keyword will be searched.

The title must be short as you get the description part in your listing to describe your product.

Describing your product

A product description is a vital part of the product listing. One must pay extra care and ensure that all the essential information is presented to the customer. The description of the product is the most significant part of any product and investing attention while you work on the description is essential.

Following these few vital tricks, you can see the increase in the credibility of your product. However, if you are finding it difficult to put your efforts into product descriptions, you can always outsource the work to the professionals. People usually hire professionals for writing the description, as it gets a little tricky when you have to explain the details of your product in just a few words. However, if you are working on the descriptions for your products on your own, here are a few things that you must remember while describing the product.

• The description must not contain any unnecessary information. For example, avoid adding details of things that you have already mentioned in other fields like the color of your product.
• Avoid writing long paragraphs and try to break things down into bullet points. It will help you to explain your product effectively to the audience, and even the audience will have a better understanding of the products.
• Use keywords in the description field. It will increase the relevance of the keywords and will help increase the overall ranking of the product.
• Avoid answering questions while describing your product. You have the column for FAQs which can be utilized to address the most inquisitive questions of the customers.
• Try being more verbal about the quality and superiority of your product. Highlight the USP’s of your products which will help you to sell your products better.

Assigning keywords for the backend search

Backend listing plays a crucial role in providing growth to your products and brands. Therefore, it is vital that you optimize both; front end and the backend product listing of your products. Though the backend listing is not visible to your customers, the algorithm A9 has full access to your backend listing, and it is a decisive factor for the ranking of your products and brand.

Before the year 2015, the word limit for the characters per field was merely 50. However, with the evolution of time and the growth of the platform, Amazon lets you include 1000 words in a field. Therefore, including keywords in these fields can help you rank better on Amazon. This way you can optimize your backend listing effectively.

Although, there is much space to write a description in every field you should refrain yourself from doing so. Writing irrelevant details can damage the chances of growth on the platform. However, you can include long-tail keywords which will help you to gain effective ranking on the platform.

Importance of user reviews on Amazon

User reviews hold the utmost importance on an eCommerce selling platform like Amazon. Positive user reviews can help your brand rise to the top in just a few months, and the negative ones will damage the image of your brand in a similar timeframe. Therefore, it becomes very crucial that you work efficiently on customer satisfaction. The satisfaction of the customer can be achieved by providing them with a great service which includes

• On-time delivery,
• Quality of product,
• Describing the product correctly,
• Making no false promises,
• Easy return policies,
• Listening to their queries and answering them with all the best possible solutions,
• Working on their complaints with a wholehearted resolution approach and
• By going an extra mile for the customer.

However, it is not possible to always get a positive review by every customer. If you can achieve such conditions then there is no stopping you! But, it is not realistic as there is always an unsatisfied customer who finds something wrong with every perfect product. Therefore, if you also have such unsatisfied customers who are putting negative reviews on your store, you can deal with it by the following two methods:

1. Resolve their issues and once resolved, request them to remove the negative feedback: This is one of the most effective ways of dealing with the negative reviews. It helps you to address the issues of the customer first hand and build trust towards your brand.
2. Addressing the issues by writing back to the customer: Even by addressing the issues you can gain the trust of customers. When some other customer will see a negative review and will see that you tried to address the issue in a reassuring way it will help him to put trust on you looking that at least you tried your best to resolve the issue. Therefore, you must confront every bad review and build the best strategy to deal with it positively.

Following these techniques will help you in increasing the credibility and brand value.

Amazon Q4 trends in 2020

The Q4 or the festive season brings numerous opportunities for every seller and customers. There is an accelerated flow of traffic during this quarter, and Amazon is known to generate high revenue during this time frame. Therefore if you have yet not decided a strategy for the Q4, you must do it quickly and start a campaign for this exciting season of revenue generation.

“In economics, things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.”

— Rudiger Dornbusch, Economist

Due to the pandemic outbreak across the globe, the market has seen a tremendous shift towards online shopping platforms. People are opting to stay home and purchase their goods and items over the internet. Therefore, this year revenue generated by Amazon is expected to hit a higher curve as compared to the last few years. Hence, you should buckle-up as the roller coaster of revenue generation is going to hit its highest speed this quarter.

This year anticipation shows that there will be a huge increase in new customers which can even go up to 7.4 billion. Yes! That is a huge number and amazon being the most trusted platform for online shopping among consumers you can expect a huge crowd turning towards the platform for their needs.

This is not limited to just the festive season, as most countries are still fearing to be hit by the second wave of the pandemic and imposing lockdown larger retail brands like Walmart are also shifting their business online to serve their customers better.

According to a few pieces of research conducted online, nearly 43% of the worlds total population is shifting towards online purchasing due to the pandemic breakdown. Hence, a strategy must be adopted to get the best out of it. Here are a few points that you can consider in your while making a strategy for this quarter:

• Offering discounts: Offering discounts is the best strategy to attract customers towards your products. People are compelled to purchase products at discounted rates. 

• Describing your product clearly: A well-described product has more chances of selling than a product with distorted information. You can also mention the details about its usage and its USP to make the description more attractive.

• Combo offers: You can create a combo of products and provide them on discounted prices. It can prove to be an attractive way of selling more products.

• Resolving the queries of consumers: Customers queries must be resolved, on a priority basis. An unsatisfied customer will provide you with a poor review and rating, which will decrease your chances of selling better.

• Travelling the extra mile for the customer: It is always good to do a bit more than expected by the customer. If you make sure that you provide the customers with a bit more than they are expecting from the product, it will help them feel special and eventually increase the value of your brand. For example, you can include a pair of 3-layer masks or a small bottle of sanitizer with every package that you ship. This small gesture will make your customer feel special and cared and will ultimately lead to good reviews and increased credibility.

Conclusion

If you are planning to expand your business online the time is most opportune. People are shifting their focus from physical stores to eCommerce. One of the biggest factors for this change is the current Covid outbreak which has forced people to stay indoors and make their purchase online. However, it has proven to be a fruitful situation for online sellers.

Amazon is the biggest market for online shopping and includes a wide category of products. It has gained peoples trust over the period, and now people prefer it for their day to day purchase. Thus, setting up your store on Amazon can prove to be highly beneficial for the sellers as they will automatically have heavy traffic of customers.

However, it is not easy to sell your product when there is already a wide range of products available online. Therefore, you must devise a strategy so that you can achieve the spotlight among thousands of competitors. Price of a product plays a crucial role in selling a product. However, there are several other factors which can help you sell better on the platform.

SEO or search engine optimization can help you achieve your targets easily and effectively. The technique includes several steps which have been explained above. However, if you are unsure or uncertain about the techniques, you can always seek out for help.

Outsourcing business is always fruitful as it allows you to share your workload with a trusted team which will help you grow. Outsourcing your business is easy! All you have to do is find a perfect partner who can help you in your endeavors.

At Adscholars, we believe in understanding the emotions and feelings of a person attached to the business and accordingly devise a strategy which supports the value and policies of the business. We have a high success rate, and we keep ourselves updated with the latest trends and techniques of the market. Our team consists of highly trained professionals who have been working and reshaping the demographic of Digital marketing.

— Rudiger Dornbusch, Economist