When shoppers visit the Amazon marketplace, they have one goal – to buy a product to solve their pain points. But the question here is, who will they buy from? 

Suppose you want buyers on Amazon to buy from your listing. You must understand the dynamics of Amazon SEO, how to crack the Amazon A9 algorithm, which is now the A10 algorithm as it keeps getting upgraded, and how the process of optimizing your product listing works. 

With millions of sellers actively striving to promote their product listings to attract buyers’ attention, you have to optimize your product listing, make it clear and appealing to prospective buyers. 

This guide will walk you through how the Amazon SEO ranking algorithm works and strategies to adapt to outrank your competitors.

Understand how Amazon search works

As with Google, Amazon uses its algorithm to evaluate every search query, which involves several factors. Search engines run on algorithms and Amazon’s is called A10. It employs different parameters to assess the product relevancy stored in its database. The relevance is tied back to the search queries entered by prospective shoppers. 

Before I walk you through the various strategies you can adopt to optimize your product listing, you must understand how Amazon search works. Things like the search result page, sponsored products, the different categories on the search result page, and search filters. 

Let’s quickly take a look at each of these elements.

#1. Amazon’s Search Result Page

When a buyer searches for a product on Amazon, the product shows up on the results page in two ways:

• List View: The list view features around 15-16 products on every result page.
• Gallery View: Gallery View features about 24-25 products on its result page.

It is important to understand Amazon’s search result page to enable you to categorize products correctly. 

#2. Amazon’s Sponsored Products

Amazon’s sponsored product is another category on the search result page, and you will see different sponsored products scattered in other places.

Sometimes, these sponsored products show up in organic search results, or you may see them on the top of the search result page. You will have to optimize your product listing in the sponsored product category to outrank your competitors.

For your product to show up on the first page of the sponsored product, you must follow the right PPC campaigns and Amazon SEO strategies.

#3. Amazon’s Search Filters

On the left-hand side of the product search result page, you will find the filter fields. A closer look at this section shows different filters, including selling rating, product category, brand, shipping method, color, and product condition. Amazon’s algorithms are brilliant and will understand a product’s color once mentioned in the product listing copy. 

If the product’s color is in the product listing copy, the product will likely show up in the filter query subset.

And that’s why an optimized Amazon listing is critical in Amazon SEO. If you sell a blue hair straightener, and you want your product listing to come up in your brand’s filter view and in a category like “hair straightener,” your best bet is to be precise when specifying these characteristics during the categorization process in the Seller Central.

If you fail to do these settings, your product will never make it to your brand’s filter view.

Think from a buyer’s perspective. 

The connection between a search query and a URL

Amazon considers a product listing’s URL, especially during search result filtering. Take the following parameters into account when implementing Amazon SEO:

• Node: Every product category on Amazon has a unique ID and is addressed through the Node. To determine the ID of a category, you can simply look through the category’s URL.
• Keyword: This is the key phrase entered by a prospective buyer. For example, “blue flat straightener.” Relevant keywords address the requirements of Amazon.
• Brandtextebin: This parameter is used to compare similar products in the same category. It tells Amazon whether your product or a competitor should be displayed. For example, “blue straightener from brand XYX vs. Black straightener from brand ABC.” 

Learn about Amazon search engine ranking

No Amazon expert or professional sellers know the complete details with the certainty of what determines sales ranking. But every seller on Amazon should keep the following in mind:

• Potential buyers will have to search for your product in a marketplace filled with similar products. This is when it becomes crucial to improve your product’s visibility. Amazon SEO will help you brush up your search ranking and ultimately improve sales. 
• As you are looking to implement the best Amazon search engine optimization strategies, your competitors are not sleeping. They are also surfing the internet in search of methods to implement.
• The majority of the sales on Amazon come from the first page of results. Especially the first three product listings. Therefore, you should optimize your product listing for the latest Amazon’s A9 algorithm.

What Is Amazon’s A10 Algorithm

Amazon’s A9 is a product ranking algorithm responsible for displaying the search results based on relevant keywords, queries, or key phrases entered in its search box. Amazon’s search results contain many factors, including customers’ past purchases and shopping preferences. 

Amazon’s A9 chooses what items to display to prospective buyers for them to take action. It also determines how products can rank based on the following criteria:

• Previous customer preferences and behavior.
• Relevance to search queries or keywords.
• The number of early purchases of a product.

Apart from these three factors listed above, Amazon’s A10 uses many other factors. The full functionality of A10 is Amazon’s top-secret and is not precisely known to sellers. However, you can grasp how the algorithm’s intricacies work with a few experiments.

What factors influence the A10’s search rankings?

Factors that influence the algorithm’s search rankings can be grouped into two.

Let’s see what the two aspects are:

Explicit

• Stock Supply: Understock products can be a big problem in Amazon SEO. Your listing will either disappear or be pushed far down the ranking ladder. 
• Price: Compared to your competitors, pricey products can be a huge disadvantage to you. 
• Text Relevance: This relates to the way you optimize your listing with the appropriate description and title. 

Inexplicit:

• Sales Velocity: The chances of ranking high will become imminent when you start selling more products. 

Now, it’s time to walk you through the product listing optimization process in detail. 

What do you need to know about listing optimization?

You should fully understand the key ranking factors outlined above to optimize your product listing. Besides, Amazon SEO includes listing optimization for both users and search engines. These two aspects fall into two categories:

• Desirability
• Discoverability

Let’s take a look at the factors that fall under both categories. 

What factors come under “desirability?”

Desirability factors are aimed at the users and their experiences. In other words, how well will prospective buyers act on a product page? These include on-page factors like:

• Attractive product title that users can click through.
• Product description in clear terms.
• Good product reviews and ratings.
• Competitive product price.
• Optimized product title.
• Stunning product images.
• Writing product copy that resonates with buyers and conveys why buyers should choose your products. 

What factors come under “discoverability?”

Unlike the desirability factors, the discoverability factors are not aimed at the users. Rather, discoverability focuses on factors that the seller can control. Such as inventory, on-page SEO, images, and keywords. Amazon places only profitable products with high conversion rates on the first page of its search results, given that they include these factors:

• Stock availability
• Shipping cost
• Fulfillment method (FBA)
• Price
• Amazon keyword research and optimization.

Amazon SEO: how to improve product rankings on Amazon?

Let’s see how to tackle Amazon’s A10 and rank your product listing on Amazon:

Step 1: Amazon Product Title

When looking to improve your product’s visibility, your product title is an important factor. Ensure you contain all the critical information about your product in the title while keeping the product name first. Typically, your product title should include the following information:

• Brand
• Product
• Quantity
• Material
• Color. 

Keep in mind that Amazon product titles are limited to only 100 characters. The character limit is not an opportunity to stuff your product title with keywords. Always keep your title clear, appealing, and yet optimized. 

Optimized product titles are essential for Amazon SEO. Like any other search engine, without optimizing your product title, you may never rank in the Amazon marketplace, and your products will gather dust in the inventory. Also, your brand name should conspicuously appear in the title, as there are buyers that search for specific brands on Amazon.

Step 2: Amazon keyword research for product keywords

Stick to the best keywords for your products. One good way to do this is to research the best-selling products in your category and extract their keywords. Pick about five products with the highest performance and reviews, analyze them, and pick keywords related to your products. While this may be time-consuming, it’s an excellent strategy to unveil the best keywords to optimize your product title. You can use keyword research tools or Amazon SEO tools to save time and energy. 

With the right keywords handy, you can write compelling copy associated with the keywords. Connect with potential buyers to address their needs. You can get an idea of your customers’ needs by evaluating their keywords. 

Step 3: Amazon product price

Each time you set prices for your products, always check the prices of your competitors’ products. There is a reason for this: a big price gap can take a toll on your Amazon SEO strategy. At best, you should match your competitors’ prices or beat their prices. 

Amazon product price is as important as optimizing your product listing, and it is also a critical performance factor that helps decide whether or not buyers will patronize you. The bottom line? If your products are too expensive compared to what your competitors offer, your sales volume will reduce drastically. 

Step 4: Amazon product images

“A picture says a thousand words,” especially when you want to attract potential buyers on a competitive marketplace like Amazon. Better images are directly linked to higher sales, and images attract customers to your listing.

Do not underrate what product images can do: they are key sales drivers. While they do not directly affect Amazon SEO, product images impact bounce rates. In short, customers can better look at the products they intend to buy with Amazon’s zoom feature. Upload better-resolution images of the products you are selling. To enable its zoom function, Amazon recommends up to 1000 pixels in both height and width of product images. 

If you’re looking to push your product listing to the first page of Amazon search results, building the right image strategy is a no-brainer.

Step 5: Amazon product description

The Amazon product description persuades potential buyers to purchase your product. So, you must highlight the product features that buyers are looking for. While product description is not a ranking factor like the product title and images, it can push buyers to make a buying decision. Remember to place the right keywords in your product description and focus on positive and emotional sales arguments.

Step 6: Amazon product features in bullet points

Using bullet points to highlight your product features can be the magic you need to optimize your product listing. Buyers will never admire product descriptions with vast chunks of information in paragraphs, and Amazon buyers prefer neat, clear bullet points highlighting every product feature. 

Presenting your product description in paragraphs have two disadvantages:

• Firstly, they are unapproachable, unclear, and confounding. Your conversion rate will drop, as well as sales velocity and product visibility.
• Secondly, Amazon’s SEO algorithm won’t index all the words. Only the first 1000 characters of your total bullets. You waste precious keyword indexing potential if you stuff it with useless words.

Again, when drafting your product features in bullet points, do not stuff the content with keywords. Instead, naturally insert the keywords by emphasizing specific features like product weight, size, color, and other characteristics. The bottom line? Use bullet points to highlight your product features. 

Step 7: Product stock Availability

Running out of stock will affect your Amazon SEO ranking strategy. If you run out of stock, you may lose your ranking status, or your product listing may be deleted. 

If you use Amazon FBA or Fulfillment Method, you can activate an automatic reminder to notify you whenever your inventory is nearing “out of stock.” You can then restock by contacting your suppliers. On the other hand, if you sell your products through other means, you can use multi-channel sync platforms to automatically synchronize your inventory, so you don’t go out of stock. 

Then, if you are an independent seller – product sourcing, stocking, and shipping are done by yourself – one way to be on top of your inventory is to always stay in touch with your suppliers.

Step 8: Product’s backend search keywords

Product’s backend search keywords are usually indexed by Amazon’s A10 algorithm but hidden from shoppers. As such, they have a positive impact on a product’s search. To outrank your competitors, incorporate the following things in your backend:

• Keywords that didn’t make it to your product title and product description.
• Translation of words into French or Spanish. Amazon has a more significant Spanish-speaking community in the US.
• A product’s misspellings (which customers may likely search for) or your product-related keywords.
• Other synonyms that you think buyers will search for. 

If you don’t know how to include the above into your backend, there are tools online that you can take advantage of. 

Step 9: Product reviews and ratings

Product reviews and ratings are essential considerations for better ranking for Amazon SEO. These two components make indirect improvements in your product ranking, positively affecting conversions and click-through rates. 

A higher product rating means more value for the product. Also, product reviews play a critical role in attracting potential buyers to your listing. No buyer would want to click the purchase button from a product listing with negative reviews. 

Step 10: Use FBA for your product

The FBA monthly subscription to sell your products is $39.99. Unlike Individual Seller Account, FBA will exempt you from paying the $1 per product. Using FBA comes with two powerful advantages:

• You will enjoy greater visibility on the Amazon SERPs
• You will also have a chance to win the Buy Box.

The most common Amazon SEO mistakes

As I begin to wind down on this Amazon SEO guide, I believe you are now more than ready to optimize your product listing and analyze the A10 search engine. However, there are some things sellers may overlook that may hurt their ranking. These mistakes may appear insignificant, but the cumulative effect may affect your sales performance and bottom line if left unchecked. 

Find below some of the commonly made mistakes by Amazon sellers:

Mismanaging product inventory

Since Amazon SEO is meant to improve your ranking and expose your brand so that shoppers can buy from you, it would be a great disservice for you not to streamline your product inventory process. Understocking or overstocking your inventory can result in poor customer experience, affecting your search ranking. Avoid this at all costs. 

Failure to sustain the SEO processes

Another common mistake Amazon sellers make is the failure to maintain their SEO processes. Some sellers immediately jettison the SEO processes because they have started noticing a significant improvement in their sales performance. This is a bad practice. You need to keep the process ongoing to sustain your gains. Your best bet is to keep track of your sales performance index or launch an Amazon PPC campaign to boost your visibility further. Or if you don’t want to do it yourself, consider hiring an SEO agency for consistency. The last thing you want to do as you see success is to pull back and give your competitors a chance to take your spot in the rankings and sales.

Failure to adjust the A10 search engine

As you grow your business with Amazon SEO, keep in mind that the A10 algorithm continues to mature, and the adjustment can frustrate sellers. 

Failure to research your competitors

It is a known fact that the Amazon marketplace is a fiercely competitive space; as such, sellers ought to check how their competitors are performing regularly. But most sellers are usually carried away due to significant early improvement in their sales performance. Checking up on your competitors is very important, especially when trying to fill up a loophole in your product listing. In short, competitive research is one way to stay on top of your game and give your product listings a facelift. 

You’re writing false information

This is one of the worst mistakes I have seen Amazon sellers make; writing inaccurate information on their product listings. This mistake will ruin your reputation and make customers lose confidence when dealing with your brand.

You are not getting any help

I have seen many beginners brag that they know everything about Amazon SEO.

Amazon SEO is not a strategy you can learn overnight and start making huge sales. One way you can stay on top of your game is to seek help from those ahead of you. See what is working for others.

Final Words

While there’s no single trick to implementing the perfect Amazon SEO, taking steps to learn the Amazon SEO processes is a step in the right direction if you want to succeed as a seller. I understand that this guide won’t make you an instant Amazon SEO pro, but it will indeed arm you with the requisite skills and tools to get on the right track.  

Succeeding in Amazon SEO boils down to knowing what the algorithm wants from you, which connects to the happiness of Amazon customers. While you can optimize your product listing using different tricks, any technique should cover these two factors: relevance and performance. When you optimize your product listing with these factors in mind, your conversion rates, search ranking, and sales will significantly improve your conversion rates. 

Frequently Asked Questions