Amazon SEO: How to Rank in Amazon Results

For companies who offer products online, there is nothing quite as important as where your products sit in the Amazon search rankings. If you're looking to increase sales in 2018, then it's got to go hand-in-hand with your product search rankings, there’s just no other way around it. Now, even though you may understand that you need to rank high, and you try your best to do so, you may still find your results are dismal at best.

Well here's the thing, Amazon's ranking algorithm is rather complex and unless you have hands-on training and experience in SEO, it can be rather daunting to tackle. So exactly how can one improve their rank in the Amazon results? In order to improve you have to also understand how the rankings work, and what SEO tools exist.

Step Inside the Amazon Algorithm

In order to improve your search ranking, you need to understand how Amazon's algorithm works so you can use that knowledge to your advantage. Amazon has its very own search algorithm which is called A9, and it's important to note that A9 is fluid and always changing. What this means is that you can never just assume you’ve “cracked the code” and you’re good moving forward. You have to always be looking at where you are in the search rankings, and analysing where you could improve.

The A9 algorithm was built specifically to maximise the profits on Amazon. You've got a collection of sellers who want to sell, buyers who are looking to buy products, and then there is Amazon who is counting on those sales to happen so that it can make a commission. What this means is that the algorithm sorts products based on their likelihood of being purchased.

In order to determine which products will most likely be purchased it looks at relevance (the matching degree, location, selection, and keywords), and the product's performance (click-through rate, conversion rate, and sales).

Why is Ranking So Important?

Now from the seller’s standpoint, the next logical question is why ranking is so important? Does it really matter where your product sits in the rankings?

The short answer is yes, it matters. Statistics show that the better the ranking, the more traffic you're going to get, which will account to more sales. It works much the same as Google search rankings. Unless you appear on that first page of search results, the likelihood of getting a click through is slim to none; Amazon is the same.

Now there is a little catch here in that Amazon will show organic results as well as paid results. The ratio is 16 organic search results for every two paid results. If the user is on the Amazon mobile app, then the organic results shrink to 14. Sellers can improve their rankings in each area.

Amazon SEO Tools Must Be Employed

SEO tools are an absolute must for any business looking to improve their ranking. Some of the "tricks" you can use are as follows:

• Begin with optimizing your images. These actually factor into your ranking quite a bit, so you need to make sure you're following the image guidelines that Amazon puts forth.
• Make sure you have listed your product with an effective title that contains valuable keywords.
• Ensure your product pricing is in line with the competition.
• Use bullet points in your product description rather than full paragraphs.
• Always showcase the brand name of the product.
• Give careful thought to the search terms.

It Takes Practice and Experience

Optimizing your Amazon rankings isn’t something that just happens naturally on its own, it takes a lot of skill, know-how, and experience. What this means is that the more you can learn about Amazon and its algorithm, the higher the ranking you’ll enjoy.

If you need help with ranking on the Amazon results pages, or with traditional search engine optimisation, contact the experts at Matter Solutions today!