What Is Amazon SEO and How to Improve It: Step-by-Step & Tips

Amazon SEO is the process of optimizing your product listings so that they appear in relevant search results for shoppers. It’s just like optimizing your product pages on your own website.

And just like the traffic you drive to your website, you want to attract the attention of the right shoppers on Amazon – AKA, the ones who are looking for the products you sell.

SEO in general is all about quality rather than quantity and Amazon SEO ensures that out of the 310 million + shoppers on the platform, the ones who land on your product listings will be highly likely to make a purchase.

Key Differences Between Amazon SEO and Traditional SEO

While Amazon SEO is a similar concept to traditional SEO, there are various differences between the two.

Just like Google, Amazon uses its own algorithm to sort product listings and present them to users. This is known as the A9 algorithm. The A9 algorithm focuses on shopping because Amazon is primarily a marketplace, after all.

While Google tends to rank informative web pages for search terms, Amazon’s A9 algorithm focuses on products.

The key metric Amazon looks for? Revenue. Amazon wants to rank product listings that are already converting sales. The A9 algorithm looks at relevance (keywords) and performance (conversions and revenue) and ranks products accordingly.

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Is SEO setting your head spinning? Our SEO articles can help!

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The first of our Amazon SEO tips is to set clear goals for your Amazon SEO strategy. After all, how can you determine if your Amazon SEO is working if you don’t know exactly what you want it to achieve?

You should approach the goals for your Amazon SEO in a similar way you would traditional SEO and create a shortlist of things you want to achieve:

• What search terms do you want to rank for?
• Where do you want to rank? Do you want to be the top listing or are you happy “just” to make the first page?
• How many sales do you ideally want to make?

Remember to be realistic when setting goals. We’d all love the top position for every search term and to make a million sales a day, but the chances of that happening are slim. Realistic goals will enable your business to keep operating long into the future.

The foundation of Amazon SEO is keywords. Keywords are the words and phrases that users input into Amazon’s search bar, for example, waterproof shower speaker.

In order to determine which keywords you want your product listings to rank for, put yourself in the customer’s shoes.

For example, if you sell shower speakers, think about what a customer who is looking to buy a shower speaker is likely to search for. Terms such as “shower speakers”, “waterproof shower speaker”, and “Bluetooth shower speaker” would all be relevant.

Terms such as “speaker” or “music speaker”, however, are too broad and would likely attract users looking for traditional speakers. Targeting the wrong terms will attract the wrong audience and won’t result in any sales.

No sales means no revenue for you and, therefore, Amazon won’t rank your product listing.

There are plenty of tools online that you can use to conduct your keyword research such as:

• AMZ.One
• Sellozo
• Data Hawk

Utilizing Amazon’s Search Bar for Keyword Ideas

You can also use Amazon’s search bar to conduct keyword research.

The auto-complete feature is a great way to get ideas for long-tail keywords to optimize for. The auto-complete feature works by suggesting search terms that are popular on the marketplace based on the first words you input.

For example, if a user inputs personalized dog into the search bar, the auto-fill feature offers up suggestions such as personalized dog tag, personalized dog collar, and personalized dog bowl.

This is a great way to see what users are actually searching for in order to ensure you’re targeting the right search terms.

Leveraging Amazon’s Auto-suggest Feature

Amazon has an inbuilt auto-suggest feature. Within your seller’s dashboard, it will automatically suggest keywords that would be relevant to your product listing.

By making use of this feature you’ll be getting keyword ideas straight from the source, and where better to get intel on what keywords to optimize for than from Amazon itself?

Competitor Analysis: Spy on Successful Sellers

A little bit of spying never hurt anyone. You don’t need to go full 007, but taking a look at your competitor’s product listings can be useful.

List the sellers on Amazon who offer a similar product to you (chances are, there will be a few, no matter what you offer) and see what search terms they are ranking for. They may have found a lucrative search term you hadn’t previously considered!

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Getting to grips with these SEO basics will help to improve not only your traditional SEO strategy but your Amazon SEO too.

Amazon product listings are made up of multiple components including:

• Product title
• Product images
• Product description
• Product reviews
• Product ratings
• Backend keywords

Below we’ve listed the Amazon SEO tips you need to know when it comes to crafting the perfect product listing.

Writing Compelling Product Titles 

Your product titles need to attract the attention of customers. A great product title is both engaging and informative and of course, includes your target keywords.

The product title confirms to a user that your product is what they are looking for, so make sure it’s accurate.

For example, if your waterproof shower speaker operates via Bluetooth, put that in the title e.g. “waterproof and Bluetooth shower speaker”.

Avoid using all capitals – you don’t need to shout at customers. As a rule, keep your titles to around 60 characters.

Detailed Product Descriptions that Convert

Here’s where you can get specific. Your product description should feature all of the information a customer needs in order to make an informed purchase such as:

• Relevant specifics such as color or quantity
• Size
• Brand
• User instructions, if appropriate
• Material types

Don’t forget to include your keywords in your product descriptions but be cautious and don’t overstuff! One or two mentions are enough.

Mastering Bullet Points and Product Features

All of the best Amazon product listings include a bullet point list of the key features of the product.

Keep your bullet points concise and include up to five for every product listing.

One of the best ways to master bullet points within your product listing is to list a feature and then explain its benefit. For example, for our shower speaker listing, we could include:

• Bluetooth connection – connect to your shower speaker via Bluetooth for hands-free music. 

The bullet point explains the feature and the benefit it offers users, plus it includes the keyword “shower speaker”, too!

The Importance of Backend Keywords 

Amazon also includes backend keywords. These are keywords that users can’t see, but that sellers and more importantly, Amazon, can.

Including backend keywords within your product listing is a further way of telling Amazon what your product is and what it should rank for.

Creating a User-Friendly Product Page 

While the overall layout of your product listing will be in line with Amazon’s wider templates, you still need to ensure that you’re offering a user-friendly experience.

This includes breaking up text with subheadings and bullet points, using high-quality imagery, and not stuffing your listing with keywords and spam.

One of our most important Amazon SEO tips is to include high-quality product images within your listing.

If a user can’t see what your product looks like, chances are they aren’t going to buy it and Amazon won’t rank it either.

The best Amazon product listings will include multiple images of the product from different angles that highlight the key features.

Images should be high-quality and either 500 x 500 pixels or 1000 x 1000 for the best quality results.

Another Amazon SEO best practice is to ensure your pricing and reviews are both optimized. Below, we’ll dive deeper into how to do this.

Pricing Strategies for Amazon SEO

The price of your product is going to impact how many you sell and your Amazon conversion rate, which in turn impacts your Amazon SEO.

Think carefully about how you price your product. Compare the prices of similar products on Amazon to ensure you’re offering a competitive price.

You can set your prices higher than competitors, but you just need to ensure that you’re offering a value and standard that matches your price point. If you expect a customer to pay more for your product, you must show them why.

Customer Reviews: The Social Proof Factor

Customer reviews are another performance-based factor that Amazon’s algorithm looks for when ranking products.

The highest-ranking products all have a huge amount of reviews. Why? Because Amazon wants to rank the very best products and customer reviews are a great way of confirming that a product deserves to be ranked.

Amazon SEO comes full circle. In order to rank you need reviews and conversions, in order to get conversions you need reviews.

Managing and Encouraging Positive Reviews

Customer reviews are crucial for Amazon SEO therefore you don’t want to sit back and hope your customers will be inclined to leave you one. Instead, you need to encourage customers to take the time to leave you a positive review.

The best way to encourage positive reviews is to send follow-up emails to customers once they have received their item, asking them to leave feedback.

Remember, not all reviews are positive. If you do receive a negative review, be sure to respond in a timely and professional manner. Don’t be tempted to get into an argument with a customer – this isn’t a good look and will be frowned upon by both Amazon and users.

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Daunted by the thought of asking customers for reviews? Check out our article about how to ask customers for reviews for our top tips!

Amazon has an array of advertising options available that can help to boost your SEO such as:

Sponsored product ads – These help to boost the visibility of your product listings, getting them in front of more eyes and increasing sales.

Sponsored brand ads – Sponsored brand ads can build brand recognition and help to make you a respected and recognized Amazon seller.

Sponsored display ads – These are a great way to retarget previous customers and drive more sales, helping to boost your Amazon conversion rate and SEO.

Paid ads drive customers to your product listings and the conversions that result from this increased attention boost your conversion rate, helping you to rank better organically too.

Amazon didn’t get to where it is today without constantly adapting and if you want to succeed as an Amazon merchant, then you need to keep up to date with all the latest Amazon SEO trends.

Some of the current trends that should be on your radar include:

• Voice search optimization – More people are using their voice to search for products so optimizing your listings for conversational terms is an important way to capture these searchers.
• Mobile optimization – In a mobile-first world, your listing should be just as easy and enjoyable to view on a mobile device as it is on a desktop.
• Sustainability and brand storytelling – Now more than ever shoppers are making considered purchasing decisions. Sustainability and brand ethos are now top of the priority list for shoppers across all industries.
• Social commerce – Using social media platforms (and influencers) to promote and sell products is commonplace in today’s world and a great way of driving more sales.

Once you’ve implemented our Amazon SEO tips, it’s important to track and measure your success in order to understand what’s working and what needs adjusting.

Utilizing Amazon Analytics

Amazon has an inbuilt analytics software that lets you see how your product listings are performing.

You can find your analytics within the Reports tab in your Seller Central dashboard. Some of the key metrics you can access within Amazon that will help your wider SEO strategy include:

• Popular and trending keywords
• Total number of clicks and conversions
• Competitor analytics
• Customer browsing patterns and shopping behaviors

Key Metrics to Monitor

Data is crucial to Amazon SEO success, but it can be easy to get overwhelmed by too many statistics and analytics.

It’s a good idea, therefore, to stick to monitoring key metrics that are directly linked to your Amazon SEO strategy.

Metrics to monitor include your click-through-rate (in order to understand if users are clicking on your listing when it’s presented to them in search results), conversion rates (to understand how many customers are making a purchase once they have viewed your listing), and sales velocity (to understand how quickly you are making money on Amazon).

A/B Testing Strategies

A/B testing is commonplace throughout sales and marketing and can be used to optimize your product listings for Amazon SEO.

Here, you can create two versions of your product listing, each with different features such as different images or product descriptions, to see which performs better.

This allows you to see which features of your Amazon product listing are performing well, and which need some more attention.

The final step in our list of Amazon SEO tips is perhaps the most important.

It’s crucial for all sellers to be compliant with Amazon’s policies and terms of service. Failure to comply could result in penalties such as blacklisting your product listing or even banning you from selling on the platform altogether.

Aspects such as not fulfilling customer orders, sabotaging competitors, and directing users to external websites and links are all explicitly frowned upon by Amazon.

We recommend you take the time to familiarize yourself with the marketplace’s terms of service before you begin selling products on Amazon.

Implementing an Amazon SEO strategy is essential if you want customers to find your products on the marketplace.

Whilst it may seem overwhelming, Amazon SEO focuses on relevance and performance. If your product page is relevant for searching customers and is converting sales, chances are Amazon will rank you well.

Now you know what Amazon SEO is, and understand how to improve your SEO on Amazon, all that’s left for you to do is implement the tips and tricks laid out in this article.

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more about utilizing Amazon for online sales, make sure you check out our simple steps for how to sell on Amazon next.