Need a Boost in Amazon’s Search Ranking? Try These Amazon SEO Best Practices

Amazon is the biggest eCommerce platform globally with millions of buyers from different countries, so opening a store on this platform is an excellent decision. To pave the way to your success, understanding Amazon’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential in making your product listing appear to search customers.

Now, Amazon has an algorithm called A10 that checks the relevancy of your listing to client searches. If the search and your store keywords match, you are a step closer to being ranked higher in the product listing search results. 

Here are the ten best practices you should do to ensure that you always appear on searches, maintain first-page ranking, and keep the sales coming. 

1. Keyword Research: Scientific and Measurable Approach

When you begin your store optimization and grow your business, ensure that your decisions and strategies are based on data and studies. An excellent start is doing keyword research. Here are some ways.

• Use keyword research tools. There are many keyword research tools online that offer free of charge or a minimum amount to guide you with your research. Some provide the relevant keywords for your store, while others provide data like volume searches, the cost-per-click cost for your ads, and search trends for a specific duration. 
• Competitor study and analysis. Another way to know which keywords you should be using is checking what your competitors are doing by studying their listings. There is no shame in this. Check who’s ranking on the first page and know what puts them there. A reverse ASIN from a research tool can be convenient to check.

The keyword research tools provide data that can lead you to plenty of analysis to help you in your decision-making. There are only limited characters and word count allowed in your store, so make each word count by picking only the words you know will help you rank. 

2. Product Title: Put top-ranking keywords first

In your research, the keyword research tools will generate hundreds of relevant keywords, so you need to decide which among these words will land on the on-page of your store. Let’s begin with the suggestions you can consider for your product title. 

On Amazon, there are specific product title guidelines. First among the details you should remember is that the platform only allows a 200-character title, including spaces. As a seller, you also need to consider the word count your customers will see depending on the tool they use or the listing position. 

The character count is cut in all situations, so ensure that you put the most appealing, informative, and ranking keywords in the first parts of your product title. Aim to immediately create an impression to searching customers and get a click for them to be led to your listing. 

More so, do not consume all 200 characters by keyword stuffing. Studies show that listings with precise and short product titles rank more than those that are long. 

3. Product Bullet Points: Unleash the storyteller

After all the technicalities, numbers, graphs, and analysis, it’s time to tap your creative side for the product description and bullet points. Note the difference in bullet point and character count for Amazon seller and vendor. For a seller account, five bullet points with 500 characters are allowed. On the other hand, vendors can have ten bullet points with 250 characters each. 

Unleash the storyteller in you as you stitch keywords with words of persuasion, enticement, excitement, and enthusiasm that will trigger your readers' desire to buy. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and ask yourself, “What do my customers want to know and see?”

To give you a detailed example, below is a visual of Guardian Athletic’s bullet points.

Photo source

Highlights:

• Character count does not exceed 250 characters.
• Bullet points show detailed characteristics of the energy drink, such as the best time to drink it, the different flavors, the ingredients, and the effects after drinking it.
• You see no signs of keyword stuffing as the keywords are perfectly incorporated in the content.
• The words and the information work together to appeal to individuals who work out and need a rehydration drink from organic sources.

4. Product Description: Show a deeper view of your brand

The character count limit for the product description depends on the category your product is in. Nonetheless, this is another area where you can incorporate your keywords. 

The product description is also an area where you can create brand awareness and store introduction and incorporate photos, which you can also optimize, for the visual appeal. 

Check Guardian Athletic’s product description:

Photo source

Highlights:

• You can see high-quality photos that are visually appealing
• The ingredients of the energy drink are elaborated and explained more in this part
• A link to the other products under the brand is also placed in the product description

Having a product description like this one has several advantages, but the prime among them is the brand's credibility. Customers love reading and searching before they make a purchase. This part gives them the convenience of just scrolling down to know more about the product. 

With this, you are hitting two birds with one stone for your product description— store optimization and brand awareness. 

5. Image Optimization: Better images through Amazon A+ content

What you saw above is an example of images through A+ content. You can enjoy the perks of A+ content, such as better image quality for product highlighting and brand awareness, if you sign-up for the Amazon Brand Registry. You can say goodbye to the traditional product images with white backgrounds. Get your graphic artists inspired and be more creative for the product featured images.

We are now in a visual world, and sellers could better appeal if they have good images. What should the images contain?

• A clear photo of the product together with its specifications
• A sample of how the product is used
• A person using the product in actual
• Situations where the product is used
• Infographics
• A visual representation of your bullet points

While there are these dos, ensure that you do not do the following:

• Uploading low-quality products that get pixelated when zoomed
• Content that has misspelled words

Consistently optimize your images by including keywords in the text included in your design. You can also rename the images with the keywords you want to rank for as a part of the optimization. 

6. Backend Keywords: Where all the other keywords go

The hundreds of other keywords you got from your research, including long-tail keywords, that could not make it to the front end of your store still have a chance of contributing to your ranking. You can do this through the backend keywords. 

Here are some strategies sellers do with their backend keywords:

• Misspelled words: Ranking words that are misspelled may confuse when included in the front end of your store, but should all be included in the backend.
• Different language keywords: Some keywords are ranked in a different language, mostly Spanish. You should also include these keywords in the backend. 
• Keywords after reverse ASIN: Some sellers’ strategy is to include the keywords of their competitors they were not able to include in their listing in the backend. You can do this after a reverse ASIN and determine the keywords your competitors have that you don’t. 

Remember not to put any comma between words, not to repeat any word, and use only the 249 bytes limit. These are the guidelines for Amazon backend keywords. 

7. Amazon PPC: Optimize your ads

There are several Amazon advertising options you can choose from, and each is better used for specific goals.

These are just some ways to advertise, as there are still more in and out of Amazon, but incorporating keywords is essential in all situations. Here are some strategies you can incorporate into your campaigns:

1. Target keywords that newcomers use, so whenever they appear on the search, you will be a better option because of your authority.
2. Target keywords used by listings that have lower ratings than you. You will be a more credible option for buyers.
3. Target keywords of more expensive products than yours to provide a cheaper yet quality option to buyers.
4. Target product listings where your product serves as a complement. Buyers may not be planning to buy your product but may do so because it complements the product they will buy.
5. Buyers who are specific in their search using long-tail keywords have higher intent of buying. Target them using long-tail keywords. 

8. Product Review: Get legitimate feedback

Why are product reviews included in Amazon SEO optimization? In Google, the customer feedback may not matter as users' main goal is to research. On the other hand, Amazon has reviews and feedback included in the ranking considerations because the platform is customer-centric, which ensures clients are satisfied. 

As a seller, your customers’ feedback should be on top of your priority. Try these different ways of getting honest feedback from your customers.

1. Buyer-Seller messaging: Seller central is equipped to communicate to your customers and ask for feedback and reviews. 
2. Email campaigns: You can also do email campaigns asking for reviews.
3. Amazon Reviewers Program: If you are new to Amazon, you can jumpstart your reviews through this program. You can also ask buyers to leave reviews up to 20 days after their purchase. 

The more good ratings and feedback you receive, the higher the chance of your product listing ranking higher on the search results. Just ensure that you do it the right way. Fake reviews are immediately reg flagged on Amazon, which can get accounts suspended or closed. 

9. Fulfillment By Amazon: A great complement to Amazon SEO

With all the store optimization for higher ranking, you should complement these efforts with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). According to experts, listings using this fulfillment method rank higher than those using other fulfillment and shipping means. 

What is FBA? FBA is Amazon’s fulfillment method. Sellers and vendors can sign up for it and have their products stored on Amazon warehouses. Sending orders, returns administration, and customer services are handled by Amazon, too. 

Customers can enjoy free shipping and fast two-day delivery if they are Amazon Prime members. With the deals offered by FBA and Prime, customers are more likely to buy from stores that send products through the two means. You can pull your ranking higher by using FBA. 

10. Partner with experts

With the rise of sellers and the continuous addition of millions of buyers each year, Amazon grows. Assistance from Amazon SEO services becomes more in demand now more than ever. It would be great to also seek help through an agency where your store optimization needs will be handled by an Amazon SEO expert and all the other tasks that are needed to be checked in your account. 

Seller Interactive could be the Amazon SEO company you are looking for. We offer store optimization where a team of experts will handle your account. If you need help in other areas of your business, you can look into the other services we offer:

• Full Account Management
• Sponsored Ad Management
• Product Launch
• Brand Protection and Assistance
• Account Suspension Appeal and Reinstatement 
• Reimbursement and Refund
• FBA Wholesale Partnership Program

You can look into some of the brands we assisted and how we made them succeed and achieve their goals. Their testimonials are living proof of the work that we do. We’ll assist you every step of the way. 

Final Thoughts

Ensure that all areas of your store are optimized with the keywords you want to rank for. Also, Amazon and its algorithm work differently than other search engine algorithms. Consider other factors like customer reviews and fulfillment methods a part of the SEO process as they affect your ranking. 

With all these tasks at hand and the endless cycle of monitoring your keywords and sales performance, having a solid team to lend you a helping hand is essential. Consider partnering with Amazon experts. This partnership will be an investment, but it will be worth it with their contributions. They will lift your business and put it in a higher ranking where it is supposed to be.