Amazon SEO 2020 - A Step By Step Ranking Guide

So what is SEO for Amazon? Isn’t SEO a Google thing? Well, yes. As far as SEO marketing goes, Google does get the most attention. Google is the foremost search engine in the world, but it’s important to remember that Google is not the only search engine in the world.

Social media apps like Pinterest have their own search engines, as do eCommerce sites like eBay and Amazon. Anywhere brands and products can be found with search is an opportunity for search engine marketing.

Amazon and Google are alike with SERP (search engine results page). For page one, the goal is to serve the most relevant items to the user. Amazon and Google search engines are not built the same because they don’t have the same motivation. Amazon is about dominating the eCommerce marketplace with the most sales, and Google is about maintaining its dominance as the most used search engine with the best answers.

As each year passes, Amazon seller revenue continues to be on the incline along with an influx of new sellers coming along to get their piece of the pie.

At Propellic, we want eCommerce sellers to get off on the right foot when going for promising Amazon revenue. This starts with understanding how Amazon SEO works.

You may have a huge inventory of the most popular products on the market, but your products won’t sell unless shoppers can find them. This guide shows you how to rank higher on Amazon so you are empowered to create product listings that perform well on this massive marketplace.

Short on time? No problem - skip to our tips for how to optimize your Amazon product listing now!

Understanding Amazon SEO and the A9 Algorithm

A9 may sound like a row for product picking at an Amazon warehouse, but it’s just the name the creators gave the system they built specifically for Amazon. The word “algorithm” is a 9 letter word starting with the letter a, so they named it A9. That’s how the Amazon algorithm got its name!

An algorithm is a set of rules that determines how the system behaves. The A9 algorithm uses a combination of keywords, conversion rate, and sales history to determine how to rank products in search results.

What is Amazon SEO?

Amazon SEO strategy is implementing best practices in a product listing to give your products the best chance of ranking for the first results.

Having great Amazon SEO means your product will be identified by the Amazon algorithm as a quality listing. When one of the millions of shoppers come to find a product on Amazon.com, they are presented with quality listings as the first matches on the results page.

Quality listings are those with optimized images, keywords, reviews, sales volume, etc.

So will you get sales if your listing isn’t on the first page of results? Not likely. Think about when you’ve purchased something online. Were you inclined to surf through 12 pages of results one at a time?

Many Amazon customers turn to this platform for speed and convenience, especially in the age of Prime memberships. Those who are in a hurry aren’t likely to go past page one.

Those shoppers who take advantage of Amazon search filters will shuffle these results and bring the lowest priced items back up to the top, but this could also bring with it irrelevant products or related accessories that aren’t quite it. Not finding enough relevant results may bring them right back to where they started - the first page.

Some may get direct sales with a successful external marketing strategy, but for those who want to compete in the general marketplace, getting on the first page of those Amazon search results is priority #1.

How Does A9 - Amazon’s Algorithm Work?

Amazon didn’t become the biggest marketplace in the world by accident. They are intent on making infinite sales. They've done this by creating a reliable shopping experience.

Much in the same way that Google has come to be the go-to for information, Amazon serves as the #1 destination shopping online. Amazon welcomes an estimated 206 million visitors to its market place every month (almost 7 million per day when spread out over 30 days).

On-demand searching caters to the user experience. Being able to get what they need quickly and effortlessly supports the return shopping habit. Shoppers can expect to find listings with high- quality images, detailed information, reviews, side by side comparisons, and the promise of satisfaction guaranteed.

It is the job of the Amazon algorithm to keep the most marketable products at the top. Keeping these on the first page increases the chances of a quick sale (and Prime users want it quick!). This also leaves a favorable impression on window shoppers. They know that once they are ready to purchase Amazon has what they need when they need it.

So as an Amazon seller, what are the important factors in winning the favor of the Amazon algorithm?

Amazon Ranks Products Based on Purchase Likelihood

Amazon has amassed a fleet of online sellers who are all competing for sales. This atmosphere is to Amazon’s advantage and to the customer’s benefit.

Amazon refuses to drop to 2nd place. They intend to keep dominating the online shopping experience. It's all about consistency. To keep delighting shoppers, the Amazon algorithm puts the products most likely to sell at the top.

The Cycle

• Amazon operates a platform where shoppers will find just about anything under the sun and buy with confidence.
• Shoppers come to the site and enter a search. Within seconds, they have plenty of options to choose from.
• Sellers offer quality items at a competitive price.
• A shopper checks other sites but returns to Amazon to purchase. The seller had a fair price, better info, images, and copy that made the shopper feel more comfortable, along with social proof (good reviews).
• A seller wins the sale.
• Amazon makes 15% from the sale.
• A shopper gets a quality product delivered within a reasonable time window and is more than likely to return to Amazon.

Amazon wins by getting a cut of the revenue and maintains a favorable conversion rate by beating out the competing eCommerce sites for the sale.

The seller also makes a conversion win. A shopper chose their listing and not those offered by the competing sellers.

The shopper wins by finding exactly what they want when they need it at a competitive price on a platform they feel comfortable with. They return to Amazon for a reliable shopping experience made possible by Amazon’s business model and a network of professional sellers.

Likelihood of Purchase Completion Determines Your Amazon Rankings

So how would a listing be the first to meet the eyes of a buyer or be fetched by Alexa with voice search?

The Amazon algorithm measures how likely it is that a product will sell. It’s not based on the merits of the product, it’s based on how well you present the product to the buyer.

How Amazon Determines Likelihood of Purchase Completion

How does the Amazon algorithm know what products have the best chance for a completed transaction? There are two parts to Amazon product ranking: keywords (a familiar SEO term) and product performance.

Step 1: Keywords Determine Relevance - And if Your Product Shows Up At All

Simply upload a picture of a product, and the search engine won’t know what it is. You tell the search engine what it is with keywords. Just like with Google SEO, the goal is to use the best relevant keywords in the right phrasing.

If you’ve ever used the Amazon filter to sort prices from lowest to highest, you know that you may run into either unrelated or loosely related products. Those are the products that sink to the bottom because they don’t have the best keyword match.

The better you are at telling A9  what your products are, the easier it will be for the Amazon algorithm to fetch your listings.

Step 2: Product Performance Determines Which Position Your Product Ranks

Amazon can’t fit every relevant match on the front page. Imagine how long it would take that page to completely load. So there is a second factor to determine which ones get to be on the first page - performance.

Performance metrics (Amazon’s in-house data) tell Amazon how much a listing has gained in interest and sales.

These three main KPIs (key performance indicators) are CTR (click-through rate), CR (conversion rate), and product sales.

CTR: For whatever reason, the user clicked a listing and scrolled through to read all about it. Showing interest in the product is usually a confirmation that this product is what the user was looking for. The listing gets points for relevancy.

CR: Are shoppers adding this item to the cart? This is a confirmation that this product matches what the user was searching for. The listing gets points for relevancy and having persuasive content.

Product sales: How well is this selling? Amazon’s prerogative is to go with what works. If people are buying it, Amazon sees it as the best listing

Products can rank for more than one keyword but not in the same position depending on the conversion rate for a particular search query. For this reason, sellers should optimize the product listing’s content for the best-targeted keywords.

Keyword strategy gets you partway there, but without sales and performance metrics to reinforce your products as being desirable, the competition moves ahead of you in the race.

The Amazon product ranking goal is to put their best foot forward when presenting products shoppers. Those at the front of the line get clicks, are being added to carts, and are actually being purchased.

Amazon SEO Strategy and the Flywheel Effect

So if Amazon is putting its bestsellers first, do they stay there? In theory, they do. This momentum is called the Flywheel effect.

A listing that ranks well due to high-performance will continue to reap the benefits of being on the first page. Having this edge generates more clicks and conversions which leads to more clicks and conversions that allow them to hold that position.

So if you make it to the first page you can just coast, right? Not the case. There is maintenance involved. A listing’s performance may slip due to product listing flaws and seller management issues.

If you see these gains start to slip away as listings lose rank, it’s time to investigate why. It could be a product listing issue, keywords may need to be changed, customer service may need to improve, etc. If all else fails, sponsored ads or importing traffic from elsewhere (more on this later) may help.

We’ll start with product listing optimization.

How to Optimize Your Amazon Product Listing

So what can you do to convince Amazon that your product listings are better than the rest? The Amazon ranking algorithm bases this decision on how well the listing is written and what keywords can be picked up from the contents.

Persistence makes a difference as well. Those who are willing to put in the work to make customers happy and make the needed adjustments are on the right track.

Create and Optimize Product Content

Product listings include product copy, product image, and product title. While product listings tend to appear generic, it does matter how they are written.

Be intentional when publishing your product listing. You may try to sell to everyone and end up selling to no one, so gear your listing presentation toward your target market - those who are most likely to buy your product.

Keeping your product listings optimized not only improves your chances of sales, but it also affects your ranking. Optimized listings are poised for a better click-through rate which helps the conversion rate, and this ideally leads to the sales volume that improves rankings.

So if you shouldn’t just copy and paste descriptions from another seller, how do you write these listings?

How to Write Amazon Product Copy

You’re writing this description for two different minds: shoppers and A9. So your copy needs both the right kind of information to convince shoppers and the right keywords to satisfy the Amazon algorithm.

Whether you decide to go organic or paid, content optimization matters, so create all listings according to best practices.

The Amazon Style Guide is a handy reference to help sellers become educated about product listing conventions. Abiding by these rules prevents your listings from being quashed.

• Product Title: Say what the product is and provide the most important information (such as its unique selling proposition) in your title. The Amazon title character limit is 200, but keep in mind that the title cuts off at 70 characters for mobile users.
• Bullet points: The capacity for this section is about 200 characters. List the key features and benefits of the product individually with the best USPs mentioned first. Mobile users will only be able to view the first three bullets, so keep the most important ones at the very top.
• Product description: This is when your sales skills come into play. This section isn’t intended for reiterating the bullet points. Use this space to tell them why this is a product they should buy.
• Additional product information: Prevent confusion about the product by including anything else the customer needs to know to make an informed decision (such as product specifications).

Once you have the product listing drafted ask yourself these questions:

• Is it easy to read? The content should be well organized and skimmer-friendly. Paragraphs shouldn’t trail longer than three lines. HTML code can be used to break things up into digestible chunks.
• Does it adequately inform the consumer? Misunderstandings about the product can lead to negative reviews (that hurt your performance), so make sure your listing covers all the bases.
• Does it sell? Product features make a product valuable, but they don’t sell quite as well as benefits do. Be specific about how the product will benefit shoppers and improve their lives.

There is some guesswork in figuring out what the product’s best key benefits and USPs are. You can refine this in future edits by harvesting reviews for clues about what matters most to consumers. These insights can be found in the reviews they leave on your product page and those of your competing listings.

Amazon A+ Content and Enhanced Brand Content

Amazon Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) and A+ Content features allow brand-registered Sellers and Vendors to give the product presentation a facelift.

Enhanced Brand Content involves registering your brand with Amazon. It’s free for sellers, but it’s exclusively for those who are on a professional selling plan.

A+ is offered at the basic (free) and premium levels. Premium unlocks interactive features like slider carousels and video. Premium is expensive and exclusive. Vendor managers must invite users for them to be able to access this program.

At its best, enhanced content improves your conversion rate, increases sales by 3-10%, and cuts down on returned merchandise.

What Are the Advantages of Enhanced Content (for sellers and vendors)?

Enhanced content features are more flattering for product presentation.

• Generous: It extends the sales pitch. More images and text allow sellers to tell shoppers about products in a way that promotes engagement. A comparison chart is included. Lifestyle context and a fuller presentation of product features make this marketing method more persuasive.
• Builds brands: This puts your brand in the spotlight. There is potential to build awareness and loyalty for the brand that leads to repeat business.
• Long-term eCommerce goals: This program is built for those who are serious about investing in Amazon.

When Should I Use Enhanced Content?

Branded ASINs are eligible for the free basic level. Amazon Brand Registration is free, but you’ll need a registry of an official trademark to qualify - and trademarks are pricey.

Building enhanced brand and marketing content does take more time and effort, so keep this in mind when weighing your options.

Does Enhanced Content Affect Visibility?

Because enhanced content isn’t indexed by Amazon, it’s not a fast lane for ranking. When enhanced content increases conversion rate, that does have an impact on ranking.

Enhanced content is designed to be an accelerator for products that are already doing well on Amazon, so it won’t compensate for poor performance.

Create Attractive Product Images

Low-quality images stick out like a sore thumb. Consumers are used to seeing professionally captured images (usually stock photos). First impressions are everything, so image conventions are something you should certainly align with.

The right main image generates more clicks to help your CTR. Images work with your copy to convince people to purchase and this helps your conversion rate. For these reasons, image quality does have an impact on rankings.

Amazon’s Photo Requirements

Again, Amazon’s Style Guide is your friend so keep it close as you build your listings. This guide includes information about images. Listings that abide by these requirements are at risk of being suppressed.

Such requirements are:

• Standard format: JPEG (recommended), TIFF, PNG, or GIF.
• Color values: RGB.
• Resolution: At least 72 dpi.
• Sizing: At least 1,000 pixels on the longest side (for zooming purposes).
• Optional 360-degree view: This is an enhancement feature for vendors that allows shoppers to see the product from various angles.
• Optional product video: This is another enhancement feature intended for vendors or brand-registered sellers. Videos are uploaded as part of the product image gallery.

Consumers like to see plenty of images when considering a purchase. However, only one can be the main image. The main image is what shoppers see when browsing through the search results. The idea is to select an image that is most likely to get clicks.

The main image serves as the face of the product listing. Ideally, you want a main image that is attractive, demonstrates the USP, and presents the product in a way that makes it easy to recognize. If the image varies from what the consumer is expecting to see, they are likely to click on another listing.

Main image best practices:

• Pure white background (RGB code: 255, 255, 255).
• The product takes up 85% to 100% of the image space and is fully visible.
• The product is shown without packaging. Show only the core product without props accessories.
• Leave out text, graphics, or illustrations.

If you end up with more than one main image candidate, sponsored ad A/B testing helps you determine which one generates the most clicks.

When a shopper clicks on your listing, they see the main image plus additional images. Additional images should also be high-quality and further demonstrate the features and benefits of the product. Having the right collection of images convinces buyers to make a purchase decision.

Unlike the main image, these images may contain text, graphics, packaging, props, different backgrounds, etc.

Zoomable images are very helpful for shoppers. In a brick and mortar store, they can hold the product in their hands and examine it closely. Zooming allows them to look for certain aspects of the product that matter to them. Zoom-capable images are high resolution and are at least 1,000 pixels by 500 pixels.

Once you’ve created a stunning listing, you can zero in on keyword strategy.

How to Optimize Keywords for Amazon

What is your product? You should have multiple answers to this question as this allows you to branch out to all keyword opportunities. The better you know your product and its benefits, the better you can sell it.

Just like the Google SEO we all know so well, Amazon SEO is content and keyword-driven. Content writing is instrumental in communicating to the search engine what the product is all about. How you implement your keyword strategy is how you tell Amazon that your product is a match for common queries.

The more rigorous the keyword planning and follow-through is, the better the chances are that products will show up in Amazon search results.

If you’ve made it this far in reading, you’re probably an avid researcher already, so let’s dive into keyword research.

How to Perform Keyword Research & Implementation

Amazon SEO keyword strategy is made up of three parts: research, implementation, and monitoring. It starts with determining what relevant keywords should be included in your keyword planner.

Next, you edit your product content to place these keywords in the appropriate areas. Then you check in periodically to see what keywords your products are ranking for.

We’ll start off with how to curate the best target keywords for your products.

Autocomplete Feature

This method is intuitive and totally free. You use Amazon’s search bar as your brainstorming tool.

Enter terms related to your product into Amazon's search bar to see what suggestions follow. The autofill options that appear below are based on phrases most frequently entered by Amazon shoppers.

Not only does this give you valuable insight into shopping behavior, but it also helps you become familiar with terms related to your product (for your keyword strategy).

Competitor Listings

Keeping an eye on listings that are already performing well gives insight into what works. When you do a search for the products you’re selling, what listings occupy the top ranks?

What do they put in their product title, bullet points, description, etc.? What keyword phrases do these top performers have in common?

With an Amazon SEO keyword tool, you can bypass the detective work and plug in the ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) and it will give you a list of all the keywords the competing listing ranks for.

Customer Reviews

With the above autocomplete feature, we learned that it matters to Amazon how shoppers phrase things. Product reviews provide even more insight into what terms consumers use.

When several reviewers are using the same phrasing for a product, this belongs in your keyword strategy.

Keyword Tools

It was only a matter of time before Amazon enthusiasts figured out how to build a keyword planner from search data. As mentioned before, with these tools you can look up ranking keywords by ASIN.

These tools also allow you to come up with a keyword list, know which terms are easier to rank for and which are the most relevant to your search.

Using all the resources available to gather all the best keywords allows you to write better copy for your product listings.

How to Add Keywords to Your Amazon Listing

So you have a list of the most relevant keywords for your product. Great! Now put them to work.

It’s important to place keywords in those fields that are indexable. No field is more important than the other as all of them have equal weight.

Is the Brand Name a Target Keyword?

Unless it’s a brand name that is in high demand, it does not make a difference to use it for the purposes of optimization.

Brand names won’t impact your ranking because they don’t vary among the product listings, so they aren’t a priority in keyword strategy.

What Do I Put in the Title?

For this, you’ll want to refer to the Amazon Style Guide. The product title is indexed, so keywords do matter here.

Use your most important keywords in the title but be very careful not to make the title too long (the Amazon title character limit is 200). Amazon will reject listings with problematic titles.  (70-80 character length is ideal for titles because they are truncated on mobile devices).

What About Bullet Points?

This is a prime spot for your keywords. Bullet points make up the first part of the content. The bullets are within the first 1000 bytes of the listing which are indexed by Amazon.

The most strategic keywords are included in the bullet points. With limited space, you’ll want to budget within this area to make room for the important keywords. It’s a recommended best practice to limit these bullet points to 200 bytes.

What If You Just Put All the Keywords Into the Product Description?

The product description is where to put your long-tail keywords.

It’s not a given that keywords will be picked up from the product description.

When single keywords are searched for, a product doesn’t appear in the search results because of the product description keywords.

Keywords are likely to be picked up from the product description in the following scenarios:

• Shoppers search for two or more keywords that would be found in the product description and these words are situated close to each other.
• When a shopper searches for a term that matches for the indexable parts (title, bullet points, or backend) that are also included in the product description body.

Is Enhanced Brand/Marketing A+ Content Indexed?

While these features do have many perks, the keywords that are placed in the enhanced content won’t be indexed.

Enhanced Content vs. Product Description

When it comes to indexing and conversion optimization, the regular product description and the enhanced content offer differing features and benefits. These features typically overrule the regular product description.

Are Backend Keywords Indexed?

Keywords indexed on the backend are limited to 249 bytes.

If Not Everything Is Indexed, Is It Worth Filling It All Out?

Yes. Keyword strategy is important, but it’s not the only thing that matters with a product listing. Adding detailed information about the product (commonly called the “specs”) assists with target audience keywords. It also comes in handy when shoppers apply filters to a search.

General Amazon Keyword Guidelines

A product listing can be cluttered if a seller obsesses over keyword variations. Use the Amazon keyword tips below to keep your listings tidy.

How Often Should I Repeat Keywords?

With Google SEO, repetition in long-form content matters. This is not the case with Amazon SEO. Including the most relevant keywords is the priority rather than word repetition.

What About Semantics?

Singular or plural isn’t important. Capitalization isn’t important. How the umlaut and accents are used is also not important.

There is also grace extended for misspellings. Shoppers misspell things in search, and Amazon will match these mistakes to the correct spellings. The same goes for product listings.

However, with compound words, you would include both versions or use hyphens.

Another reminder, as you go about creating a product listing, remember to align it with Amazon’s Style Guide. They have the last word on how it all should be done.

Now that we’ve covered details about fine-tuning, it’s time to go into keyword optimization structure.

Steps to Optimizing Keywords on Amazon

Now, we’ll run through the steps for keyword optimization.

• Step 1 - Backend keywords

Before you start on the product content, include as many keywords as you can in the back end (“search terms”). This helps with readability.

• Step 2 - Remaining keywords are placed in the product content

Product content consists of the title, bullet points, and the product description. Prioritize your most important keywords and compose these areas in a way that makes the listing easy to read. Reminder: repeating keywords from the backend won’t affect the ranking.

• Step 3 - Fill in additional product and keyword fields

Complete the rest of the available fields to better enable targeted search or filtered searches.

With parent-child listings (listings that are grouped with a main listing) changes made to the parent are automatically applied to the child listings. This also means that parent listing optimization efforts flow into each child listing. The parent listing can include the long-tail keywords relevant to the child listings (this increases the chances of one of the listings being found).

How You Should Not Perform Keyword Optimization

Google frowns upon keyword stuffing and so does Amazon.

Keywords are important, but they aren’t more important than readability. Keep listings organized, user-friendly, and aligned with their guidelines.

Apply these best practices as you build your product listings and you’ll set a foundation for attracting customers to you.

Continuous Improvement

Think of your group of product listings as being a store in the mall, but in the biggest mall on the planet - Amazon. As you would with a brick-and-mortar store, commit to effective management to keep your virtual store ship-shape.

Amazon commerce management entails keeping track of how well your products are performing, maintaining your product ranks, and staying on top of customer relations.

Customer Experience

To be competitive, you must have exceptional customer service. Sales do come from customers, so make a point to treat them well.

Customer Reviews

Smart shoppers are cautious shoppers. Buying decisions will make or break based on consumer feedback.

People feel at ease buying from someone with positive reviews. But sometimes (despite your best efforts) you’ll get a bad review.

You may feel defenseless against bad reviews, but the last thing you want to do is ignore them. Replies can be seen publicly, so use this opportunity to show the Amazon community how proactive you are while at the same time working out a resolution with the dissatisfied customer.

Amazon does have a review removal request process, but it’s rare to have such reviews removed. The review would have to violate Amazon’s community standards to be removed.

Never ask a user to change their review. Amazon is intent on having the most authentic reviews. Trying to influence reviews is a violation of their policies. Sometimes cooler heads will prevail once a problem has been addressed with the customer adjusting the review by their own choice.

Address the review as diplomatically as you can. Work toward a resolution to the issues and move on. The only thing you can really do to make up for a bad review is to focus on generating more positive reviews. The way to do this is by providing impeccable customer service moving forward.

Some sellers leave an insert asking for a review in the packages they send. If you decide to do this, make sure you do so in a way that is compliant with Amazon’s policies.

Answer Customer Q&A

Amazon provides a Q & A section to help customers make a final purchase decision.

The benefits from answering these questions.

1. You build rapport with customers.
2. You appear helpful to onlookers who are also shopping.
3. You provide accurate information.

Make the most of your interactions with customers as you would at a brick and mortar store. Great customer service is always good for business.

Amazon Sponsored Ads

Why would we talk about PPC? Isn’t this about organic rankings? It is, but sometimes you need a little boost to help with sales. In fact, more sales will help your organic ranking, especially when offering a new product.

PPC allows your product to get more exposure. Sponsored ads are seen prominently in search results, on product pages, and with retargeting on external websites.

Keyword strategy is also important with Amazon SEO, so be sure to include your relevant and targeted keywords.

Resorting to PPC doesn’t mean you’ve failed at Amazon organic SEO. It just means that you’re willing to do what it takes to be a successful Amazon Seller.

Product Price

If you’ve heard enough commercials, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “We won’t be undersold!” While some markets promise the lowest price as part of an aggressive competition tactic, this is not the case with Amazon.

Having the cheapest price on Amazon is not a best practice. People may suspect something is wrong with a product that is priced much lower than what they expect to pay.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should aim for the highest price either. It’s a balancing act.

Having a fair and competitive price that isn’t too low to raise suspicion is poised to get more clicks and conversions. So having the right pricing does affect your ranking.

A/B testing is a way to fine-tune your pricing decisions. After you’ve researched the market, you can do a trial of a few different prices with separate product listings and see which does better. This will give you a feel for how other similar products would fare as well.

Inventory and Stock Levels

Sellers should do their due diligence to maintain stock levels, but supply chain issues do happen.

Being out of stock isn’t likely to hurt your ranking right away, but you could see a drop in rankings if this goes on for too long.

If you anticipate that you’ll run out of stock, this is not the time to raise prices. This could hurt your CTR and CR which will affect your rankings.

Rank losses due to inventory problems can be recovered with Amazon ads once you replenish your stock.

Shipping and FBA

FBA (fulfillment by Amazon) is yet another twist in making this marketplace highly competitive. If your competitor seems impossible to beat, you may see that their listings are FBA.

With FBA you have the endorsement of Amazon and also access to Amazon Prime devotees. Some shoppers feel more comfortable knowing that Amazon has a hand in the transaction. Those who have a Prime shipping habit (because it’s so fast) will pick an FBA listing over others.

It does cost more to be an FBA seller, but to stay competitive, it may be your only hope.

External Traffic

Besides sponsored listings, what else might you do to increase Amazon sales rank? Bring in traffic from outside of Amazon.

• PPC - Yes, you can advertise with display ads outside of Amazon. This could be an interesting experiment to see how it compares to Amazon’s PPC for the best ROI.
• Social Media - Facebook and other social media platforms would love it if you brought your ad spend over to them. These ads are generally cheaper than Google Ads too.
• Email Marketing - Are you lucky enough to have a robust email list? Could you partner with an email marketer who does? An email campaign is a great way to bring people to your product page. However, this must be done the right way. No one likes SPAM.
• Influencer Marketing - Word of mouth marketing stands the test of time. Connecting with someone who has a solid following could lead to a substantial sales generation. Identifying with a specific niche is yet another innovative approach to better market your products. Social media personalities, famous bloggers, or rockstar podcasters are all capitalizing on influencer marketing.
• Company Website - Do you have an eCommerce website set up in addition to your Amazon store? Ramp up your website SEO efforts to generate traffic and direct it toward your Amazon products.

Sometimes solving a slump in sales calls for some creativity. External traffic efforts are a resourceful way to perk up your CTR, CR, and better yet, sales!

Top Tools for Amazon SEO

Are there keyword tools for Amazon selling? Of course!  

PCL loves innovative SEO tools, so this article would not be complete without this.

• Sonar - This tool is free and provides plenty of keywords (over 75 million) along with reverse ASIN lookup to research competing listings. You do need Google Chrome to use this because it’s a Chrome extension.
• JungleScout - Aside from creating enlightening YouTube content, JungleScout has a vision to create a superior Amazon selling tool. It’s made for sellers by sellers. This program uses real live Amazon data to help direct decision making for Amazon sellers. Features include a keyword research tool, product tracker (for tracking the competition), and the niche hunter (explores opportunities to expand your product offerings).
• KeywordInspector - With this paid tool, you can track trending keywords, indexation testing, and do reverse ASIN searches.

Take the time to explore your options before deciding on which tool will be your Amazon companion. If you happen to be in any Amazon seller communities, ask for recommendations.

Need Help With Your Google and Amazon SEO?

While Amazon and Google SEO have some similarities, the competition scenes are quite different. At Propellic we are fascinated with Search Engine Marketing, so we study other search engines like Amazon to gain more understanding.

Google SEO is about building long-lasting relationships rather than quick, one-time transactions. As tempting as it is to hop on the lucrative Amazon bandwagon, we’re still Team Google.

Our Google SEO clients don’t have to hand over 15% of their profits to Google. Our clients do more than build a product collection, they build brands and relationships through Google SEO. We maximize visibility by empowering our clients to rank for the most desired keywords. If you're interested in learning about how to optimize your eCommerce store, check out our most recent guide on Shopify SEO.

Propellic specializes in eCommerce SEO services to help online stores thrive within their niche. If you’re weighing options between Amazon selling or eCommerce site entrepreneurship, we’d love to chat with you. Book a free SEO strategy consultation with us!