Amazon can be a highly lucrative marketplace — as long as customers can find your products among its massive inventories. As luck has it, it’s possible to create an impactful Amazon SEO strategy that pulls your listings out of the crowd and puts them in front of an audience. You just need to understand how the platform’s algorithm approaches rankings. By aligning your product descriptions with Amazon’s goals, you can boost your visibility and even persuade audiences that they need your products.
What’s Amazon’s A9 Algorithm All About?
Amazon’s A9 algorithm is always working hard behind the scenes, analyzing product listings and determining where they should appear in search results. You might hear the algorithm referred to as Amazon A10, as there have been updates. But no matter what you call it, the system’s ultimate goal is to keep consumers happy by matching them to the products they’re most likely to buy.
Indexing
The first step in any Amazon SEO strategy is to ensure your listing is properly indexed. Amazon organizes listings by keywords so it can serve up relevant items when users perform a search.
Invest time in comprehensive keyword research to learn which phrases customers use to find your product and include those search terms in your copy. We delve into some Amazon keyword tips later in the article.
Organic ranking
Organic ranking refers to where you’re placed in any given Amazon search as a result of the algorithm. The system considers factors such as keywords, sales, conversion rates, customer reviews, pricing, and availability. It also leverages artificial intelligence to recommend products based on behavior and browsing history, with machine learning improving results over time.
**Also, https://twitter.com/HimanshiRaj5721/status/1716514138262839781
A strong product page with an engaging product description is critical to gaining traction in the rankings. The more people who are swayed by your listing and buy your product after doing a specific search, the higher your organic ranking for that keyword.
“Satisfy the consumer by providing a great digital shelf experience, top to bottom,” explained Mike Black, CMO of Profitero. “This means maximizing product availability, traffic, and conversion.”
Having a compelling product page with product descriptions that engage is critical to ranking organically on Amazon. Click to Tweet
Best seller ranking (BSR)
Amazon also highlights top-selling products for specific search terms to help boost sales. This is a form of social proof — if you see thousands of other customers snatching up a certain product, you’ll probably take a closer look at the item.
You only appear in BSR results based on your sales, which is another reason to invest time in creating killer product descriptions that help convert. While your overall sales numbers are considered, recent transactions carry more weight — and sales from organic searches carry more weight than those generated through paid ads. Note that page views and reviews aren’t included in BSR rankings — this ranking is all about successful purchases.
Researching Amazon Keywords
Most Amazon journeys start with a search, so let’s make sure your listing can be discovered. Play detective and dig up the keywords customers type into the search bar.
Keyword research tools are the Watson to your Sherlock, pulling up keyword ideas in seconds. Some platforms, such as SECockpit, draw suggestions from a variety of search engines, including Amazon, and can be useful for a broader digital marketing strategy. You can also use Amazon-specific tools, such as Semrush’s Instant Keyword Research for Amazon or AMZScout.
For example, to get insight into the keywords other products are targeting, head over to AMZScout’s Reverse ASIN lookup tool. Enter the product’s 10-digit Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN). The tool will serve up a list of indexed search terms for that product, along with the search volume and relevance score.
You can also research popular keywords for your niche using another AMZScout tool, Amazon Keyword Search. For example, if you’re selling books on Amazon, plug in “books for kids” to find relevant keywords and monthly search volumes:
Finally, AMZScout’s Keyword Tracker helps you monitor how your listings and competing listings rank for certain keywords. This helps you track your performance and focus on improving listings that are missing the mark.
Amazon keyword tips
During your keyword research, you’ll run across short-tail and long-tail keywords:
- A short-tail keyword is a broad search term consisting of a single word or a few words, such as “ice pack”
- A long-tail keyword is more than a few words long and has precise search intent, such as “ice pack for injuries”
Use a mix of short- and long-tail keywords so your product is indexed for both types of searches. Relevant long-tail keywords are used less often by searchers, but they can sometimes be easier to rank for, and they can help you attract buyers with a clear idea of the type of item they want.
A well-established product on Amazon can be ranked with thousands or even tens of thousands of keywords. Because you have limited space in your listing, you can’t be expected to include every possible search term. Pick the keywords most relevant to your product and those with a reasonable monthly search volume to generate traffic. Use a higher volume keyword as your primary keyword and include it in the all-important product title. Place secondary keywords in your listing copy.
Product Listing Optimization
SEO for Amazon is only partly about the algorithm. Customers aren’t interested in keywords, but they do want to know whether a product suits their needs. Help them make their decision with a rich product listing that’s lively, descriptive, informative, and crafted for human readers.
If you can craft a strong, compelling product listing, it won’t take long for users to be drawn to the magic “add to cart” button. Nearly 30% of Amazon purchases are completed in 3 minutes or less.
Product title
The product title is one of the main ways Amazon determines the relevance of your product for indexing. When you write your title, include your most important high-search-volume keywords, and ensure they’re arranged in a somewhat understandable order. Most Amazon product titles don’t really make sense in terms of syntax or grammar, but they effortlessly convey what the product is.
Although you can write longer titles, Amazon recommends 60 to 80 characters — after that, they can be difficult to read. Avoid writing in all caps, abbreviate measurements, and use numerals instead of writing out numbers.
Bullet points
Bullet points give readers a quick overview of key product features. You can include up to five bullet points totaling 1,000 characters. This provides ample room to naturally fit keywords, but remember to strike a balance and make sure the copy is inviting.
Write a short phrase summarizing each feature at the start of the bullet using capital letters, lines, or brackets to draw attention to them. Follow this with a sentence or two providing detail or elaborating on the benefit.
Product description
The product description is the spot for additional details that aren’t included in your bullets but are important for the customer to know. It could be a list of product specs or aspirational copy that persuades a customer their life isn’t complete without your item. A well-crafted product description can help drive sales, which boosts your organic ranking in the long run.
The product description is limited to 2,000 characters and must be written in HTML. You can enter all your markup manually with tags for bold, bullets, and paragraphs, or you can paste your copy into a free online text to HTML translator.
Optimized sizing charts
One of the biggest challenges for online consumers is determining whether the clothing or shoes they’re eyeing will fit. Fortunately, Amazon is always looking for ways to make it easier for customers to shop.
In early 2024, the marketplace announced it’s leveraging AI and machine learning to provide personalized sizing guidance to customers. By analyzing brand size charts, reviews, purchases, and returns, the marketplace can now recommend the best-fitting size for a particular customer.
Sellers can benefit by using Amazon’s new Fit Insights Tool to improve product listings. Available through the Seller Central dashboard, this tool provides:
- Feedback on your size charts based on customer expectations
- Analysis of your product return rate compared to similar products
- A summary of customer insights, both positive and negative
You can use this information to see which of your listings need improvement and better address customer concerns. This can enhance user experience, reduce your product return rate, and lift your overall sales.
Backend keywords
At this point, you should have search terms from your keyword research that you haven’t used — after all, your product listing should be sleek and engaging and not stuffed with keywords. These additional search terms might include abbreviations, spelling variations, and alternate product names. You can input these keywords into the backend for indexing purposes. The backend is only for the algorithm and isn’t visible to readers.
Previously, backend keywords were limited to 250 bytes of text. In 2024, Amazon increased backend keywords to 500 characters, giving you more space to highlight keywords. There’s no need to worry about grammar or punctuation. Simply copy in keywords you weren’t able to include in the rest of the listing.
Maximizing Your Amazon SEO Strategy
We’ve covered the basic elements of an effective listing, but with so much competition for customers, every advantage helps. Ramp up your efforts and explore additional Amazon SEO tips below to maximize your online presence.
Provide great visuals
Visuals help customers get a better sense of your product. Amazon recommends including six images and one video in a listing to fully leverage the media. Show the item from different angles, provide close-ups of details or features, and wrap up with some images of happy customers using the product.
Make sure photos are well-lit and clearly focused on the product. Backgrounds should be simple or plain white so they don’t distract from the item. Use descriptive image file names and alt-text to help Amazon and Google understand and index the page.
Leverage A+ content
Some sellers and vendors have access to A+ Content, previously known as Enhanced Brand Content. Use this Amazon tool to create rich and visually appealing listings. You can provide in-depth content or charts to engage users, upload photos to play with mood and tone, and edit layout. This customization can elevate your product, setting it apart from regular listings and increasing sales by up to 8%.
Encourage reviews
Follow up with your customers and encourage them to leave reviews to help build credibility and establish your seller authority. Respond to reviews and work to resolve problems so customers are assured that your business is trustworthy and you deliver quality service.
Use your brand name
It might seem counterintuitive to include a brand name in your listing if your business isn’t well known. However, it’s good practice to include it at the beginning of your title. You’ll avoid a situation where someone searches for your product by brand name but can’t find it — or worse, finds competing listings instead.
Don’t forget about Google
So far, our focus has been on optimizing your listings for Amazon’s search engine, but let’s not forget the other internet giant. Google crawls the Amazon website as if it’s any other site. Follow SEO best practices for high-quality content to help your product listings gain exposure on Google and send more traffic to your Amazon pages.
- Perform keyword research, although most of the search terms you’ll dig up are likely similar to Amazon’s
- Place keywords prominently in the page title, bulleted list, and image alt-text
- Evaluate the top-ranking pages for the Google search terms you want to rank for and make sure your listing is better
Drive Results on Amazon With Optimized Product Descriptions
If you sell products on Amazon, a well-crafted product listing — fueled by the right keywords — helps your brand shine and gives users the confidence to purchase. To make an impact, your listings should be visually appealing, informative, and aligned with the customer’s needs. Learn how Crowd Content’s product description writers can bring your Amazon SEO strategy to life, creating exceptional copy that impresses your reader and helping you crush your sales goals.
