SEO on Amazon

Amazon is the undisputed leader in e-commerce worldwide and Spain is no exception. In 2017 it tripled the turnover of Aliexpress, its closest competitor.
E-commerce in Spain is in full growth, we see this as a turning point for many companies in the online and retail sector. It is a time of opportunity and strategic decisions need to be made.
For Amazon sellers, product feeds are the backbone of their online business. If we have refined and compliant feeds with Amazon's algorithm, we will improve our SEO in the marketplace, the ranking of our products, and consequently, we will increase our sales.

Optimize product sheets

There are certain fundamental aspects that Amazon takes into account when evaluating the ranking of product cards. They are the following:

• Title of the file
• Backend keywords
• Product features
• Description
• Sales performance

Title of the file

It is essential to work well the titles of the products. We know that it can take time depending on the number of tabs, but it is certainly a necessary work. All keywords in the title are indexed on Amazon, but we must be careful and avoid exceeding 200 characters in this section or we will not have visibility.
To better guide us and have a solid structure in the title, we recommend including the following information whenever applicable:

• Brand
• Product line
• Quantity of product
• Material (one feature that stands out from the product)
• Type of product
• Color
• Etc.

Below we share three examples with different results:

1. "Kiehls - Avocado eye cream 15ml".

Here we see a short title that does not take advantage of the 200 characters available to index keywords that will position our product in searches. It would be necessary to add outstanding features, type of product, for which skin types, application time (day or night), etc... You have to put yourself in the users' shoes and think about how they will perform their searches. In this way we will increase the relevance in the results.

SQUARE POS HARDWARE BUNDLE - Star Micronics TSP143iiU USB Receipt Printer, Motorola LS2208 USB Scanner with Stand and Epsilont Cash Drawer (Black)".

In this second example we can see that the product title complies with the recommendations in terms of information, but the message is not well understood, it gives the impression that the words have been added with the sole intention of indexing keywords, without paying attention to communication with the user.

MSRM Wand Portable Document & Immage Scanner/USB Mobile Scanner Include 8G Micro SD Card Battery [Silver].

In the third case we see an article that complies with the recommended keyword indexing structure and at the same time has an understandable message. This is the optimal form recommended when creating our product titles.

In many cases the title data will come directly from the company's ERP, so we will probably have information similar to the second case. We certainly recommend making an effort to get more attractive titles for the user and suitable to Amazon's algorithm.

Backend Keywords

The backend keywords are keywords that go behind our product page, with the only intention of positioning us in organic searches. It is important to note that we must NOT exceed 249 bytes in this section or the words will not be indexed by Amazon.

How to check if your product keywords have been indexed
There are a variety of tools to check which keywords are associated with your product, one of them is Amazon KW index and Rank Tracker. It works very well and has the advantage of being free (with limited use).

Bullet Points

This is a perfect space to show the product features to the user. This section is also indexed for Amazon organic searches but only the first 1,000 bytes will be taken into account. Everything above that number will not count, but we can still take advantage of the value it has to better communicate the product.

Description

This is a section that many sellers overlook and in many occasions it is the key to close a sale. In the product description you have up to 2,000 characters to make the user fall in love. Make the most of this space, even if it does not have the best indexation levels, it is undoubtedly a differential factor for the buyer.

Sales performance

Amazon takes into consideration different KPIS to position products in the marketplace. With the most recent update, many sellers have noticed considerable drops in the ranking of their products, with no apparent explanation. This is due to the changes brought by the new algorithm.
This is the estimated weighting of the algorithm at the time of generating product rankings, going through channels, sales history and conversion rates:

• Sales History (last 180 days): 20%.
• Keyword conversion rate: 20%.
• Organic sales: 20%.
• Sales through external links: 15%.
• CTR: 10%.
• PPC sales: 5%.
• Type of seller: 5%.
• Impressions: 5%.

The new algorithm seeks to reward the performance of keywords instead of giving all the weight to the number of sales. It is also remarkable the increase of value to sales generated through external links and the reduction of relevance to sales achieved through PPC campaigns. With these new changes, even if we have active campaigns where the products sell very well, it does not mean that we will see a significant increase in the rankings, something that was seen before.

Organic sales and conversion rate have a great weight, this is why we must be increasingly relevant with our keywords and seek a clear and concise communication with the user.

For any company that produces or sells third-party products, it is important to be aware of Amazon's reach and especially to take into account the expected growth of marketplaces in the coming years. Selling on Amazon is a full-time job that if done with attention to detail and a good understanding of how its algorithm works, can undoubtedly yield great results.