If we consider only a few statistics you can understand why Amazon is a no brainer for most retail businesses.
- Amazon has over 300 million active users, including 150 million Prime members
- Amazon sells over 12 million products, excluding books and other media
- 7% of Prime members purchase something every day and on average spend twice as much as non-members
- 175 million items were purchased on Prime Day 2019 with revenue exceeding $7 billion, a 70% year on year increase
- Amazon online display ad spending was close $10 million in the days leading up to Prime Day 2019
Amazon is not only used to buy products, users visit Amazon to look for ideas, research products and compare prices. With everything under one roof it is a marketers and analysts dream, we are truly talking about Big Data and we know how Amazon have used this to their benefit over the years!
Broadly speaking there are three main Amazon marketing channels:
- Amazon SEO
- Amazon Advertising
- External Advertising
This post will focus on getting the basics (SEO) right. Amazon Advertising which is becoming more competitive and complex day by day deserves individual attention and will be covered in future posts.
Before you begin one must understand that Amazon is a buying platform, making it different from Google and Bing. The main objective of the Amazon algorithm is to help users search for a product.
While the algorithmic factors are not explicitly defined they can be broadly categorised under two headings, relevance and performance. Relevance focusses on keywords and the quality of your listing. For performance, the algorithm tries to assess purchase likelihood based on how well your product has performed in the past. To do this the algorithm looks at metrics such as search click through rate (CTR) and conversion rate (CR) on the product page.
Relevance will centre around keywords, so it is important to research prior to starting work on your listing. At this stage input is required from your teams but us digital marketers can add real value too! Aside from experience and utilising free tools such as Google Keyword Planner, other paid tools such as Helium 10 and Merchant Words can help to find keywords specific for Amazon listings.
You must also remember that your sales copy should be persuasive and include text to help sell your product. So how do we ensure our listing is relevant and the best sales copy?
Let’s start with product titles, products with clear and detailed information are more likely to earn a higher click-through-rate and convert. The increase in sales will ultimately lead to better ranking but don’t be tempted to add too many keywords as this will negatively impact your quality score and ranking.
Above is a good example of a title, it includes the brand name, compatibility with model number, colour, finish, material and keywords.
You must find a balance with the length of the title, a maximum of 200 characters is allowed (including spaces) but put the important information at the beginning as mobile is limited to around 70 characters.
Each word should start with a capital letter (definitely not all caps), focus on the benefits and avoid adding information which is not relevant. For example, do not mention the colour if it does not come in multiple colours or no need to mention the size if it is not relevant.
From an Amazon requirement perspective you should not include characters for decoration, such as ~ ! * $ ? _ ~ { } # < > | * ; ^ ¬ ¦ and the heading should not include promotional phrases, such as “free shipping” or “50% off”.
The title formulae will vary for each product depending on the category it falls under, Amazon style guides are a useful resource to get you started.
The second important part of your product listing is the key features section which should be in bullet point format. All Amazon users rely heavily on these bullet points to gather product information. The more descriptive the bullet points for your product pages are, the more you will sell, and the more you sell, the higher your product will rank!
Here are a few best practice tips:
- Highlight the top features that you want your customers to know
- Be specific with product features and attributes, being vague will not give customers confidence
- Begin each bullet point with a capital letter
- Spell out measurements, such as quart, inch, or feet
- Write all numbers as numerals
Similar to the product title rules, pay attention to the content which Amazon prohibit. This section is for product features so do not include promotional, pricing, shipping or company information.
Below is an example of a well-built out key product feature section:
The third aspect of your product listing is the detailed description, it doesn’t directly impact rank but it is indexed and will improve search visibility. Additionally, well-written copy with a strong call to action can certainly have a positive effect on conversions.
Product descriptions are typically a few paragraphs long and require some light HTML. You should avoid duplicating the bullet points and provide as much additional information as possible telling a story about the product. Make it easy to read with a maximum three lines per paragraph and use correct grammar, punctuation, and complete sentences.
Essentially, try to work all the keywords from the master list you compiled at the start within the product listing title, key product features bullet points and product description.
Let’s not forget Amazon backend search terms as they also play a crucial role in Amazon SEO. These keywords are not visible to the customer but still count towards the search terms. In other words it is a place where you can add keywords and phrases missing from your product page listing.
I am a big fan of this as it reduces those keyword stuffed titles and descriptions which are not always helpful for the user!
When you input backend keywords, it is important to note the limit. Amazon limits your backend keywords to 250 bytes, not 250 characters. This is an important distinction because different characters are composed of varying bytes sizes. For A-Z and 0-9, it is one byte for each letter or number whereas a symbol like “ü” is two bytes and a symbol like “£” is 3 bytes.
Relevance and performance go hand in hand and a great example of this is images. Attractive, high-quality product images are important for a product’s ranking because they can significantly improve the click through rate and conversion rate.
Customers are more likely to click on an engaging main image. The Amazon algorithm is capable of checking if images obey the guidelines and penalise non-compliant images.
- Main images should have a pure white background
- Images should be a minimum 1,000 x 1,000 pixels
- Images must not exceed 10,000 pixels on the longest side
- Amazon accepts JPEG (.jpg), TIFF (.tif) or GIF (.gif) file formats, but JPEG is preferred
- Adding zoomable images will greatly improve the customers experience
The main image should also be supplemented with additional images showing different sides of a product, it’s uses or main features. People need to see products from different angles to get a better sense of how the products look. Images are a great way to build confidence and trust with your customers.
Once you get the keywords and content right there are three other areas which require ongoing optimisation to improve your performance and consequently your ranking.
Reviews: If sales are king, product reviews are queen! I for one always scroll down to the bottom to check the reviews and rating before making a purchasing decision. More (and higher) customer ratings will help you stand out on a crowded page and work in your favour when customers filter results. The keywords customers use in their reviews can also increase your product’s text match relevancy.
As a seller there are two aspects to take care of, the number of product reviews and the review rating.
One of the best tactics to increasing the quantity of reviews is to follow-up via email to users that recently purchased the product and simply ask for a review. You can also ask for reviews with packaging inserts and incentivise customers with voucher codes or promotional offers.
Negative reviews and poor ratings is what often concerns people the most. Ultimately the best way to improve your rating is to provide the best product and customer service! But make sure you engage with your customers, commenting on and replying to reviews will give you a voice and help build trust.
Product availability: Being low or out of inventory greatly penalises search positioning. Keep track of your sales and make sure to adjust your inventory accordingly for seasonal trends.
Price: The price you set relative to your competitors will be a factor in your search ranking. All other things being equal the product with the lowest price will sell the most and thus rank the highest. Of course in reality it is not as simple as that.
You have to consider your product positioning, features, quality, market and ultimately you want to make money. Although Amazon is all about getting a great deal you should not get carried away. Landing on the right price is not easy but do not heavily discount versus a high original price, this does not instil confidence in the shopper.
Make sure you are pricing against comparable products, some may look or claim to be the same but are not of the same quality or have the same features.
For items that are not trying to compete on price, such as luxury goods, build the brand and image. High quality captivating images, informative descriptions and a compelling story will help differentiate your product.
Amazon SEO is an ongoing process and I encourage all my clients to consider undertaking an audit prior to key dates such as Prime Day and Black Friday – be prepared well in advance!
Whether you are an existing seller or looking to start selling via Amazon get in touch to ensure you are making the most of your Amazon listings and maximising your conversion rates.
- Content: creating and enhancing your listing content
- Keywords: adding and optimising the keywords of your listing
- Maintenance: ongoing optimisation after your listing is live
Remember, even an increase of a few percent in the conversion rate can make a huge difference!