How to Rank Your Amazon Product Listing Higher onto the 1st Page to Capture More Sales
- William Ferrer
- Mar 4, 2019
- 9 min read
Updated: Mar 6, 2019
GUIDE OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
It's no secret that higher ranked product listings generate more sales than lower ranked listings.
One of the reasons for this is that higher ranked listings are more visible to customers which create more opportunities to make a sale.
An analogy I could use is that a high rank is equivalent to being placed front and center for everybody to see while a low rank is equivalent to being hidden all the way in the back where few people go.
Ranking as high as possible is extremely important as only 30% of users click past the first page of search results according to a market research study done by Millward Brown Digital. If you rank in the second page or lower, you're listing is missed by 70% of customers.
What you need to know:
When customers perform a search, they don't want to spend a large amount of time looking through search results, they're more likely to just click on the listings they see, if customers can't see your product, you're not going to get any sales.
What you also need to know:
Amazon's search engine operates differently than other web search engines such as Google's.
Most web search engines are designed to search for relevant information while Amazon's search engine was designed to search for relevant products to sell.
Keywords do play a role in Amazon's ranking algorithm, but they are of lesser importance.
Traditional SEO tactics such as building backlinks, search term variations, or keyword density don't apply to Amazon listings. I'll explain why.
Google's ranking algorithm uses external factors such as external links, site authority, and site history.
Amazon's ranking algorithm primarily uses internal factors such as customer feedback, keywords placed in the title and backend, user interaction, and sales performance to name a few.
Here's what Marc Delingat, Head of Amazon Search has to say about Amazons' ranking algorithm:
"We continuously evaluate {ranking algorithm) using human judgments, programmatic analysis, key business metrics, and performance metrics."
What you need to know.
Amazon is a marketplace so the primary goal of its ranking algorithm is to maximize sales.
It does so by presenting relevant products to customers in order of which they are most likely to buy.
Here's what Marc Delingat also has to say:
"Once we determine which items are good matches to the customer's query, our ranking algorithms score them to present the most relevant results to the user."
Upcoming, I'll be sharing with you the steps to score higher on Amazon's algorithm.
STEP #1: INCREASE TOTAL SALES
Your total sales history is the biggest factor in Amazon's ranking algorithm.
The more sales your listing has made, the higher your rank will be.
Amazon places the most importance on sales above all other factors because as I mentioned before, Amazon is a marketplace, and the primary goal of a marketplace is to maximize sales.
For example, A listing with 100 total sales and 1 keyword will rank higher than a listing with 100 keywords and only 1 total sale.
Whenever your listing produces a sale, you're proving to Amazon that your product can make money for them. The more sales your listing has, the stronger the proof will be.
As a result, Amazon's ranking algorithm will award your listing with a higher rank which will continue to climb with more sales.
In an effort to maximize sales, Amazon awards the listings which have generated the most sales with the highest rank because they have proven to be the best money makers.
This is the reason why best sellers always rank at the top of the list.
The lesson: Increase your total sales = higher rank
You can increase your sales with:
Competitive pricing/ lower price
Promotions and discounts
Optimizing your listing
STEP #2: IMPROVE CONVERSATION RATE
Conversion is another big factor in Amazon's ranking algorithm.
We can define conversion as the act of customers clicking onto a listing and then proceeding to make a purchase. In other words, conversion is the ability of a listing to convert lookers into buyers.
The better your listing can convert customers, the better your rank will be.
You can track your conversion performance by looking at your listing's conversion rate.
Your listing's conversion rate is calculated by dividing numbers of sales by number of visits.
For example, if 10 customers visited your listing and 5 of them went on to make a purchase, your conversion rate would be 50%.
When your listing converts a looker into a buyer, you're proving to Amazon that customers like what they see and go on to buy your product.
As a result, Amazon will award your listing with a higher rank which will continue to climb along with a higher conversion rate.
The lesson: Improve your conversion rate = improve your rank
You can improve your conversion rate with:
Persuasive sales copy
Attractive product Images
Competitive pricing/ lower price
Positive customer reviews (4 stars or higher)
Customer support (service, warranty, guarantees)
STEP #3: INCREASE SALES VELOCITY
Sales velocity is another critical factor of search rank.
Sales velocity can be defined as the rate of sales within a specified time period. Amazon measures your listing's sales velocity within a daily, weekly, and monthly period.
In other words, sales velocity is a means to measure how much your product is in demand at the present moment.
The purpose of sales velocity is to find currently in-demand products and award them with a higher rank to maximize sales.
It's important to note that an increased sales velocity can occur due to a number of reasons, common reasons include:
Seasonal trends
Pop culture trends
Fashion trends
Lower prices
Sales discounts
An example of a seasonal trend is that Christmas products will be in higher demand during the Christmas season in December and will see an increase in sales velocity during the month.
An example of a pop culture trend is that Star Wars related products will see an increase in sales velocity whenever a new Star Wars movie comes out.
Lower prices or sales discounts will also increase your sales velocity because as the law of demand teaches us, lower prices = higher demand.
The lesson: Increase your sales velocity = increase your rank
To recap, you can increase your sales velocity with:
Lower prices
Sales discounts
Timing the sale of products to compliment trends
STEP #4: FILL UP ON KEYWORDS
According to Amazon:
"Customers search by entering keywords, which are matched against the information (title, description etc.) you provide for a product."
"By providing relevant and complete information for your product, you can increase your product's visibility and sales."
In other words, it's the seller's responsibility to fill up their listing with keywords to tell Amazon what their product is and how it should be found.
Keyword work is both a science and an art.
The science is in finding high volume keywords, the art is figuring out which keywords are relevant to your product and appropriately placing them in your listing.
You place your best keywords in the title section, second best in the bullet points, and third best in the backend section.
In the title section, there's a 200-250 character limit. Fill up as much of that character limit with keywords as possible while maintaining a title that's still understandable and interesting to customers.
Place as many keywords as possible in the bullet points section while maintaining a description that's still understandable and appealing to customers.
In the backend section, there's a 249 bytes limit total for all 5 search fields as of October 2018. I recommend using up as much of that byte limit as possible with relevant keywords.
I do have to emphasize the use of relevant keywords to drive relevant traffic to your listing,
There's no point of using irrelevant keywords to index in more queries.
Even though your listing may appear in more searches, customers won't be compelled to buy your product because it wasn't the product they were looking for.
Your conversion rate will suffer which in turn will negatively affect your search rank.
The lesson: Fill up your listing with as many relevant keywords as possible while avoiding keyword stuffing.
STEP #5: GAIN MORE POSITIVE REVIEWS
Customer reviews play an active role in ranking.
The more positive (4 stars or higher) customer reviews your listing has, the higher its rank will be.
Reviews function as a social signal to determine whether your product is good or not on Amazon's ranking algorithm.
Positive reviews show Amazon that your product is good. Negative reviews (2 stars or lower ) shows Amazon that your product is bad.
Every time your listing gains a positive review, you're proving to Amazon that customers like your product.
In an effort to maximize sales with likable products, Amazon will award your listing with a higher rank.
Reviews also function as a form of social proof to customers and have a significant influence on your conversion rate. Positive reviews prove to customers that your product is good while negative reviews prove to customers that your product is bad.
When customers see proof (positive reviews) that your product is good, they will be more likely to buy your product. As a result, you will see an increase in your conversion rate and will be awarded a higher rank.
Th lesson: Gain more positive reviews = gain a higher rank
Other factors such as:
Good quality control
Good packaging to prevent damage
Good customer service
Delivering on time
also contribute to positive reviews
STEP #6: RUN A PPC CAMPAIGN
If you're launching a new product or you're selling in a highly competitive category, you will find it difficult to rank high organically.
In these situations, you should strongly consider running a PPC campaign to artificially boost your rank.
The reason new listings have a difficult time ranking high is they have low or no sales.
Low or no sales produce a low score on Amazon's ranking algorithm. As a result, new listings are given a low rank.
If you're selling in a highly competitive category, it's difficult to rank high because competition is fierce. In other words, you have to beat more sellers to get to the top.
In both instances, it may take a while to surpass listings ranked ahead of you.
Running a PPC campaign is a great way to instantly surpass other listings. You do of course have to pay for the privilege.
But you should think of it as a temporary expense towards jumpstarting a positive feedback loop towards ranking high organically. I'll explain why.
With a PPC campaign comes more sessions, with more sessions comes more sales. With more sales comes the award of a higher rank, and the positive feedback loop continues as more sessions lead to more sales which leads to a higher rank and so on.
Once you've generated enough sales from your PPC campaign, your listing will rank high organically without the need to run another PPC campaign.
The lesson: Use PPC to jumpstart your climb to the top.
STEP #7: PRICE COMPETITIVELY
To score higher on Amazon's ranking algorithm, you will need to price your listing competitively (same price or lower vs. competitors).
As I mentioned before at the beginning of this guide, Amazon ranks listings in order of which customers are most likely to buy. One of the factors that determine that order is predicted conversion rates.
Your predicted conversion rate is basically Amazon trying to calculate how well your listing can convert sales.
One of the factors Amazon uses to calculate your predicted conversion rate is your price. Amazon compares your listing's price with the price of other competing listings.
Amazon knows that shoppers are always looking to find the best possible deal. As such, they know that lower prices lead to better conversions.
They're taking a lesson from the law of demand, lower prices = higher demand.
If you're selling the same product as other sellers, It's also important to know that price is one of the main factors in determining which listings are featured in the buy box.
The buy box is the white box on the right side of listings where customers add items to their cart.
To improve your chances of being featured in the buy box, you need to price your listing competitively. It's a worthwhile endeavor as 82% of Amazon sales go through the buy box.
The lesson: price competitively to score a higher rank.
STEP #8: HAVE SUFFICIENT INVENTORY
Amazon knows that customers hate it when they want to buy a product but it's not available. It makes them feel frustrated, mad, and disappointed.
How this problem occurs is when a listing runs out of stock.
To avoid disappointing customers, Amazon's ranking algorithm may drop a listing's rank if it believes it doesn't have sufficient inventory to meet demand.
To avoid having your rank dropped, you need to make sure you have enough inventory at all times.
And this concludes our guide,
If you could only take one lesson away from this video it should be this,
Amazon primarily cares about maximizing sales. To rank high, you need to maximize sales.
Here's what Amazon has to say:
"Factors such as price, availability, selection, and sales history help determine where your product appears in a customer's search results. In general, better-selling products tend to be towards the beginning of the results list. As your sales of a product increase, so does your placement."
This concludes our short and simple Amazon listing optimization guide.
WORK WITH ME, CLICK THE LINK: https://www.fiverr.com/share/ER7DY
To learn more, read my other guide “How to Optimize Your Amazon Listing in 11 Simple Steps to Increase Your Sales.” <-- CLICK THE LINK.
Scroll down to watch the video version.
Comments