Mastering Amazon SEO: How to Rank on Page One of Amazon Search

Introduction

If you sell online, you probably sell on Amazon. If not, you have likely considered it. After all, Amazon is the most powerful ecommerce website in the U.S. According to Statista, more than two billion people visit the platform each month. That’s 25% of the world’s population.

A few years ago, selling on Amazon was relatively easy. All you had to do was list products, advertise them, and watch the sales roll in. However, times have changed. Amazon has become a crowded marketplace with an estimated 2.5 million active sellers and growing. With this kind of competition, it takes hard work to generate meaningful revenue.

Amazon is more than a marketplace; it’s a giant search engine. Three out of four customers now begin their shopping search on Amazon. To drive sales, customers first need to find your products. Then, when they land on your product detail pages, the content needs to convert. While this might seem obvious in theory, many sellers underestimate its importance. Instead, they rush through the product listing process and dive right into advertising – only to quickly discover that their campaigns are costing more than they are earning.

The old adage that “Content is King” is especially true on Amazon. We’ve assembled this guide to explain exactly how content can make or break your success as an Amazon seller, along with insider secrets that will help your product detail pages stand out from your competition.

Let’s get started.

PART TWO

Understanding the Power of Content on Amazon

Selling on Amazon is all about winning the search bar. Products on the first page of the search results get at least 80% of all clicks, while the first three listings get at least 60% (Jungle Scout).

To rank at the top of Page One, you need to know how the Amazon A10 algorithm works. Some might call this a Catch-22, considering the retail giant is highly protective of this trade secret. But it’s not necessary to solve the mystery of Amazon’s algorithm to use it to your advantage. You just need a basic understanding of its key components.

The Secrets of the Amazon Algorithm

Algorithms are precise sequences of instructions implemented using programming languages. There are three basic stages of an algorithm: data input, data processing, and data output. The processing stage is the heart of any algorithm and includes the predefined rules that are used to produce the final results. In Amazon’s case, the results are where your product ranks on the search results for a particular set of keywords.

It’s important to remember that Amazon values customer experience above all else. When a customer searches for a product, Amazon wants to display the one that is most likely to result in a purchase and customer satisfaction. This item will win the highest organic placement at the top of Page One. The product with the next best chance of delighting a customer will rank second, and so on.

To determine which products a customer is most likely to purchase and enjoy, Amazon analyzes a multitude of factors, including (but not limited to):

• Product Rank: This metric measures the sales performance of a product against similar products in that category.
• Sales Velocity: The number and dollar amount of a seller’s transactions during any given month.
• Keyword Relevancy: The use of keywords in your product listings that match the terms used by customers when searching for similar products.
• Listing Traffic: The volume of customers visiting your product detail pages.
• Price Competitiveness: The price of your products compared to similar ones.
• Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors to your product detail pages who have completed a purchase.
• Detail Page View Rate: The percent of shoppers who clicked on your product listing and viewed its content for at least one second.
• Inventory MGMT: How well you maintain inventory levels during any given time.
• Fulfillment Method: Amazon tends to give placement priority to products that are enrolled in FBA compared to products enrolled in FBM.
• Customer Reviews: The amount and quality of customer feedback on your product detail pages.
• Average Star Ratings: The amount of one to five-star customer ratings on your product detail pages.

Next, Amazon assigns a level of importance to each factor. For example, the number and quality of customer reviews might be slightly more important than the amount of traffic to a product detail page. This is the most highly debated part of Amazon’s algorithm. Ask ten different “experts” and you will get ten different answers. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. All of these factors are important and your goal as a seller should be to excel in each one.

Finally, Amazon analyzes your “score” based how well you rank in each of these areas compared to similar products. This is how Amazon will determine where your product listing appears in the search results. If you outperform your competitors in most of the factors that Amazon’s algorithm uses, you’ll likely appear at the top of Page One.

The Amazon Seller Flywheel

Winning the Amazon algorithm is no simple feat – especially for brands that are new to the platform. It works much like a flywheel. To generate sales, you need reviews. To get reviews, you need conversions. To get conversions, you need traffic. To get traffic, you need – well, you get it.

Powering the flywheel is difficult in the beginning, which is why brands usually rank low in the search results when they first join the marketplace. However, after time and effort, turning the flywheel gets easier. It is designed to power itself on its own momentum. The more sales you get, the more reviews you receive, the more traffic you generate, and on and on. This is how you rise in the ranks of organic search.

Remember: it’s not about any one metric. It’s about how you perform in every aspect of Amazon, from your product detail pages to inventory management to customer service. Amazon measures everything on its platform, so you need to excel in every area possible. Prove to Amazon that your products will consistently delight their customers and you will win the algorithm.

The Role of Content

Now that we’ve covered the importance of Amazon’s algorithm and how it powers the flywheel, it’s time to go over the essential role that content plays in this process. In many respects, content is the most important aspect of your marketplace presence. It is the foundation of your product listings.

To really grasp the value of content on Amazon, let’s walk through a typical customer journey. First, a consumer visits Amazon and types something into the search bar. Next, Amazon processes its algorithm to display the search results. The customer then clicks on a product and is taken to its detail page. The information contained on this page will determine whether the customer purchases your product or reverts to the search results to continue browsing.

This last step means the difference between success and failure on Amazon. You can spend thousands of dollars a day driving traffic to your product detail pages, but if the content on those pages doesn’t convert customers, you’re wasting money. Not only that, but your conversion rate will sink, which tells Amazon that customers are not interested in your product. Therefore, it will drop further in the search results.

We’ll explore best practices for creating effective product detail pages in the next chapter. For now, burn this into your brain: the quality of your content directly impacts the momentum of the Amazon flywheel. If you want to outsell your competitors, value content above all else.

PART THREE

Creating Product Detail Pages that Sell

Shoppers can’t physically inspect your products on Amazon the way they can in brick-and-mortar stores. Instead, they rely on your detail pages. This is where customers learn more about your brand and decide whether to make a purchase. Product detail pages can contain three main types of content: copywriting, graphics, and multimedia. In this chapter, we’ll break down the different sections of a product detail page and outline the best practices for creating them.

How to Create Amazon Product Titles that Drive Traffic

The product title is the first thing shoppers see when they visit your product page. It’s also the most important. Product titles should be clear and descriptive. Amazon uses the words in product titles to display your products in search results. It’s important to include your most important keywords at the beginning of your product title, such as your brand name. You also want to include other relevant keywords, but don’t overdo it. Keep your product titles around 200 characters. Other optimization recommendations include the following:

• Capitalize the first letter of each word
• Do not capitalize conjunctions (and, or, for), articles (the, a, an), or prepositions with fewer than five letters (in, on, over, with)
• Use numerals (2 instead of two)
• State the number of items in a bundled product (pack of 10)
• Use only standard text; special characters or symbols like © will not display in the title
• Do not include price and quantity
• Do not use ALL CAPS
• Do not include promotional messages, such as “sale” or “free shipping”
• Use your seller name as the Brand or Manufacturer only if your product is Private Label
• Do not include subjective commentary, such as “Hot Item” or “Best Seller”

Amazon Product Bullet Points That Increase Desire

The second most important part of your product listing is the list of bullet points. This is where you describe the unique features and benefits of your product. Your bullets should include keywords and keyword phrases – especially in the first three points. Most categories allow up to five. Strong bullet points highlight the product’s features and benefits with clear, honest language. Use the following guidelines to increase customer interest in your product:

• Keep each bullet point between 150 and 250 characters
• Highlight the top five features that you want customers to consider
• Begin each bullet point with a capital letter
• Write in fragments and do not include ending punctuation
• Write all numbers as numerals
• Separate phrases in one bullet with semicolons
• Spell out measurements, such as quart, inch, or feet
• Do not use hyphens, symbols, periods, or exclamation points
• Do not write vague statements; be as specific as possible with product features and attributes
• Do not include promotional and pricing information
• Do not include shipping, seller, or company-specific information

Best Practices for Amazon Product Images

Many sellers underestimate the importance of product images on Amazon. Compelling product images give customers a better sense of what they will receive. Amazon allows seven images for each product detail page. Your images should showcase as much information about your product as possible. This can include different angles, infographics showing benefits and features, size and dimension charts, and lifestyle images that show your product in real-life situations. Use the following guidelines to optimize your product images for better customer experience:

• Use pure white backgrounds
• Make sure images are at least 1,000 dpi so they remain clear when customers zoom
• Show the entire product, and make sure the product occupies at least 80% of the image area
• Include only what the customer will receive. If your image includes any of the following elements, you may receive a quality alert on your listing:
• Borders, watermarks, text, or other decorations
• Colored backgrounds
• Drawings or sketches of the product
• Accessories or products not included in the offer
• Image placeholders, such as “no image available” text
• Promotional text, such as “SALE” or “free shipping”
• Multiple colors of the same product

Using Videos to Optimize Amazon Product Pages

Nine out of ten shoppers say product videos are helpful in the decision process, according to HubSpot. Including videos on your Amazon product pages is a powerful way to increase conversions. Like copywriting and graphics, Amazon product videos should showcase the product in a way that builds purchase intent. The following are the two most common types of Amazon product videos:

• Product Display Videos: These are simple videos that show the product and its unique features and benefits. They often include a model holding or wearing the product. As the camera focuses on different parts of the product, descriptive text shows on the screen.
• Product Lifestyle Videos: These videos show the product in use. This helps the customer visualize how the product would fit into their way of life. These type of videos also inform and educate customers about your brand story.

Creating Amazon product videos takes time and resources, but it will pay off. According to some data, product videos can increase conversion rate by 80%. Below are a few recommended best practices to help your product videos increase sales:

• Keep Amazon product videos between 30 and 60 seconds
• Upload files in the highest quality available
• Product videos can be .mov or .mp4 files
• Include a compelling product video thumbnail
• Do not include web links, URLs, or calls to action that direct the customer away from the product detail page

Channel Key Takeaway

Your product detail page is the most important factor in your conversion rate on Amazon. This is where shoppers decide whether to buy your product. Sellers with incomplete product pages miss out on sales. Strong copywriting, graphics, and multimedia will help convert page visitors into customers. Pay close attention to your product titles. Write clear, descriptive bullet points. Include a variety of high-quality images and videos. Together, this information will increase purchase intent and drive more sales.

PART FOUR

Optimizing Your Product Detail Pages

One of the biggest mistakes Amazon sellers make is not continuing to optimize and manage their product listings. Many brands build their product detail pages and then forget about them. Content optimization and management is an ongoing task on Amazon. It takes time and effort to ensure your products are always visible and convert customers. Here are a few reasons why you should continue to manage and optimize your product pages:

• Sometimes your product pages will revert to old drafts. This happens more often with Hybrid accounts. If your product page reverts to a previous draft, you will miss out on the most recent optimizations you made until you update the product page.
• Keyword research is ongoing. As you discover new keywords that your customers are using to find your products, add them to your product pages. If there are keywords that do not fit organically into the main copy of your product detail pages, include them in the backend.
• Make sure your listings are always up to date. If your brand modifies a product, don’t forget to reflect these changes in your content.
• As your brand releases new products, you will need to create new product listings. This includes optimized product titles, bullet points, graphics, and keywords.
• Amazon updates its policies often. Always check your product listings to make sure Amazon has not flagged any for a violation. If your product is down, you will miss out on sales.
• Competition increases during shopping events like Prime Day and Black Friday. Customers expect big savings. Optimizing your product pages for shoppers searching for the best deals can increase traffic and sales.

Optimizing Amazon Product Titles

You only have a moment to catch the eye of a shopper. Your product title should echo what would be on the physical packaging. Remember that each individual word in the Product Title is searchable on its own. For example, a product called Laura Ashley Sophia Collection 300-Thread-Count Pillow Cases (Blue, Queen, Set of 2) is better than Blue Pillow Cases. This is because the recommended Product Name above includes the following information:

• Brand – Laura Ashley
• Product line – Sophia Collection
• Material or key feature – 300-Thread-Count
• Product Type – Pillow Cases
• Color – Blue
• Size – Queen
• Packaging/Quantity – Set of 2

Optimizing Bullet Points for Amazon Product Listings

Testing shows that well-crafted bullet points increase sales. This information highlights important or distinguishing facts about your product. Use the following optimization guidelines as you craft your bullet points:

• Highlight the five key features you want customers to consider. This can include dimensions, age appropriateness, skill level, contents, etc.
• Maintain a consistent order. If your first bullet point is country of origin, keep that same order for all your products.
• Reiterate important information from the title and description.
• Begin each bullet point with a capital letter.
• Write with sentence fragments and do not include ending punctuation.
• Do not include promotional and pricing information.

Optimizing Amazon Product Images

Effective product images inspire customers to buy your product. They can also reduce returns. If your listing features images that misrepresent the product, customers will notice. Optimizing your product images can minimize confusion. It is important to check your image quality based on the following guidelines:

• The image matches the product description in size, color, and so on.
• The product is recognizable.
• The image is a photo and not a drawing.
• The photo is taken at a flattering angle.
• The product is focused and well-lit.
• Close-up shots are not obscured by highlights or shadows.
• The product occupies at least 80% of the image area.
• The image depicts the entire product.
• Backgrounds are simple and clean so as not to distract from the product.
• Provide as many different images as possible. Many product categories allow for the inclusion of swatch images and alternate images.

Optimizing Product Listings for Amazon Search Terms

Amazon allows you to add search terms for your products. These should only include generic words that enhance the discoverability of your listing. For example, if you sell headphones, your search terms can contain synonyms such as “earphones” and “earbuds.” Search terms are not required fields, but they can increase visibility. Here are some best practices for providing search terms:

• Do not include product identifiers such as brand names, product names, compatible product names, ASINs, UPC codes, and so on.
• Do not provide inaccurate, misleading, or irrelevant information.
• Do not provide excessively long content. Respect the limits that are set for different fields.
• Do not provide redundant information that is already captured in other fields such as title, author, brand, and so on. It will not improve your product placement in shopping results.
• When entering several words as a search term, put them in the most logical order. A customer is more likely to search for “big stuffed teddy bears” than for “teddy stuffed bears.”
• Use a single space to separate keywords. Commas, semicolons, or carets are not required.
• Do not include statements that are only temporarily true, such as, “new,” “on sale,” or “available now.”
• Do not include subjective claims such as “amazing,” “good quality,” and so on, since most customers don’t use subjective terms in their queries.
• Do not include common misspellings of the product name. Amazon compensates for common customer misspellings and offers corrective suggestions.
• Do not provide variants of spacing, punctuation, capitalization, and pluralization (“80GB” and “80 GB,” “computer” and “computers,” and so on). Amazon automatically includes different case forms, word forms, and spelling variants for searching.
• Do not include terms that are abusive or offensive in nature.

Channel Key Takeaway

Content optimization and management increases visibility and sales on Amazon. Check your product detail pages often to ensure they are optimized. The more products you have, the more effort this will take. It will also help to see how your competitors optimize detail pages for similar products. Are they targeting different keywords?  If so, incorporate them into your listings. Content optimization and management never ends. Amazon grows more competitive each day. Use this as motivation to find new ways to optimize your listings for traffic and conversion.

PART FIVE

How to Supercharge Your Product Detail Pages with A+ Content

By now, you understand how to build and optimize product detail pages that will generate sales. This includes search-friendly titles, compelling descriptions, and striking images. To elevate your listings even further, Amazon provides brand owners with the option to create A+ Content. Here, we will explain exactly what A+ Content is, how it works, and how you can use it to drive higher conversions.

What is A+ Content?

A+ Content allows sellers to describe their product features in a different way by including a unique brand story, enhanced images, and text placements. This feature utilizes pre-formatted text and image-based modules that you can customize. Available to brand owners at no cost, A+ Content can include the following content types:

1. Enhanced Product Descriptions offer more details about your product features to augment the bullet points and images in the main product detail page. These help customers make purchase decisions by proactively answering their questions.
2. • Custom paragraph headers and images
   • Unique image and text layouts
   • Product comparison charts
   • Bulleted feature lists
   • Appears in the Product Description section of the Amazon detail page
3. Brand Content helps educate customers about the history of your brand, including its values and product lines.
4. • Carousel display with full screen background on desktop and mobile devices
   • Image and text cards
   • Links to other products and the brand store
   • Appears in the From the Brand section of the Amazon detail page

You can publish content to all ASINs that you own as a registered brand owner in Amazon Brand Registry and have up to 20 pending submissions in review at one time (more on this later). Below is an example of Enhanced Brand Content for a Channel Key client in the Home and Kitchen category:

A+ Content Modules

Amazon provides a selection of pre-formatted modules that you can use to build your A+ Content. Each module comes with specifications, such as image dimensions and/or a word count for text. Your A+ Content will automatically display properly on mobile devices (shoppers must manually expand the content on mobile to view it). Below are several A+ Content modules available to enhance your product details pages and tell your brand story:

EBC Module: Standard Company Logo

EBC Module: Standard Four Image and Text

EBC Module: Standard Image and Dark Text Overlay

EBC Module: Standard Image Header with Text

EBC Module: Standard Three Images and Text

How to Upload A+ Content

Adding A+ Content to your product detail pages is simple and straightforward. Amazon provides a user-friendly interface within your Seller Central Dashboard. To upload your A+ Content, follow these simple steps:

1. Select A+ Content Manager from the Advertising menu on the Seller Central homepage.
2. To add content, click Start creating A+ Content and choose the content type you want to create: Enhanced Brand Content or Brand Story.
3. Follow the onscreen prompts to name your content and then select modules to create the style you desire.
4. Populate the text and image slots. When adding an image to your content, you can either upload a new image by dragging and dropping into the Add Image uploader or choose an image in your Creative Assets library. The Creative Assets library includes images you previously uploaded in A+ Content or other programs, such as Sponsored Brands, and allows you to categorize your images with tags and search, sort, and filter the images based on size, last modified date, and other criteria. While you are adding content, you can click Preview at any time to see what your content will look like in both desktop and mobile versions.
5. You can apply ASINs to the content in the ASINs tab on the Content details page. You can add any ASIN from an ASIN family to the search box to find all the ASINs in the family. The use of blurry or low-quality images, and images with watermarks or small text that is unreadable when shown on mobile devices, is not allowed. ASINs that you want to apply to the content and click Apply. You can also use our bulk upload feature to upload a spreadsheet with the ASINs that you want to apply. You will be required to use bulk upload if you want to add more than 1,000 ASINs to the content.
6. Create language variation drafts for other languages that customers use in the country. For instance, since many customers in the U.S. choose to shop in Spanish rather than English, create a language variation for Spanish in U.S. This step copies your content and applied ASINs as drafts that you can use to add translated content. You will be able to review and submit these drafts individually later. To help customers who shop in different languages, Amazon may also create language variations automatically. The automatic content translations are only created for languages where you have not previously published the content. You can edit or delete them using the A+ Content Manager.
7. Click Review & Submit to review the final draft of your content, including the applied ASINs, and click Submit for approval to send the content for validation and approval.

Eligibility Requirements for A+ Content

A+ Content is currently available only to professional sellers who are enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. Once you are approved as a brand owner, you will be able to add A+ Content to products that are part of your approved brand catalog.

As a reminder, Amazon Brand Registry is a global service with tools to help you protect your Brand’s intellectual property, find and report violations, and share information that can help Amazon proactively prevent violations. Enrolling in Amazon Brand Registry unlocks a suite of tools designed to help you build and protect your brand, including A+ Content, Sponsored Brands, Amazon Stores, and Amazon Brand Analytics.

To be eligible for Amazon Brand Registry, your brand must either have an active, registered, or pending trademark in each country where you wish to enroll.

Channel Key Takeaway

Adding A+ Content to your product detail pages not only gives shoppers more details about your product, but also your brand. This is important because loyal customers buy more from their favorite brands. They are also more likely to recommend them to their family and friends. For this reason, promoting your brand (and not just your products) with features like A+ Content is one of the most powerful ways to drive traffic, improve conversion rates, and increase sales.

PART FIVE

Case Study: How Optimized Content Helped Triple Amazon Sales for a Channel Key Client

Now that we’ve emphasized the importance of compelling content, it’s time to offer actual proof about how it can improve your success on Amazon. The following is a case study involving a current Channel Key client that experienced exponential growth by increasing conversions with stronger product detail pages.

The Challenge

Brighter Blooms Nursery is a current Channel Key client that offers a wide variety of ready-to-bloom shrubs, trees, and plants for gardening enthusiasts. As an online nursery, the team at Brighter Blooms understood the market potential of offering their products on the Amazon platform. After building their listings themselves, they quickly discovered that many Brighter Blooms products were underperforming despite ranking on Page One. The challenge was to identify the root of the problem and implement a cost-effective plan that would drive traffic and sales while maintaining a high organic search ranking.

The Solution

Brighter Blooms worked with Channel Key to customize and implement a strategy that would achieve two primary goals: 1) improve the quality of content for the company’s product listings; and 2) drive traffic that would result in higher conversion rates.

Utilizing a proprietary algorithm, Channel Key conducted an in-depth analysis to identify the best keyword opportunities by incorporating numerous critical marketplace factors, including competition and search volume. After analyzing the results, Channel Key proposed a two-pronged approach designed to increase sales velocity, maintain page one organic search rankings, and increase marketplace reach by expanding into a broader search. This involved fully optimizing listings to enhance the shopping experience and increasing product visibility through aggressive Sponsored Product Ads.

Channel Key’s Optimized Marketplace Content Listing strategy included enhancing listings with keyword-focused product titles, high-quality images, descriptive bullet points, and A+ Content. In total, Channel Key created 175 optimized product listings and 56 pages of A+ Content.

To drive traffic and higher conversion rates, Channel Key executed a marketing strategy that included 113 customized campaigns focusing on four key areas: 1) Brand Protection; 2) Top Performing Keywords; 3) Category Targeting; and 4) Specific Product Targeting. To maximize performance, each campaign underwent a preliminary CPC launch followed by two weeks of monitoring and adjustments. Once the ad campaigns were fully optimized, Channel Key increased the ad budgets of the highest-performing campaigns to bolster sales and increase the total RoAS, all of which were tracked with detailed data reports.

The Result

Channel Key’s content and marketing plan for Brighter Blooms was fully implemented by the beginning of the gardening season, which typically runs from March until the first frost. In just two months, Brighter Blooms saw a dramatic increase in conversions. Year-over-Year sales from April 2019 to 2020 increased by 268%, while conversion rates increased from 3.02% to 4.94%, respectively. During the summer of 2020, Brighter Blooms experienced such high demand that they paused their Amazon account to replenish inventory. Despite this challenge, year-over sales from March 2020 to 2021 still increased by another 73%. Overall, the success of Channel Key’s Amazon Marketplace strategy more than tripled the company’s Amazon sales over the course of two years, underscoring the importance of utilizing gold standard listings and optimized advertising campaigns to drive traffic and convert sales.

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Thank you for your interest in Channel Key’s Mastering Amazon SEO: How to Rank on Page One of Amazon Search. We hope this information has shed light on how you brand can use persuasive content to sell on Amazon.

As an agency that manages over $250 million in annual GMV on Amazon, we assembled this guide to help give your brand an advantage. In the interest of brevity, we focused on the core areas of importance, but there are many additional tactics and strategies that are essential to creating product listings that rank on Page One. To learn more about them, schedule a meeting with one of our Amazon experts.

On behalf of all of us at Channel Key, we wish you the greatest success with your ecommerce business.

Sincerely,

Dan Brownsher
President and CEO
Channel Key