Understanding the algorithm of Amazon’s A9 Search Engine and Amazon SEO has long been the goal of many an Amazon Seller. Despite the hidden inner-workings of the algorithm, it actually appears to be quite simple.
Unlike Google, there are limited number of factors that can affect the discovery and ranking of products, making Amazon a much simpler platform to understand. Let’s begin with discovery first, and then move on to ranking.
Product Discoverability
In order for Amazon to discover your product, it has to rely on certain keywords, keywords that you place in the title, and the search terms in the back-end of the product listing. While Google prefers keyword phrases, Amazon is able to take individual keywords and match them up with the keywords that Amazon customers type into the search engine. While Amazon does recommend that keywords be placed in order when possible, the majority of the keywords in the search terms can be individual and not connected in any way except to the relevance of your product.
Amazon spiders a handful of elements in your product listing including the title, brand/manufacturer and search terms, and even the product features and description (though these are probably much less weighted than the other elements mentioned). Once these elements have been indexed by the Amazon A9 search engine, it can begin to determine where in search results your product should appear for various keywords terms and phrases that match keywords in your product listing.
Product Rankability
Now that your product is indexed (indicating how important it is to have properly research keywords in your product listing) the most important factor comes into play: where to rank your product based on relevance and perceived value to the Amazon customer searching.
Three of the most critical elements that assist Amazon in determining the rank of any listing are:
- Sales Performance History
- Product Rating/Reviews
- Product Price
Sales Performance History
Your sales performance history essentially is determined by your conversion rate history and volume: how many people viewed your listing, and how many people purchased it. The greater the conversion rate (number of orders per views/sessions) the better your chance of ranking. But even if your conversion history is good, but your volume (both of searches and orders is low) it may still not be enough to get your product up in the ranking.
Product Ratings and Reviews
Product Rating and Reviews are also essential not only in helping your product rank, but also increasing customers decision to buy the product, which in turn will increase its ranking and so on. For this reason, it is essential not only to monitor your listing to avoid counterfeit sellers which would drastically reduce your quality ratings, but also to solicit product feedback whenever a purchase is made.
Product Price
Lastly, your Product Price is also heavily weighted by Amazon as their goal is to provide the best value to Amazon customers at the most affordable price, which often means that a better rated product still has a chance of outranking a lesser rated one, despite the price being slightly higher.
If you’d like to learn more about Amazon SEO, you can visit our Amazon Courses where we offer online course tutorials designed to teach you the essentials of how to sell on Amazon.