Keyword optimization is the process of selecting the best keywords and using them most effectively. Optimizing your keyword usage in your product listings is one of the most important things you can do to increase your success as a seller on Amazon.
Why Keyword Optimization Is Important
Keyword optimization can improve your search volume, keep customers on your listings longer, increase traffic and drive sales. It works by making your listings more visible on Amazon.
The better your optimization is, the more likely your listings are to turn up at the top of the results for customer searches. The more customers view your listings, the more sales you are likely to generate.
Studies have shown that only 30% of Amazon shoppers click through to the second page of results. Getting your results on the first page is vitally important for getting your listings seen and making sales.
Additionally, Amazon chooses which ads to display based in part on how relevant they are to the customer search. The better optimized your keywords are, the more likely Amazon is to display your pay-per-click ad campaigns. To accomplish this, you need to understand Amazon’s ranking algorithm.
How Amazon’s Ranking Algorithm Works
Amazon’s ranking algorithm, called A9, works similarly to Google’s ranking algorithm; however, it is specifically geared towards e-commerce. The goal of Amazon’s algorithm is to provide customers with the best, most relevant results for their Amazon searches.
The ranking algorithm is what determines the order of the search results. Keyword optimization is one of the best ways to improve your chances of your listings being ranked highly by Amazon’s algorithm.
According to Amazon, several factors are weighted the most highly when it comes to their internal search:
- Optimizing listing titles with relevant keywords
- Providing helpful and detailed information in product descriptions
- Using high-quality product images
- Having authentic positive reviews from customers who were not incentivized to provide them
How To Do Keyword Optimization
Keyword optimization is a multi-step process that is best broken down into smaller chunks. The first step is to determine which keywords to use.
Use Keyword Tools
A good place to start is to use a keyword tool. Google Keyword Planner is one of Google’s AdWords tools and is one of the most popular tools for choosing Amazon keywords. This user-friendly tool helps you research Google search volume for almost any product or keyword phrase.
However, because the tool is focused on Google search results and not specifically on Amazon search, you will have to do some work to determine which keywords produce the best e-commerce results.
You can eliminate this extra step by using an Amazon-specific keyword optimization tool, such as Amazon Keyword Tool from Viral Launch. The company provides a useful tutorial to help you use the data from the tool to optimize your listings.
If you sell a lot of different products on Amazon, focus on the products that are the most important to your business.
Pare Down Your List
Once you have a list of potential keywords, pare it down to the most relevant and highest ranking. There are several metrics you can use to judge which keywords will work the best, such as how often people are searching for that keyword and for phrases that include that keyword, how relevant the keyword is to the product you are selling, and how many of your competitors are using that keyword.
Ideal keywords are highly relevant and frequently searched, but not frequently used by competitors. If you need assistance with figuring out how your keywords rank in various categories, the team at Click Fluency can help.
Place Your Keywords Strategically
The Amazon search algorithm emphasizes some parts of your listing more than others. For keyword optimization, place keywords in these high ranking areas:
- Bullet points
- Listing title
- Backend keywords
Of these, the title is the most important place to put keywords. Additionally, the first five words of the title are used by outside search engines, such as Google. Surveys indicate that 36% of product searches start on search engines, rather than on the Amazon search page.
Try to place a keyword in the first five words of your titles to increase your ranking with outside search engines. The Amazon algorithm parses titles from left to right, so place the rest of your keywords in the title in order of importance.
Try to use as many of your keywords as you can in the title, bullet points, and product description on your listing, but avoid making your listing difficult to read. Attracting customers to your listing won’t be very valuable if they don’t buy anything because your listing is confusing.
Read through your completed listing to check for any missed opportunities to add plural forms and other variations of your keywords.
Optimize Your Backend Keywords
Amazon provides all sellers with 250 bytes of space to include keywords that are not in the bullet points or title of the listing.
These keywords are not visible to customers, so this is a good place to include keywords that do not make sense in your listing. You may also want to include common misspellings or slang words in this section.
How Click Fluency Can Improve Your Keyword Optimization
It is easy to come up with a list of things sellers should do to improve their keyword optimization; however, it can be challenging to actually implement all of these suggestions. The Click Fluency team can teach you how to interpret the data Amazon provides about your account.
We can also help you build pages that not only attract customers through solid optimization practices but convert those visits into sales. Let us show you how to write your titles and descriptions, choose high-quality images and format your listings in a way that encourages sales.
Whether you are a new seller or you’ve been doing this a while, you don’t have to figure everything out on your own. Contact the Click Fluency team to get started improving your Amazon listings today.
Sources:
https://clickfluency.com/optimization-of-your-amazon-account/
https://blog.viral-launch.com/amazon-listing-optimization/guide-amazon-keywords/
https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/05/17/amazon-seo
https://www.webfx.com/blog/marketing/what-is-amazon-seo/
https://sellics.com/blog-amazon-seo-v-s-amazon-ppc-why-you-need-both/