Making the Most of the A9 Algorithm with Amazon SEO

The key to capitalizing on Amazon’s worldwide market is making sure you are found by potential customers on the platform. But while ads can provide some immediate boosts to traffic, they’re expensive, and they stop working as soon as you stop paying for them. On the other hand, if you build your listings right, the search engine will put you right where everyone can see you. All it takes is some Search Engine Optimization.

What Is Amazon SEO?

The goal of a search engine is to serve up results that match a user’s search intent. They do this by cataloging pages, and parsing them to determine what they’re about. As part of this process, pages are compared against each other, to determine which pages most closely match the intent of a given search term. This comparison determines what ranking a page has in the search results.

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What Is Amazon SEO?

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SEO is the practice of modifying a product listing so that the search engine sees it as more relevant for a given search term.

SEO is the practice of modifying a page (in Amazon’s case, a product listing) so that the search engine sees it as more relevant for a given search term. Each search engine is different, and uses a different set of qualifications to determine relevance, and requires intimate knowledge of the algorithm in order to optimize for. When SEO is done right, even small brands can gain alarming visibility via organic rankings.

How Is Amazon SEO Different?

Most search engines (like Google, for example) rank search results based on relevance to the search term. Their goal is to give you the page you’re looking for. What happens after that is beyond their purview. Amazon’s A9 algorithm values relevance, but only in service of its true objective: conversion. Amazon prioritizes listings that result in sales, and thus listings require unique SEO tactics in addition to standard optimizations.

Why Perform SEO?

SEO efforts help the search engine recognize what search terms your listing is relevant for. When that happens, your listing moves up in the rankings, making it more visible to consumers who use the search term. Done well, SEO can help your listing rank at the top of the results, so that it’s the first thing users see. Without SEO, most listings get buried under hundreds, even thousands of results, and are effectively invisible to users.

Organic vs. Advertising

Optimizing for Organic

  • Costs less than advertising, but benefits from companion ad campaigns
  • Cost the same regardless of reach
  • Has a longer-term positive impact on visibility
  • Often has a positive effect on conversion rates

Advertising

  • Gets quicker results
  • More closely controls the direction of the traffic
  • Increases in costs based on the size of the target audience
  • Paid ads influence organic rank when done strategically

Organic and paid work closely together on Amazon. By strategically targeting with our PPC advertising we can increase relevancy and organic rank, but being relevant organically we can decrease the cost of ads and improve conversion rates. In other words, ad campaigns alone often aren’t enough.

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Who Should Do SEO?

Everyone! We work with you to set a budget and other necessary parameters (such as priority listings, holes in your current processes, etc.), then we take care of the rest. We analyze your listings, your account, and your ad campaigns, and decide where to spend the budget to do the most good. We bring strategies to you for approval before moving forward, but execute completely autonomously, giving you the freedom to divert your attention to the other responsibilities you’ve been struggling to juggle.

Get Started with Amazon SEO

You have two options

Option 1

Handle SEO yourself by either ignoring it, or using trial and error to find what works

Option 2

Get help from the Amazon Experts

Our experienced staff of Amazon veterans will help your account with:

Keyword research

Keyword research

Listing keyword placement

Listing keyword placement

Listing optimization with A+ content, photography, and videos

Listing optimization with A+ content, photography, and videos

Customer outreach to improve listing ratings and gather positive reviews

Customer outreach to improve listing ratings and gather positive reviews

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FAQs

We charge $375 per parent listing to optimize the title, bullets, and description for SEO. This includes a substantial amount of keyword research and the copywriting of the listing.

While the most SEO value will be achieved after the initial optimization, we’ll continue to keep an eye on your listing to make sure your keyword strategy remains up-to-date. We generally recommend evaluating your SEO every 3-6 months.

We’ll work with you to establish a monthly optimization schedule that aligns with your needs and goals. Typically, we deliver either 5, 10, or 15 optimized listings per month.

When it comes to Amazon, SEO is the gift that keeps on giving. Every time a sale is made, this reinforces the relevance of your keywords. So as long as your listing remains active and healthy (we’ll help you with this!), you’ll continue to see the benefits of SEO long after the initial optimization.

Yes, in fact, it’s recommended that you do for the greatest reach.