Amazon SEO The COMPLETE Guide [EXAMPLES]

Getting found in Amazon product searches is painstaking. If you’re an Amazon Seller Central seller, Amazon Vendor Central seller or selling Amazon B2B I’m sure you’d agree.

I’m going to help you get your listings to the top of Amazon search results by breaking down every Amazon SEO factor into simple, easy-to-understand, and take-action on sections.

I’ve also created a super easy-to-read Amazon SEO INFOGRAPHIC that I’ve placed at the end to help you.

What is Amazon SEO?

Amazon SEO (Amazon Search Engine Optimization) means optimizing your presence both on and off Amazon so that your product listings appear at the top of Amazon product searches.

If you’re interested in how to increase sales on Amazon this is the first place to start.

When a customer searches on Amazon, Amazon’s search algorithm (A10), evaluates the search to determine what products should show up like this:

1. Keyword
2. Relevancy
3. Likelihood to purchase

Just like search result listings on Google, Amazon Product Search Results are not arbitrary, nor did they pay Amazon just to be at the top.

Unless of course, they’re advertisements.

Here is how to tell:

These are the top 2 search results on Amazon for “Camping MultiTool”. The top result notes that it is sponsored. That seller paid for a sponsored listing ad so that product would appear in the top results for that keyword as part of their Amazon Advertising Strategy. The second result was achieved through Amazon SEO. This is FREE advertising.

Amazon’s logic, or algorithm, for what products it decides to have show up at the top of Amazon product search results is called A10 and ultimately boils down to asking this question;

“If I (Amazon) show this product to this customer, based on the search terms (Amazon Keywords) they typed in, will they click on the listing and buy the product?”

Amazon evaluates your seller account and product listing on a multitude of factors to predict if your listing will sell, if they think it will, then they will show it higher for search queries.

Want to decrease ACoS on Amazon? Focus heavily on getting sales from organic search results with Amazon Listing Optimization and Amazon SEO.

Metrics Considered By A10 For Amazon SEO:

• BSR (Best Seller Rank)
• Price
• CTS (Click To Sale)
• Your Product Listing Conversion Rates (how many people actually buy vs. how many people click on your listing)
• Relevancy (The Amazon Keywords on your listing & more)
• Amazon Reviews (quantity & quality)
• Retention (Seller Feedback, Defects, re-orders)

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What is Amazon A10? (Amazon SEO Algorithm)

Amazon A10 is a colloquialism for A9, the logic that Amazon uses to decide what products to show for search and ads. Similar to Google Rank Brain or any of the other names algorithm’s have been given, Amazon has put a name to the logic of how it determines how high a product will show up in its search results. That name is Amazon A10.

They actually tell you themselves what they look at to decide how high your product will appear in Amazon product search results.

“Our work starts long before a customer types a query. We’ve been analyzing data, observing past traffic patterns, and indexing the text describing every product in our catalog before the customer has even decided to search.” – Amazon

“So we focus on the words and the intent behind those words.” – Amazon

In my experience as an Amazon Seller Consultant, in Amazon Keyword Research or even normal Google SEO Keyword Research, some keywords indicate you are doing research and want to know more about a product while others indicate you’ve already done your research and now you are looking for a product to BUY.

You’re after buyer intent. That’s the name of the game. Here is an example that I use with my Amazon Consulting clients.

Let’s say we search for “Womens Red Shoes”.

Lot’s of different kinds of red shoes. If you’re searching for something broad like this, you are trying to learn what kind of red shoes you want. You are NOT in BUY mode.

Okay, so you’ve done your research, you’ve narrowed it down. So now you go back into Amazon’s search field and type in:

“red women’s suede open toe pumps size 6”

Do you see the Amazon Keywords? This searcher has narrowed down that:

• They need or want the color red
• They need or want a women’s shoe
• They need or want them to be made out of suede
• They need or want an open toe
• They need or want pumps
• And they need or want Size 6

This is buyer intent. They’ve narrowed down everything they need and are searching for it exactly. That’s what Amazon’s A10 Algorithm figures out and sorts it out to listings on Amazon.

Amazon A10 Focuses On:

• Relevancy: Your ability to create connective tissue between the customers’ search and your product.
• Conversions: Your ability to convert a customer significantly impacts your ability to be found on Amazon.
• OFF-Amazon Traffic: Your ability to send customers from off of Amazon onto Amazon for your products.
• Catalog Velocity: If you have a bunch of products listed in your catalog that are not selling, remove them.
• Click-Through Rate: Your ability to get customers to click on your product impacts how visible you are.
• Seller Rating and Seller Metrics: Your seller rating and health metrics drive how visible your products are.
• External Traffic: Your ability to send customers from referral sources OFF Amazon onto Amazon.
• Impressions: Your ability as a brand to get impressions on your products impacts how visible they will be.

So as you can see Amazon SEO is driven by Amazon Listing Optimization

How Does Amazon SEO Work?

When it comes to On-Amazon factors that you have control over, Amazon Search Engine Optimization boils down to 3 simple factors.

1. Product Listing Factors
2. Seller Account Factors
3. External Traffic

19 Product Listing Amazon SEO Factors

6 Seller Account Amazon SEO Factors

As far as Amazon SEO goes, Amazon isn’t going to rank products high from sellers that do not deliver on their promise to customers.

20) Amazon Seller Feedback

Did you know Amazon has more ratings other than simply product review ratings? Seller feedback is crucial to your Amazon SEO because it is crucial to Amazon’s customer retention rate and revenue per customer.

21) Order Processing Speed

If you’re a vendor central customer and you see those PO’s come in, you want to make them a priority. Seller central customer? Then you want to prioritize fast shipping and handle orders efficiently.

22) In-Stock Rate

Pretty straightforward right? If you’re always out of stock or low on stock where the customer risks not getting their order, Amazon will not show you prominently to their customers.

23) Amazon Perfect Order Percentage (POP)

Amazon Perfect Order Percentage or Amazon POP is this in a nutshell: Customer clicks add to cart -> receives product promptly -> product is exactly what they ordered -> customer keeps it.

24) Amazon Order Defect Rate

Amazon ODR or Order Defect Rate takes into account: A to Z Guarantee Claims, Shipment Problems, Order Defects, Credit Card Chargebacks.

25) Amazon Exit Rate

Earlier we talked about Bounce Rate and leaving a listing. This is hitting eject on the whole thing and leaving Amazon.com entirely. That’s not good. Being so dissatisfied that they leave Amazon all together is not ideal and they measure this by your Amazon Exit Rate.

External Traffic

It’s no secret that Amazon prioritizes brands that send traffic from OFF Amazon onto Amazon to buy their products. With the a10 algorithm, they’ve made it clear.

Most Amazon Sales don’t originate on Amazon. If you run most best-selling products on Amazon through a tool like Sellzone, you will see most of their sales originate off Amazon as referrals from blogs, YouTube & more.

So, with that in mind, how can you send External Traffic to your product listings to boost Amazon SEO?

1) Amazon Influencers

Amazon Influencers have been driving External Traffic to products on Amazon ever since 1996 with the launch of the Amazon Associates Program. You can find Amazon Influencers on all the popular channels: YouTube, Blogs, TikTok, Twitch, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest & more.

2) PPC Advertising

It has always been considered minimum viable effort on Amazon to send PPC traffic from popular advertising networks like Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. This is because it works and it helps with Amazon SEO.

3) Email List

Your email list is a very powerful External Traffic source for Amazon SEO. Some of the most popular campaigns to drive traffic to Amazon are: Distributing Coupon Codes, Sale Announcements, Promo Announcements, New Product Launches & more.

Amazon Product Launch Honeymoon Period

Have you ever said: “Let’s just get the product up and we’ll worry about optimizing it and marketing it later.”? Well, did you know that is costing you Amazon SEO and money in PPC performance?

When you launch a product on Amazon, just like in brick and mortar, they want to see that you’re able to drive sales and traffic. There are many terms for this period, but most Amazon Sellers call it the honeymoon period when you launch a product.

Your goal when you launch a product on Amazon:

1. Optimize the product listing from day 1.
2. Run Amazon PPC ads from day 1.
3. Drive External Traffic from your email list from day 1.
4. Drive External Traffic from Amazon Influencers from day 1.
5. Drive External Traffic from Social & Google PPC ads from day 1.

How To Use Amazon Keywords (Step By Step)

As a consultant for Amazon I can tell you that this is how to use Amazon keywords to show up at the top of Amazon search results.

1) Run Your Top Competitors Through A Keyword Tool

Identify your top 3 competitors. Then, run their listings through tools that tell you EXACTLY what keywords are driving customers to their listings and also what they’re running ads on. I recommend Helium 10.

2) Create Your List of Amazon Keywords To Use

Now, create a giant list of keywords from those CSV files. Go through the list and bucket your keywords into Buyer Intent and Brand Awareness.

Pro Tip: Most sellers strictly go after the most searched terms. This is a critical mistake. You want to go after customers who have already done the research and are typing in keywords that indicate they want EXACTLY what you’re selling (Buyer Intent).

3) Remove Duplicates and Narrow Your Keywords

You’re not just removing duplicate phrases, but words. To enter keywords on the back end of Amazon, you’re looking to trim things down to 500 characters. (250 for Search Terms + 250 for Subject Matter). Use Helium 10 Frankenstein to automate this.

4) Enter Your Keywords Into Search Terms and Subject Matter

• You get 250 characters to use in Search Terms.
• You also get 250 characters to use in Subject Matter (broken into 5 inputs of 50 characters each).
• This is a total of 500 characters you get to use.
• Use spaces to separate keywords.
• Do not use commas.
• Don’t use misspellings or other brand names.

How To Check If Your Indexed For Your Amazon SEO Keywords

Now that you’ve entered in all of those keywords, you’re going to want to make sure you’re indexed for your Amazon SEO Keywords.

1. Head to the Amazon Marketplace (the front end of Amazon)
2. Make sure your category drop-down selection is all.
3. Enter in your ASIN then a space and then your keyword you want to check (EXAMPLE: B07Q7T6VC3 survival)
4. Hit enter

If you’re indexed, you will see an Amazon search results page with just your product. If you don’t see it right away, give it another 15 minutes or so.

How to Increase Keyword Rankings on Amazon

If you’ve followed everything listed above and still aren’t ranking, this is the section for you.

1) Increase Your Unit Session Percentage

Unit Session Percentage is Amazons’ term for conversion rate. Amazon will rank products that convert well. Send a lot of external traffic to Amazon that’s ready to convert to boost your unit session percentage.

2) Google Ads For Buyer Intent Keywords

Create Google Ads for the keywords you want to rank for on Amazon. Drive traffic to your Amazon listings and convert. You will notice your ON Amazon keyword rankings improve.

3) Exact Phrase Usage In Title, Bullet Points & A+ Content

Increase your keyword rankings on Amazon by using the exact phrase of the keyword you want to rank for in your Product Title, Bullet Points, and A+ Content (Alt Text).

4) Broad, Exact & Phrase Match Amazon PPC Ads

If you want to increase your keyword rankings on Amazon, you need to prove you can convert on them using targeted PPC campaigns.

Amazon SEO Infographic

Frequently Asked Questions