If you’re an Amazon / Ecommerce seller, you would agree that this year has been an incredible one. 2020 has offered unprecedented challenges because of the Coronavirus pandemic and not only. Now that things are finally settling, production at factories around the world is slowly returning to normal, shipping delays are all but gone, economies are opening and people are looking to spend money again.
It’s now time to get ready for the big sale season that this busy Q4 is going to bring, having the Prime Day delayed as well, and to focus upon one of the most important aspects of being an Amazon seller: ranking your products organically. Learning how to rank products on Amazon in 2020is one of the skills every seller needs to know. It’s even more important in a COVID-19 world! Read on as we cover all you need to know in this quick guide.
1. Understand That Amazon is Not Google
There is a key difference between these two tech giants. Google is where people go to get answers for everyday questions like the weather, what happened to Elvis and whether the moon landing was faked. Amazon is a marketplace where people are looking to buy something specificand they have their credit card ready.
It’s important to understand Amazon’s product ranking algorithm called A9 (and what affects it), and here’s what Amazon says:
“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.”
“One of A9’s tenets is that relevance is in the eye of the customer and we strive to get the best results for our users. Once we determine which items are good matches to the customer’s query, our ranking algorithms score them to present the most relevant results to the user.”
We have covered the reasons why Relevancy Score is fundamental for your organic product rank on Amazon (hence sales) in this interview / webinar with Wapi:
Whenever someone searches for a product, Amazon’s A9 the mastermind product search algorithm, ensures that shoppers are presented with the most relevant items to their needs based on their search history, their past purchases and traffic history.
2. What Elements affect Amazon Product Ranking?
There are a number of factors that affect product ranking on Amazon but for your needs, we’re only going to cover the most important. Check out this list by Repricerexpress for even more factors that are important for Amazon product ranking.
For our purposes, we’ll break the most important factors down into two categories:
Sales Rank – the most important factor; the more sales you make, the higher your listings rank in search; the higher your listings rank in search, the more sales you make!
Customer Reviews – having four and five-star reviews on your listings help your product rank better and help your buyer feel confident about making a purchase
Answered Questions – these also play an important part in ranking
Price – it’s not only important for the Amazon Buy Box but the price also influences the conversion rates and sales of your products; you want to set a price that is competitive to other products and fair to the buyer
Coupons – sometimes coupons can help with a sale; it’s better to use a dollar-off coupon; it makes a bigger impact on the buyer; there is research to show that when sellers use coupons, listings rank higher and sales go up!
Fulfillment Method – as always, fast shipping, especially with Amazon Prime (FBA) gives your listings a competitive advantage
Amazon Rank Relevancy Factors
Title – no doubt you already know how important a title is when it comes to ranking, relevancy and keyword search; make sure to use all 200 characters!
Product Features / Bullet Points – just like the title, the content here should be well written and well optimized with the right keyword research; make your listing shine within 250 characters with rich detail and speak to the user
Description – the description of the listing is a great place to expand on your product and add more relevant keyword search terms; this is also a space to explain the features of your product and add a call-to-action
Search terms – you absolutely cannot forget this; at the backend of your listing, these are the most relevant terms related to your product; drop terms containing your main keyword to help your product rank better
Subject Matter – this is another factor to look at in the backend; in total, you can find five fields of 50 characters each that you can use to your advantage
No seller can ignore just howimportant Amazon PPC ads are and the keywords that go into them. Having a product campaign with the right setup and performance is critical to the success of any Amazon seller. This is an important factor when it comes to ranking your products on Amazon in 2020. We won’t get into too much detail here because you can read more on our blog if youre looking for a Full Amazon PPC Beginners Guide and this informative blog post on pixelfy.me on how the combined use of PPC and Super URL generators can help you increase Organic Rank and Sales while bringing down the total ACoS% for your products.
But the main point to remember is to make sure your listing title is optimized to its fullest extent and that you’ve tried campaigns to figure out what your main keyword is and to lock it down. Ads that target title keywords cs.ai/title-keyword-importance-ppc/' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer'>perform much better than those targeting non-title keywords.
One amazing tool that can help you A LOT to keep your listing optimized, ad friendly and well ranked is ZonGuru, by providing easy and quick way to check index, keyword rank, BSR, listing content and optimization, competitors content and rank, and a lot of relevant keywords.
We give a detailed tutorial on how to use it for ranking purposes on this YouTube video:
4. What About Ranking Products on Amazon during/post COVID-19
But one big positive of the coronavirus has been that people are shopping online more than ever, especially on Amazon. Proof of that is Amazon’s stock price. It has boomed during this time. Tech products, health products, baby products, and more, are doing very well. If you’re not in these categories, there is still some work you can do to rank well during the coronavirus.
Identify the Competition – who is your competition? What are they doing right and what are they doing wrong? Knowing this, you can take advantage of the information and try new ranking strategies.
Competitive Pricing – as we have already covered, the price of your listing matters! Make sure your product price is competitive with what your competitors are doing. It will help you win the Amazon Buy Box and increase conversion rate.
Optimize Your Product Listing Ads – shoppers on Amazon get tons of ads whenever they search for something. But not all of these ads are properly optimized. When you properly optimize your ads, you’ll see an increase in click-through rates and as a result, increased traffic. Both are important metrics for ranking.
Enrich Your Product – the product data of your listing is a factor that convinces a buyer to trust your listing and buy your product. Using a high-quality image and quality well-written content will get the attention of prospective buyers. And you can also reduce your bounce rate. Take advantage of Amazon’s features such as A Content tools.
Positive Feedback and Good Account Health – make sure you get positive feedback from customers when it comes to reviews and always be ready to answer their questions. Keep negative feedback to a minimum! Also, make sure to keep good account health as it not only helps to maintain better ranking and product visibility but also settles you as a trusted seller.
5. Conclusion
Knowing what affects Amazon product ranking and the factors that go into it will help you to keep your product listings relevant in 2020. And making sure that you optimize your listings and PPC adswill help you get ahead of your competition. It takes some effort to properly learn how to rank products on Amazon in 2020 and optimize your listings but with practice, you’ll ensure your e-commerce business will thrive.
