How to Use Amazon SEO to Skyrocket Your eCommerce Sales

When it comes to SEO on Amazon, your goal is to cater to the Amazon A9 Algorithm and garner the maximum exposure to your listing. If you include a keyword in your listing copy, you will be indexed on that keyword. This means, if a customer types in that keyword in the search bar, they will eventually find your listing in the search results.

But how high in the organic rankings (searches) your product appears is another matter altogether. You can boost your organic ranking by running PPC campaigns on those keywords. However, getting indexed is the first step.

SEO on Amazon boils down to two primary activities:

• Picking the best keywords you can possibly find 
• Including those keywords into your listing in an appropriate manner

Finding the best keywords for your products is not something you can do easily on your own. You could intuitively put in keywords that make sense and you’d probably come up with keywords that are far from useless. However, guessing isn’t enough. What you need is to find keywords that you know you want your product to be indexed on. 

The best source of relevant, high-quality and high-ranking keywords is the list of keywords the top-selling products in your category are indexed on. This is not something you can get on your own, which is why it’s wise to use software. Software such as the AMZScout Pro Extension allows you to do just that. 

For example, let’s say you want to optimize your silicone baking mat listing and want to know the main searches the top seller in the subcategory is indexed on. You simply need to open the extension on the page containing the search results, click on the higher selling listing and select “get keywords.” You will be shown this popup:

You can simply export these keywords and use them to populate your listing copy. Now that you have all the keywords you need, it’s time to find the best way of using them. 

Where to Put the Keywords?

There are four elements of your listing that affect your SEO. In other words, there are four different and distinct segments of your listing copy that have the potential to impact the way the A9 Algorithm positions your listing in the searches. The different elements have a different level of impact, so you should prioritize the keywords accordingly. The list looks this:

• The title
• The bulletins
• The backend
• The product description

The A9 Algorithm runs on relevance. The more accurate a keyword is in describing your product, the more relevant it is. This is why you should try to include your most relevant keywords in the title and then proceed down the list, including them in the other listing segments. 

Keep in mind, your listing copy is not only for the purpose of being recognized and placed by the A9 Algorithm. You also need to create coherent copy that highlights the features of your product and relays the important information of interest to the shopper. 

However, finding the right balance between catering to the algorithm and simultaneously, the interest of the shopper is not easy. It is common practice to prioritize one over the other depending on the part of the listing. Look at it as a spectrum, with prioritizing keywords on one side and prioritizing the quality of the content on the other.

When we put the four listing elements on that spectrum it looks like this:

Bear this in mind as you are writing your listing copy together with these two crucial tips:

1. Do not repeat keywords if you can avoid it. We don’t know exactly how the processes work that determine where the A9 algorithm places your listing. However, it is guaranteed, using the same keyword repeatedly throughout your listing has no impact on your position.
   Rather make sure that your most relevant keywords are in the title and the rest are appropriately represented in the other segments of the listing in accordance with the weight that segment carries in the indexing. 
2. Use long-tailed keywords. A short-tailed keyword contains one or two words. A long-tailed keyword is longer than that, as a phrase would be. The reason you should be aiming to use a short-tail keyword is there’s a higher chance of showing up in more searches. You aren’t only indexed on the keywords included in your listing. The reality is, if you have a high enough sales volume, together with a well-optimized pay-per-click (PPC) structure, you should be indexed on thousands of keywords on Amazon. This is because a short-tailed keyword can be contained in a great number of searches.Take a look at this example: This is only a small fragment of keywords that one of the best selling rolling pins on Amazon.com is indexed on and it actually includes the keyword “rolling pin.”

This should give you a better idea of how indexing works and how you can use the keywords you have extracted to your advantage. It’s a matter of finding those crucial short, relevant keywords and any others that might align with your primary keywords and sprinkle them into your listing copy. Target those keywords within your PPC and if you have a good product, your exposure and indexing will grow over time. 

Considering all aspects listed here’s how you should approach each of the individual listing segments:

• The title:
  The title doesn’t have much space (80 to 200 words category dependent), so it is important to use this space wisely. Use your most relevant short-tail keywords and don’t forget to include your brand name, preferably as the very first word in the title. When your product grows in popularity, people will eventually start searching for your brand name. So, get ahead of the process and make sure you get indexed on all the new keywords that start showing up as a result.
• The bulletins:
  The bulletins are relevant when it comes to indexing, however, this is what shoppers might read so you need to strike a balance between the keywords used and highlighting important and attractive takeaways about the product. There is a lot of space in the bulletins (500 characters), but that doesn’t mean you should use it all. Long bullet points can discourage shoppers, the best approach is to start every bulletin with a short sentence that highlights a feature. Then you can proceed to write about that feature in more detail giving you the opportunity to include some keywords.
• The Product Description:
  The product description has a lot of space, 2000 bytes to be precise. The difference between the product description and other listing elements is that you have to use HTML. You aren’t required to learn code though. You can simply write out your product description in a standard document and copy and paste it into an online HTML translator that gives you the code to put into the EDIT section of your listing.When it comes to creating copy you can use paragraphs, bolds and italics to emphasize important points or features. Try to keep the product descriptions short, include only the main points and educate the shoppers about your brand. There is no need to place too much attention on keywords since the description is the least impactful in terms of SEO. It is important to dedicate this space purely to the narrative about your product and brand. Keep in mind that on mobile the description shows up immediately after the first two bulletins, so people will read it. That’s why you should keep it short.
• The Backend:
  The backend is part of your listing that is not visible to anyone and it is there solely for the purpose of interacting with the A9 Algorithm. You have space for 250 characters, including spaces, to put in as many keywords as you can think of. This is where to include the keywords that aren’t in the rest of the listing copy, as well as keywords that won’t make sense in the visible portion of your listing. Include misspellings of your main keywords, your main keywords in other languages, keywords that describe substitute products and so on. This is how you get the most effect out of the backend and no need to worry about the way you arrange the keywords.

Wrapping Up

In conclusion, here’s the takeaway: Try to get the best keywords you can by using sophisticated software and find keywords other best selling products are ranking for. Be mindful of the way you incorporate the keywords into your listing. By identifying high impact short-tailed keywords you won’t have to use as many and they can have a great effect on your ranking in the long term. 

This way you can write a compelling listing copy and keep the shoppers interested while satisfying the A9 Algorithm standards. The principles behind Amazon SEO are simple, but often more complex to do in practice.