How to do SEO for Amazon Products: 10 tactics from Amazon’s SEO Guide.

By Nick Papagiannis, VP, Search Director

With 66.4 million households in the U.S. having an Amazon Prime subscription, Amazon is maintaining its popularity over other e-commerce platforms. That, along with being the number one place customers go to start their product search, makes it clear why brands are continually investing their performance marketing efforts on Amazon.

Marketers should be reminded that Amazon quietly posted an elaborate SEO point of view for their A9 search engine algorithm earlier last year. A simple view shows that Amazon shares the same goal as traditional search engines, which is to provide customers with the best user experience.

However, because Amazon is a product search engine, it has additional ranking factors compared to a standard informational web search engine. Therefore, it’s important to have an Amazon-focused program in addition to your traditional SEO program.

C-K’s eCommerce services group has Amazon experts that can help with your Amazon campaign, but here is a summary of the key to-dos from the Amazon SEO guide for those going at it alone or wondering how to improve SEO on Amazon:

• Conduct keyword analysis to determine how users are searching for your product. Amazon, like Google, uses keywords in your product copy to help determine which searches to rank your page for. Typing search terms into Amazon’s search box and seeing what Amazon suggests is a simple way to choose your keyword targets. Amazon’s suggestions are the most popular search terms people use. Once you determine the keyword terms that consumers use when searching for your type of products, be sure to use them throughout your product listing.
• Keep an eye on competitors or leaders in the category. Marketers should conduct a regular (quarterly, monthly, etc.) competitor analysis on Amazon for your product category to keep tabs on the landscape. Analyze how your competitors are pricing and promoting their products. Also look at the type of content they are providing to users. Look for content that provides a good user experience and helps users make informed purchases.
• Be sure that your product titles are set up as best as possible. Have the brand name and product category in the product title (e.g., Saucony Winter Running Shoes). Keep your product title to 60 to 80 characters long. Use standard product descriptors and not flashy terms like “best-selling,” “top,” “best,” etc.
• Have strong product descriptions. Have detailed information about your products including specific features, ideal uses, etc. Also include information to help customers find, evaluate and purchase products. Be sure to include brand names, material, colors and sizes. Provide bullet points (up to five) around key features like product size/dimensions, age recommendations, ideal environments for the product, skill level, country of origin, and any other important highlights.
• Use Amazon’s Search Terms feature. Be sure to use Amazon’s back-end search terms feature, which allows you to assign descriptive keywords around your products and is also referenced by A9 as part of its ranking algorithm.
• Use high-quality product images. Every product detail page requires a minimum of one product image. Six images and one video are recommended. Be sure images are high-quality and aim for 500 x 500 or 1,000 x 1,000 pixels.
• If you’re a professional seller and have a registered brand owner, use A+ content. A+ content is a premium content feature, which allows sellers to change the product description of their branded ASINs by using rich texts, videos and images.
• Test and constantly optimize your content. Be sure to test different content, messaging, layouts and even pricing if possible. The 4 Ps of marketing (product, price, place and promotion) also apply to Amazon. Pricing is particularly key since customers obviously tend to be sensitive to it and Amazon provides price sorting features that affect the order your product page is presented.
• Have a review promotion strategy. Product reviews are another performance-related factor that’s part of Amazon’s algorithm. When doing a search, you’ll notice that products that rank at the top for a broad product search often have more reviews than those lower down on the list. Solicit reviews from customers wherever possible. Reach out to unhappy customers, if possible, to resolve issues and negative sentiment.
• Promote your Amazon storefront in off-Amazon content. Be sure to add links to your Amazon storefront to communications (e.g., emails, websites, etc.) and other off-Amazon marketing content. Links help drive traffic and SEO value to your pages and help it rank in search engines like Google. 

Amazon has strategically built a moat around its e-commerce experience and continues to be the leader in the industry when it comes to e-commerce. Brands should work with a dedicated Amazon marketing team to help keep up to date on Amazon’s algorithm and visit Amazon’s seller hub for new tips (like the above) and marketing ideas.