1) Amazon BSR (Amazon Best Seller Rank)

Amazon BSR is your products’ sales rank on Amazon out of the total number of products in your category.

In short, it measures your sales velocity on Amazon compared to competitors and other products you may be measuring.  You typically want to measure this metric over time vs. a competing product.

You’ve heard that old adage “it takes money to make money” yeah?

Well, as far as Amazon SEO goes, it takes sales to make sales.

Remember I mentioned CTS earlier?

Click To Sale is your conversion rate on Amazon.  How many people are clicking on your listing and actually buying instead of leaving your listing or even worse, existing Amazon all together?

The more you improve your listing CTS (conversion rates), the better your Amazon BSR will be.

This is like a golf score, you want a lower number here.  The better your BSR is, the higher your Amazon Product Listings will appear in search results.

2) Amazon Keywords

Okay, this first piece is important to understand.  There is no extra benefit to repeating keywords throughout your listings on Amazon.

Back in the day in SEO, this used to be called keyword stuffing.  In other words, repeating your keywords over and over in hopes that you appear higher in the search results.

Amazon SEO Keywords Best Practices:

1. Select a set of Amazon keywords that are buyer intent keywords.
2. Don’t repeat the same keywords over and over.
3. Use a broad array of Amazon keywords.
4. Use them in the Search Terms section of the back end of your listings on Amazon.
5. Use them in the title.
6. Use them in the bullet points.
7. Use them in the long description.

Only repeat the Amazon keywords if it makes contextual sense in the product copy.

Okay, so we know we NEED keywords but how do we get them?

Well, there are lots of tools out there that will let you know what people are searching for on Amazon.

I recommend and use Merchant Words.

The idea behind tools like this is that they can tell you what people are searching for on Amazon when they want to buy your product.

Amazon SEO Keyword Research PRO Tip:

You can use Amazon itself for FREE to identify what people are looking for.

Here’s how:

How To Use Amazon Search Suggestions For Amazon SEO Keyword Research:

1. Go to the Amazon Search Field
2. Start Entering an Amazon Keyword or Your Product
3. Look at the Drop Down List

See those keywords?  Amazon is telling you what people frequently search for to buy your product.  Those are a great start in terms of selecting Amazon Keywords for Amazon Listing Optimization of your listings on Amazon.

3) Amazon Features and Bullet Points

This is the bullet points section of your listings on Amazon.

See what’s going on here?

The Features / Bullet Points feature a lot of keywords related to the product, specific things the product has/does /includes and also SPEAKS to who it is for.

These product features/bullet points are also written in the vernacular, or terminology of how their customer would talk.

If you want to learn more about Amazon Bullet Points, check out:  How To Write Amazon Bullet Points

4) Amazon Product Description

For Amazon SEO, your product description is really where the rubber meets the road.

This is where you want to make sure you are thorough and really stick to the elements of a great product description, just like in all of eCommerce.

Here is what they are:

Amazon SEO Friendly Product Description Best Practices:

• Benefit heavy, focusing on benefits over features.
• Written how your target customer would normally talk
• Skimmable
• Captions, bullets, numbered lists
• Includes Images
• Technical specifications
• Answers questions
• Features

Again, there is no benefit to keyword stuffing in your listings on Amazon.  As long as your Amazon keywords are in there at least once, you are in a good place for Amazon SEO.

Plus, keyword stuffing reduces conversions as it isn’t fluid and doesn’t sound like a human wrote it.

But it doesn’t stop here…

5) Brand and Manufacturer Part Number

There is a lot of benefit in putting your manufacturer part number and the brand name of your product in your title.

Here is what I am talking about:

If you take away nothing else from writing effective Amazon Product Title’s for Amazon SEO, understand that placing your Brand in the product title is incredibly important and is a MUST DO.

Why To Add Your Brand In Your Product Title For Amazon SEO:

• Your product will be eligible for Amazon brand search filters
• People search for specific brands on Amazon
• You are telling Amazon what brand your product is

Registering your brand through Amazon Brand Registry will help improve your Amazon SEO through the brand prioritization and additional tools it affords to brand registered sellers.

As for manufacturer part number, depending on your niche this could be incredibly important.

Let’s say you are selling car parts or parts.  People often read the part number off a manual or instructions and then search for that specifically.

This goes for a lot of industries and you want to broadcast this in the product title rather than burying it in your listing.

6) Specifications

Remember earlier when we were searching for a red shoe?  This is where you specify the important details that separate your product from others such as color, size, upc, weight, part numbers, etc.

Let’s have a look at the specifications for a top ranking welder.

Notice how every key detail is filled in?

This is where attention to detail and filling out every field really pays off.

I’ll tell you, a lot of manufacturers have a data organization problem meaning, they don’t have data feeds, or spreadsheets on the ready with all of this information for all of their products.

See the problem with that?

That means, when it comes to getting found, whether it be Amazon, Google or other marketplaces & sales channels they are at a disadvantage.

7) Categories, Browse & Leaf Nodes

Now, getting as specific as possible with your category and sub-category on Amazon really makes a difference for Amazon SEO.

See how specific this welder gets with its product categories?

8) Amazon Search Terms

Did you know that there is a section on the back end of an Amazon listing where you can specify what search terms you want to be found for?

Well, there is.  There are 5 boxes that allow 50 characters where you can enter the Amazon Keywords you choose based on your Amazon Keyword Research.

In actuality, you should use it like it were one long 250 character text entry box.

Remember earlier when we were talking about keyword stuffing = bad?  Well, here it is GOOD, so enter as many Amazon keywords as will fit!  It’s great for your Amazon SEO.

Amazon Categories & Sub-Categories are routed to Browse Nodes, Amazons’ internal classification of categories. 

From there, they are routed to Amazon Leaf Nodes. 

What are Amazon Leaf Nodes?

Amazon Leaf Nodes are internal references to product categories and sub-categories that only Amazon Seller Support can see.

When you first create a product on Amazon using their Seller Central User Interface or an Inventory Flat File, you select the categories and sub-categories that your products belong in.

Once you’ve selected your Categories and Sub-Categories, your products are supposed to get assigned to the corresponding Browser Nodes.

Then, from the Browser Nodes, your products are assigned to more specific Leaf Nodes. 

Things like keywords are understood and routed through Amazons’ search algorithm by their connection to Leaf Nodes. 

If you are having trouble ranking for keywords or not getting impressions on ads that you are trying to run on specific keywords, you will want to check in with Seller Support to verify your product is assigned to the correct Leaf Nodes or any Leaf Nodes at all.   

How Do You Know If You Have Leaf Nodes/The Correct Leaf Nodes?

Ever since the development of the Amazon SAS Core, Amazons’ paid tier of Seller Support, Amazon Sellers have started learning about their IDQ score, which is Amazons’ internal metric which you cannot see in Seller Central that essentially amounts to Listing Completeness.

Leaf Nodes are part of this IDQ score.   

SAS Core representatives have been distributing a defective ASIN report that again, is not available in regular Seller Central and on the report, they will specify if your product has been added to Leaf Nodes or not. 

What this has revealed is, many times, just because you select the correct product categories and sub-categories, it doesn’t mean that Amazon will connect your product to the corresponding Leaf Nodes, which is critical for Amazon Listing Optimization.

9) Amazon Source Keyword

This is really cool.

Did you know?

One of the factors Amazon determines on whether to rank your product vs. another product is Click Through Rate (just like Google!) and how well it converts (turns into a sale) for a given Amazon keyword.

In other words, this sequence of events happens:

1. You go to Amazon and type in OnePlus 5T Case.
2. You click on a case for your smartphone that you like.
3. You buy that product.

You have just told Amazon to rank that particular product higher for OnePlus 5T Case.

Here’s how:

See this?

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=oneplus+5t+case

That’s the URL for the search example I just gave you.

Take that one step farther and click on a product:

Amazon’s Choice (really great for Amazon SEO) is this product:

https://www.amazon.com/Oneplus-KuGi-Resistant-Flexible-smartphone/dp/B076RM928N/ref=sr_1_3?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1526313124&sr=1-3&keywords=oneplus+5t+case

See that?!

At the end of the URL are the keywords!

So wait, are you saying I should give out THAT link?

No, that could be seen as intent to game the system which violates Amazon’s terms of service.

I’m saying Amazon keeps track of what product listings convert for what keywords people enter into the Amazon search bar.

Do you want to know the best link you can give out?

The root URL.

See how that stops at the ASIN?  That’s the link you want to give as it is the link to the root or main listing for your product listings on Amazon without modifiers.

You mentioned people clicking on my listing for certain keywords,

Is that important and how do I get them to do that?

10) Amazon Click Through Rate (CTR)

For people to buy your products, they need to click through to your listings on Amazon.

The number of people that see your listing vs. the number of people that actually click through is your CTR, click through rate.

So how can we make people click on our Amazon product listing?

11) Amazon Product Titles

Let’s have a look at one of the top listings for the search term “Inflatable Air Mattress”

Here is what we are looking at:

We can deduce they are trying to appear for:

• Queen Size Luxury Raised Mattress
• Best Inflatable Airbed With Built-In Pump
• Elevated Raised Air Mattress Quilt Top

Amazon Conversion Rate Optimization Tip:

They are doing a great job of Amazon Listing Optimization by reducing buyer risk right out front in the product title by citing their 1-year guarantee.  Good on them!

You want to make sure the product titles of your listings on Amazon have these attributes or qualities:

Amazon SEO Product Title Best Practices:

• Appealing
• Descriptive
• Include a Brand Name
• Include Manufacturer Part Numbers & Model Numbers as Necessary
• Benefit Driven
• Include The Amazon Keywords

12) Amazon Reviews

92% of consumers read online reviews.

You not only are after a high star rating but also the number of reviews.

It’s nigh impossible to get Amazon SEO results without strong Amazon Reviews.

Need help with this?  I wrote an article called: How To Get Reviews on Amazon that takes a deep dive into how to get Amazon reviews with some highlights including the Amazon Request a Review Button.

Okay, now we have people on our listing.  How do we sell to them?

The name of the game is to drive revenue for Amazon and they will reward you with visibility.

Once you have someone on your Amazon Product Listing, here are the factors that turn them into paying customers.

13) Amazon Product Images & Amazon Product Videos

There are a few components to successful Amazon product images but the thing to know for Amazon SEO is the magic number is 6.

Also, a few other items of note:

Amazon SEO Product Image Best Practices:

• Images need to have an all-white background
• Images need to be square and as for dimensions:  1,000 pixels wide by 1,000 pixels tall (1,000 x 1,000) in order to be zoomable.
  • Details matter and zooming in to see how something connects or the type of material used do make a difference.
• If you can provide 3d product views that will significantly increase conversion rates
• If you can provide videos that will also significantly increase conversion rates

Let’s look at that smartphone case example from earlier:

Their images illustrate the value, benefits & features of the product you are considering to buy.

They show the product flexing, they show the durability, they show the size, it describes the item and how it enhances & improves your experience with your OnePlus 5T.

Which behavioral economics tricks are going on here?

• They are answering questions about the product in the imagery
• They are objection handling in the product imagery
• They are giving a frame of reference in the imagery
• They are illustrating what the product looks like & feels like in the real world in use so you can picture yourself using it, therefore one step closer to a purchasing decision

You want your image to:

• Illustrate what your product is, does and who it is for in about 1 seconds time
• Illustrate the value or benefit your product gives
• Have a white background

That being said, did you know you can pack EVEN MORE imagery into product listings by being Brand Registered on Amazon?

Brands that are a part of the Amazon Brand Registry have access to powerful selling tools that non-brand registered brands do not, such as:

• Amazon A+ Content
• Amazon Product Listing Video
• Amazon Storefronts

These are immensely powerful conversion tools and as we know, the better your product listings convert, the better your Amazon product search rankings will be.

14) Product Listing Completeness

This part isn’t hard to wrap your head around.  As you’re going through and creating your product listings on Amazon, complete as many sections as possible.

The more you have filled out, the better Amazon Listing Optimization you have.

Think of it this way, the more data you enter, the easier time Amazon has at figuring out who to show your product to.

15) Amazon Product Price

There is no way around this.  The Amazon A10 algorithm keeps tabs on what products convert at what price and understands that people are shopping for good deals.

When browsing the first page of Amazon search results for any given Amazon keyword, you will notice some have great reviews, some have lots of reviews, some have higher prices and some have lower.

The idea is finding a mix of great reviews, lots of reviews and a low price.  That’s the golden ticket.

Don’t meet all 3 criteria?  Well, a drastically low price while you build your reviews will help you rank higher.

It will also help you get that buy box.

16) Amazon Parent-Child Products

Earlier in this article, I mentioned that scattered data in eCommerce is a bad thing.  This is a way that Amazon deals with that.

Let’s look at the example of the phone case:

These are child products.  The different colors of the case are not separate products all together with a different ASIN, rather they are child products of the parent product.

The idea here is that your different options are all listed on the same Amazon product listing for the benefit of:

Parent Child Variation Best Practices For Amazon SEO:

• Accruing all of your reviews in one place.
• Keeping product data clean.
• Letting Amazon know this is all the same product.
• Letting customers know this is all the same product, just different colors.

17) Time on Page

Just as with Google, Amazon evaluates the time someone spends on your product listing and equates it to value and likelihood to buy.

So, time on Page is just that, how long a customer spends on a page before buying or bouncing (leaving – coming up in 18).

So what’s the idea?  2 things.

Time on Page For Amazon SEO:

1. You want the customer to stay on your listing and consume the content of your listing while evaluating to make a purchase.  In other words, stay on your listing.
2. Do not leave your listing.  Buy.

18) Bounce Rate

Bounce Rate is when someone visits your product listing and then leaves through one method or another.  They could visit another product listing through an ad on your product listing, they could go back to the search bar and look for another product or something else; but the bottom line is, they leave.

Someone visiting your listing, not taking an action and leaving is a bad thing and negatively impacts your search visibility on Amazon.

19) Questions & Answers

Don’t ignore these…

Amazon wants to make sure you are supporting your product and they evaluate questions and answers as part of their A10 algorithm in deciding on how high to show your product listing.  So if you want your product to appear higher in Amazon product relate searches, then answer those questions!

Amazon SEO Pro Tip:  

You can mine your sales copy from your customers’ questions.