Amazon is now the first place most online shoppers visit on their path to purchase. That’s according to a 2,000-person survey by BloomReach, which found that around 55 percent of people start their spending sprees by searching the marketplace.
Want to turn those browsers into buyers? Here is our round-up of essential tips for optimizing your Amazon SEO and growing your sales.
#1. Keyword research
Anyone can set up an Amazon seller profile, but not everyone has the business acumen to make it succeed.
Keyword research is vital to this success. Once you discover your high-value keywords, you can learn how to incorporate them into all aspects of your profile page to push your products out there.
Ultimately, Amazon is passionate about providing the right product options to the right customers, which explains why it’s not as straightforward as it should be.
According to JungleScout, humans don’t usually like reading long sentences. But with Amazon’s algorithm, long sentences could mean that an online seller has strategically included all of that product’s relevant search terms. Those terms could have been included in the title, description or even images.
You need to do some serious competitor and industry research before you get up and running on Amazon. Don’t drown yourself trying to find the best keyword research tool: BigCommerce has written an extensive guide about how to manage the Amazon search engine.
Suggested reading: 6 overlooked competitor analysis steps tov Amazon listing optimization
#2. Mobile optimization
People tend to think of optimization in relation to desktop, forgetting that 63 percent of millennials use mobile devices for online shopping. With that in mind, there are a couple measures that can be taken when it comes to mobile optimization.
Similar to the process of optimizing images, titles and descriptions to look enticing on a desktop view, you must always check that everything looks optimal when viewed on mobile devices. Consider that all the aspects of the Amazon product page will look different on smartphones and tablets. Here are a couple of things to note for difference in appearance desktop versus mobile:
- Image sizes
- Amazon product search
- Amazon product detail pages
For more information on the difference in product visibility between desktop and mobile, check out CPC Strategy’s take on it.
Suggested reading: How to optimize your e-commerce site for mobile checkout
#3. Split testing
When it comes to Amazon, you can’t leave anything up to chance, especially if it’s going to impact your profit margins—that’s what split testing is for.
Typically speaking, when conducting a split or A/B test on your website, you select a particular element and create two or more versions of it to test in order to judge what will be the best option to move forward with.
Amazon is a whole different ballgame. You can test images, titles descriptions and pricing, and run several tests.
Just remember that split testing isn’t something to tick off your to-do list once and park it there. You must consistently run tests for them to be truly effective, the end goal being improved metrics such as click or conversion rates.
Suggested reading: Split testing–the Amazon seller’s secret weapon
#4. Run promotions to increase sales velocity
Everyone loves a good promotion, right? But it’s not just on the marked days of the year like Black Friday, Mother’s Day and post-holiday sales that they look forward to—you should also think about promotions at slightly more random times of the year
On the one hand, it helps your overall business, encourages brand awareness, retains current customers and entices new ones. But let’s face it, it’s also great for getting rid of stale inventory.
Let’s rewind a second and discuss sales velocity.
It sounds complex, but broken down it clearly explains factors you should consider when amplifying your sales through promotions:
- the number of leads
- the average deal size
- your conversion rate
- the length of your sales cycle
If you keep these factors in mind, it will give you a better scope of what type of promotion you can afford to run. Amazon is very encouraging of external traffic and marketplace deals, as long as you abide by the rules. If you need some ideas for promotions, check out what Shopify has come up with.
Suggested reading: Why sales velocity is the ultimate marketing-sales alignment metric
#5. Sales rank
As an Amazon seller, you want your products to rank—and fast! Ultimately, it boils down to optimizing your profile in every way possible so that it’s easier for online shoppers to find it. But the real hack here is winning the Buy Box.
It’s the peak point that online sellers always want to reach and maintain, but how? If you want to increase your ranking in order to improve your chances of winning the Buy Box, you have to first meet Amazon’s expectations. Check out our guide below to learn more.
Suggested reading: How to win the Amazon Buy Box: the ultimate guide
#6. Increasing product reviews
According to a BrightLocal survey, 85 percent of consumers said they read up to 10 reviews before trusting an e-commerce business, highlighting that online sellers need to be consistent with both the quality and quantity of their reviews. To do this, you have to be strategic about the types of customers you reach out to.
As Phil Masiello, Amazon expert and current online sellers, puts it, “Buyers trust reviews and Amazon has train
ed consumers to look for and use reviews. Plus, you will show up below other sellers of similar items who have better reviews. That is how valuable reviews are.”
For example, if you have just finished dealing with a customer and they were happy with the experience, it would be wise to ask for a review. But if you’re dealing with an order where there was at least one support ticket submitted with confusion or complaints, it wouldn’t be the best idea to ask for a review in that case.
This whole process is easier when you have a system automating review requests for you.
“To get reviews, you need a good feedback system,” Masiello says. “Communication with your buyers is critical to getting reviews and turning bad reviews into good reviews.”
In saying that, you want to make sure you have a variety of views to give your customers a realistic expectation of your product and overall service.
Suggested reading: How to get more Amazon reviews and drive sales
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