Amazon Rank algorithms Explained

A time comes when the critical thing matters the most. If you are an Amazon seller, you understand that to sell on Amazon successfully, you must know and apply specific ranking strategies. There are many ‘how to’ formulas out there that try to explain various ranking strategies. It is good to pursue them and find out what works for you. This is because what works for another may not necessarily work for you. However, Understanding Amazon’s ranking algorithm is the ultimate game changer. It is the sure way to succeeding as an Amazon seller. It enables you to forge your own optimization strategies that set you apart from your competitors. The Amazon ranking algorithm is so fundamental that your success or failure literally depends on how well you understand it. Understand the rules of the game and apply them with your unique moves and experience unlimited success. To succeed at tweaking the influential factors within your control, you have to be well acquainted with the logic behind ranking algorithm.

Why Ranking High Means Better Sales

Most buyers hardly search for products beyond the first three pages. This is true for Google as well as Amazon. Unlike Google, which displays just ten results per page, Amazon displays sixteen. It follows that a product ranked among the forty eight of the first three pages of the search results stands a much higher chance of purchase than those ranked in lower pages. Therefore, to succeed at Amazon as a seller, focus your ranking efforts at hitting the top three pages. The higher, the better.

Stepping in Amazon’s Shoes

If you intend to understand Amazon’s ranking criteria well, step in their shoes and learn why they do what they do. Yours is a balancing act, because you also have to step into the buyer’s shoes to know their search preferences. Amazon’s major objective is to have as maximize purchases from its site. This they do by displaying products in form of search results with a view that buyers are likely to click on them and place an order. Amazon applies two steps to achieve this goal, as explained below.

1. Filtering Matching Products

The first step is to filter matching products according to possible search queries by users. It would be very hectic for a user to scroll through all the over 470 million products on Amazon. It is incumbent upon Amazon to narrow down the results, based on the user’s query, to the specific category of the product needed. For a product to be eligible for selection as a result for a search query, it must have all the keywords posted in the search query. In this case, various aspects of a product are captured. These include the product, description, brand, seller’s name, bullet points and color, among others. As a seller who is intend on achieving a higher ranking of your product, you must fill in this information regarding your product to stand a chance of appearing among the top results.

2. The Matching Products Are Ranked According to Purchase Likelihood

The various factors considered by Amazon during this second step are categorized into two: Performance factors, which show ho popular with the customers a product is, and relevance factors, which show best a product matches a search query. Performance factors are based on CTR (Click Through Rate), rate of conversion and actual sales, while relevance factors depend on the keywords used and their positioning. Thus, Amazon’s logic here is to show users ‘performing’ products, with a view that they will continue performing, as well as products that fit in the search query in terms of keywords.

CTR shows how often users click on a product after it has been displayed to them. The higher the CTR, the more popular a product is, and vice versa. Most clicked items are raked higher than those less clicked. On the other hand, conversion is about the second click by a user after making up his mind to purchase a product. Amazon’s logic is that a product that has been clicked the most and sold the most is more likely to sell more, especially to new users. Hence the reason why it is ranked higher. It should be noted that CTR and conversion rate go together. A product cannot have a very high CTR and very low conversion rate. This only implies that users are very impressed with a product at first glance, but that is where it stops. It means first impressions are not good enough to warrant the subsequent purchase of the product. Such products that attract high CTR but very low conversions eventually drop in ranking.

CTR is influenced by such factors as rating, feature preview, cost of delivery, availability, title, brand, image, price, FBA/prime, product category and bestseller label, among other factors.

As a seller, you can really boost your product sales, not only by observing the above factors, but also by how you choose your keywords. You may not be able to directly influence sales, but at least you have control over the factors that influence the sales. So, be aware that both relevance and performance factors matter. They are very complementary in their contribution to your products ranking.

Ebook Pricing: 3 Factors you Should Consider

How do I price my ebook? This is one of the most asked questions. Although different authors have different strategies, this article will look at the common strategies that can help you sell your ebook and attract sales.

The best price for an ebook depends on factors such as:

  • Goals of the ebook
  • Market niche where you plan to sell it
  • What other authors of the same genre of books charge

Goals for the ebook

The first thing an author needs to contemplate is why are they writing the book? The pricing of your content will be determined by what you want to accomplish. Some authors write content to lure readers to buy something from their sites. In such a case, you might need to offer a free book to convince readers to buy a more expensive product.

Market Niche where you plan to sell the ebook or kindle

There are various approaches for selling ebooks. When you decide to sell on your website, you book would cost different compared to when you sell on sites such as Amazon with various programs. You can also sell it on mass platforms where other dozens of books are sold.

Look at what other authors of the same genre of books charge

First, it is important to learn that you do not have the price the same as other authors. But, its pays to know how the same others with your genre or content offer especially if your book will also feature in the other sites alongside your competitor’s books. If you are working on a fifty-page book and intending to sell it at $30 while other authors are also selling something similar to the same length at $3, you will not see many sales if the two are being sold on the same platform. However, if you are selling from your site, you might have the freedom to control pricing without considering the competition in the market. If you look at Amazon, you will see that the most bestseller ebooks have a price ranging from $3 to $7. The lower the price, the more you are likely to sell.

You need to understand that lower pricing expand the audience, and that translates to better revenues. Pricing is one of the ways that authors get an entry level in the market. When you have a bigger audience, you are likely to get better revenues. However, content with small audiences would attract a higher price to break even.

People that already have an audience and reputation can always sell content at their set price because they sell the authority more than the ebook itself. If you offer unique content regularly, people would not mind buying your content at whatever price.

Amazon: Does Keyword Density have an impact on rankings?

With the internet becoming the dominant platform for buying and selling, people are looking for ways to ensure that they rank highly on the major e-commerce sites. This article will look if keyword stuffing improves your rankings on Amazon. Experiments were carried out to analyze the impact of different keyword ratios on Amazon ranking algorithm. Various experiments have been conducted with keywords placed on different Amazon listing.

Keyword Density

The keywords were placed at the bulletin points, product title, seller central search terms, and product description. Several groups of products were created for the experiment with each group consisting of four products with a specific keyword. The keyword was after that entered one to four times in different keyword fields as listed above and the other things remaining equal about the product. The search query was then done on the different products and rankings checked.

The results of the experiment showed no systematic relationship that existed between the ranking of the product and keyword density. It seemed ranking was not affected by the keywords on Amazon instead it is determined randomly for identical products with a specific keyword.

Insights from the experiment for Amazon Optimization

  • Rankings on Amazon is not improved or affected by repeating keywords in the different keyword fields.
  • Amazon algorithm does not punish repetition of keywords

Since you have realized that repeating same keywords does not improve your rankings on Amazon, it is better that you do not waste the space but instead, find many other unique, relevant keywords that would ensure that the product is highly listed with as many search terms. Make sure you put the important keyword in the title, bullets, description, and search terms.

Don’t Forget Google

While repeating keywords are not effective on Amazon searches, it remains an effective method for higher ranking on SEO. It means it is useful repeating the keywords when writing product description. Remember that Keyword repetition does not mean keyword stuffing. This is because a well-written product description with keywords would enhance rankings on the major search engines and there is enough space for more keyword, unlike the other keyword field that has limited space.

How to generate more Reviews on your Amazon Products?

Shopping trends have changed a lot over the past years. Many more people have taken to online shopping than ever before. This is informed by the increasingly busy modern lifestyles. Online shopping not only saves time, but also effort. However, the tricky part is knowing the worth of what one intends to buy. This is where reviews come in handy. Most only shoppers go through product reviews before making a final purchase decision. Hence the reason why as a seller you should manage your product reviews with utmost care. Knowing how vital they are, it is also prudent to learn how to generate them in order to stay on top of your game. Unfortunately, very few customers post reviews after using a product. Hence the reason why you should come up with ingenious ways of generating your product reviews.

Set Up an Email Campaign

One way of generating reviews is setting up an email campaign. The campaign keeps tabs on the customer from the time they make their purchase to the time they use the product and have an idea of how good it is. However, the campaign is not supposed to intrude and interfere with the private life of the shopper. It is only meant to influence the customer to get back and give a review of the product. Thus, implementation of the campaign should be systematic and and strategic. Not only will you see a surge in reviews, the communication channels opened up also help prevent negative reviews.

The Approach

Applying the email strategy needs caution, lest you become bothersome and intrusive to shoppers. Send only two to three emails per product purchase. Sending more emails than these may appear disrespectful, and the shopper may in turn choose to ignore them, especially when he feels they are a nuisance. So, how strategically do you send the emails?

Send Email 2 Days After Delivery

Let your first email be a plain customer service email. Send it a few days after delivery of the goods. Acknowledge their purchase of the product and inquire whether it was delivered on time and in one piece. Find out whether it is in good working condition. At this point, it is prudent not to ask for any reviews yet. Chances are they are yet to use the product.

Send Email 2 After The Shopper Has Used the Product

Give the customer a few more days to use the product before sending a follow up email. The length of time given depends on the nature and category of the product. By sending this email, you assume that the customer has used and evaluated the product. He should therefore be able to give honest, unbiased feedback about it.

Sending a third email maybe necessary or unnecessary depending on the response you get from the first two emails. So, use your discretion and creativity to decide whether to send one more email or to stop the campaign for this specific product and customer at this point.

The final step: Monitor feedbacks

Track your customers reviews by using our free tool for Amazon online monitoring in multiple countries.

Amazon: How to React to Negative Product Reviews

Positive product reviews and ratings is what drives sales of a product. The more they are, the more popular with buyers the product becomes. However, it is not always wise to focus much on the positives and forget that sometimes the tide turns. A single negative review and rating can go a long way in dragging down sales of a product. Most users visit the negative reviews to check for any issues they may have to handle while using the product. No seller would love to encounter such serious decrease in sales due to negative reviews and ratings. Perhaps knowing how to handle them could help tone down the effects of negative reviews and ratings.

Contact Customer to Revisit Their Review

This is probably the best option to deal with negative reviews. Try to convince the customer to revisit and review their comments retrospectively. The idea is to have the customer either delete the review altogether or revise it so the damage is controlled. At best, the customer revises the review so that it is positive. In this case you don’t have to worry about losing your vital review. At worst, the customer withdraws the review altogether. In this scenerio, you lose the review, but remember you lose its negative effect as well.

Contact Amazon to Remove the Negative Review

Here, the only possible option is the removal of the review. There is always that bad feeling associated with losing your review count, but you always lose its negative effect as well, which augurs well for you. It should be noted here that Amazon can only remove a review that doesn’t comply with its review guidelines.

Comment on the Review Publicly

If it isn’t possible to contact the customer to revisit and revise or remove the negative review, or if you can’t find good reason enough to convince Amazon to remove it, this option remains to be exploited. Publicly commenting on the criticism can help mitigate the effects of the review. The review is not removed, so its negative effect remains, but your response can help neutralize the effect or tone it down. You can do this by assuring the public that you have taken measures to ensure that such an issue never arises again.

How to sell products on Amazon?

When you are starting a new company, you always want your products to get to the market and reach as many potential customers as possible. Amazon has made that possible because, with an influx of over 80000 new commodities in the market daily, it has proven to be the choice for many people.

Studies show in the next two years Amazon will be reaching over $100 billion in yearly sales. Over 40 percent of the amount will be attributed to third party sellers. It means therefore that $40 billion will be going to independent merchants. This is an opportunity that you would not with to let go because the merchants pocket the most money, even though Amazon is the largest retailer in the US.

Selling your products online on Amazon is one of the easiest and effective ways to reach millions of prospective buyers. Whether you are a startup with few units to sell or an established enterprise with many units to sell, Amazon provides a level playing field for all players in the market. The site has the required tools that will help you sell successfully.

What you need before you can start selling

You need to start by registering an amazon seller account. Some of the documents that you will need to complete the registration include:
• Credit card
• Company registration details
• Phone number
• Primary Contact person information
• Bank account information
• Beneficiary owner information

Once you have registered the account, starting to sell on Amazon is not as complex as many would imagine. Some of the steps that will help you start out include:

• You must first figure out how many units of products you intend to sell.
• When you already know the number of units, you will need to connect with GSI, which is an organization that offers companies barcodes, to get EPC barcode or UAN.
• Once you have the EPC barcode and you will needs the SKU (self-created stock keep unit) which will help you monitor your inventory.
• After that, you can proceed to choose the Amazon category that fits your product description.
• Ensure you meet the requirements such as photos that go with your listing on the website. At this stage, you will need to provide a brief company and product description and the distinguishing features that the product is made of such as material. Also, offer information on dimensions, weight, shipping modalities on international and domestic locations. You must also state if you need Amazon to handle the shipping logistics.

Uploading your listings

Once you have registered and you are ready to begin selling, then you need to use the web-based tools to upload your product listings. You must state if you need Amazon to pack, and ship your products to the customer as well as offering customer services to customers in their local market language.

Listing your products allows millions of people around the world to see your products. Besides, if you make your listings open to Fulfilled by Amazon, the products become eligible to free and fast delivery options and more visibility. The FBA features help products get more sales because they enable them to compete for Buy box.

The importance of selling your products by Amazon is that when an order is placed on your products, Amazon informs you via email and on your central seller dashboard. The fulfillment takes care of picking, storage, packing and shipping and you have the option of delivering the goods yourself.

Receiving your payments

The net of seller’s fees is what is deposited in the bank of the owners account. You will also receive notification once payment is sent to your bank account.

The reason Amazon is the king of e-commerce sites around the world

Amazon is the leader of electronic commerce sites. Most of the people that want to buy will always navigate to Amazon to get products. As a seller, you stand to benefit so much if use Amazon as your e-commerce platform. Many people think that switching from owning products to selling them on Amazon is such a difficult task.

The site makes it easier for people to sell through their fulfillment program. At a small fee, Amazon will handle the customer care, shipping costs, and payment modalities. Amazon makes the life for the merchant easier and convenient because you can sell without the hassle of how the product will reach your customer.

If you are looking for a place with traffic that you can sell your products, Amazon is the site for you, it has over 200 million products with over 175 million visitors per month. Did you know on Cyber Monday alone there were 16 million items that were sold by third party sellers? Studies show that Amazon is not slowing down anytime soon because more people around the world are embracing online selling and it is their e-commerce of choice.

Write efficient Bulletpoints and Sell more on Amazon

Internet users have short span attentions when they visit the cyberspace. They always quickly skim over many product listings to decide on which one they will buy. When it comes to the selling your products on Amazon, the way you present content plays a significant role in holding and attracting attention.

In this fast-paced society, people want as much information as they can get in the shortest of time. Creating product listings are essential to answering questing lingering in the mind of internet users and helps increase visibility.

Traits of effective product listing

Accurate and clear data

You need to use simple and short sentences and paragraphs that a reader can easily scan. Your product listing needs to be accurate because it helps build a loyal customer base. Precise and truthful information encourages positive feedback due to buyer satisfaction. Misleading information brings negative feedback that destroys an online reputation.

Have a product title

Ensure you have a catchy title that attracts customers to your site. Create titles that ensure high ranking in search engine listings. Amazon has guidelines for listing products on their site. A great product description attracts, seduces and tempts the person browsing to buy the product. Since buyers cannot touch a product like the brick and mortar stores, you need to use sensory words that make the potential buyer feel the experience before even touching it.

Using bulletin points and subheadings

The essence of bulleting points is to display your product in sizable pieces because the brains tend to feel lazy when its chunk of information. Rather than having endless paragraphs, bulletin helps you break up the content into sections that the reader can scan.

When listing, key features using bulletin makes it easier for users to decide quickly if the product is suitable or not. The benefits of using bulletin points are:

• Displays essential components of a product at a glance
• Simplifies and explains features that are described in details elsewhere
• It enables linking to videos, blog posts, testimonials that would help a customer make informed choices

Using bullets focuses on creating the ability for the Internet user to read quickly and understand what is entailed of a product. You need to use simple, descriptive terms that entice a reader to buy a product.
In the past product description was first full of wordy sentences after that a list of features. However, that has changed because today, people want to see short listings first then it will determine if they are willing to spend time reading the other wordy content. The other options people are going for is integrating bulleting points with the product description, and it works well when the product listings are placed just after the introductory paragraph.

You will notice that not more than seven bullet points can explain most products. Although some products are highly detailed, you need to consider only the relevant aspects. No one would want to sacrifice their shopping session to read long bullets with the sole purpose of determining its suitability.

What are the selling points that you need to include in your product listings

• Dimensions of height, weight and length
• Materials used to make the products
• Unique and prominent features
• Warranty information
• The company and place the product was manufactured, example US, China.
• Special care instructions such as hand wash only, etc

The bulletin allows you to keep the points sweet and short. While Amazon has its listing format, you need to understand that creativity in listing your product will help you in selling the product. Bulletin should also not replace product description because, once a person has had an overview of the product, they will need further information to look at the suitability of the product and that is where product description becomes necessary. If you lack product description, readers will rely elsewhere on to look for further details and those other places have links to competitive products on other sites.

5 ways to Rank better on Amazon

Amazon is a very powerful engine to rank in. In fact, it is better than Google in various aspects. No wonder the number of people who search for products on Amazon are three times more than those who search on Google. However, many emarketers are ignorant of the Amazon Algorithm. Hence the reason why they don’t realize desired results. Understanding how Amazon ranks goes a long way in helping you rise in the ranks and perform better. These five ways will open your eyes on how to rank better on Amazon so you are not frustrated again.

1. Pay attention to your product title

One of the key Amazon ranking factors is the Tile. Your approach to the title goes a long way in catapulting your product to the top.

While in Google the title has to be standardized, with the keyword appearing as close to the beginning as possible, on Amazon all you have to do is ensure that you stuff as many keywords in the title as possible. This is much simpler and easily doable. As a consequence, you may find a high ranking product on Amazon with a title that hardly makes sense!

However, from a visitor’s perspective, having an overoptimized title stuffed with keywords will give a bad impression and thus have a negative impact on your sales. Sooner than later, Amazon will begin to standardize titles.

Therefore, write a title that sells, but never forget that keywords are important.

2. Product Description

When it comes to the product description page, Amazon gives you full control. You are in charge here. Your approach to this page is very crucial to your ranking. Note that Amazon does not require you to optimize the description with the keyword. It is at your discretion to do so.

It is good to be as detailed as possible. Remember, this is where you expand on the bulleted points about the product. You may add product images and captions, and even capture extra tech information not captured in the tech specifications. How should your description look like? Make it simple, yet detailed, inviting, thorough and easy to skim.

3. Price

Pricing is a very vital factor to consider when ranking in Amazon. But why so? Because it is among the factors Amazon considers when determining the predicted conversion rate. Amazon understands pretty well that most customers go for best deals. One more reason why the price factor is important is because Amazon considers it as a key factor in deciding which product is to be shown in the buy box. The buy box is a component of the page with the ‘Add to Cart’ button.

4. Customer Reviews

The A9 Algorithm of Amazon considers customer reviews as one of the most important ranking factors. The effects of customer reviews are two-fold: First, it is about the numbers, and second, the nature of the reviews. The more reviews your product gets, the more it is likely to rank higher. However, the second comes into play regarding the overall effect of reviews on ranking. How positive are the reviews? You could have many reviews, but if there are more negative than positive reviews, expect it to affect your ranking negatively. If most or all of your reviews are positive, you will smile as Amazon props you upwards.

5. Product Categories

This may have been overlooked by many, but it is very important. Remember that once a customer has entered a given category, Amazon restricts all the other searches they perform by default to the same category. This will go on until the customer either returns to the homepage or prompts Amazon to show all departments. This implies that you have to take your product listing very seriously. Choose the most relevant and most narrow category for your product.

With this tips, you should now be better positioned to rank higher in Amazon and reap greater benefits. Avoid ignorance and complacency when it comes to ranking on Amazon. Any ranking factor you ignore is bound to affect your performance drastically. So, be on top of your game.