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Hacking your way to the top in Amazon search ranking

Selling on eCommerce platforms has reached higher echelons, especially for small-scale entrepreneurs. Today, selling on platforms like Amazon is easy, and it helps small businesses make a river of money by shipping their products all over the world. Amazon is also doing everything it can to support them. For instance, it was announced that Amazon had plans to invest a staggering $18 billion in 2020 to help small enterprises grow their sales.

Similarly, through Amazon's Global Selling Program, businesses can extend their wings and shop to nearly 17 international marketplaces in 200+ countries.


On the flip side, as thousands of businesses get together in a single platform, it gets extremely competitive. Your competitors will try to beat you in terms of prices and faster delivery. Due to this, the sellers must bring their best cards to the table if they want to beat their competitors. Your product must feature on the first page. Here are some facts to support this -

  • 70% of Amazon shoppers do not click past the first page results.

  • 35% of shoppers click on the first featured product in the search results.

  • The first 3 products steal the maximum number of clicks.

All these lead to the million-dollar question - If there are thousands of similar products as yours on Amazon, how do you make your product stand out from the crowd?


The answer is simpler than you think - “You catch Amazon’s search algorithm and use it to your advantage.” However, to hack into Amazon’s search algorithm and boost your sales, you first need to understand what factors affect Amazon’s search algorithm.



Amazon’s A9 algorithm

The A9 Amazon algorithm is behind that tiny little search bar you see when you visit Amazon’s home page. It is responsible for displaying recommended products based on customer’s preferences and past buying patterns. You can use this algorithm to stand out by optimizing your listings.


Compared to the entire process of improving a page rank in Google, the A9 algorithm is easy to beat. Here are the different direct and indirect factors that affect your product’s search ranking in Amazon -

  • Text relevance: This refers to your product title and product description.

  • Availability of stock: If you run out of stocks, your rank decreases accordingly.

  • Price: If your price is too high compared to your competitors, your competitors will definitely climb the ladder.

Tips to improve your search ranking


1. Your product title has a lot to do with your search ranking

Your product title is the eye candy that potential buyers see in the first place. From a UX perspective, it makes a lot of sense to add relevant and catchy keywords in your product title. Apart from that, it also helps the search algorithm to match your product to a user.


It is recommended to add the following elements in your product element.

  • Brand Name

  • Product name

  • Material (If applicable)

  • Key specifications

  • Colour

For example, OnePlus Nord 5G (Blue Marble, 8GB RAM, 128GB Storage) is a perfect example of a good title. It has the brand name, product name, color, and key specification.


2. Research popular Amazon keywords

Adding relevant keywords to the product copy can boost your visibility in the A9 algorithm.

Researching and exploring your competitors is one of the most ideal and simplest ways to find product keywords. Here is a simple hack - Select 3 competitors boasting plenty of good reviews, go through their product copies, and choose the relevant keywords.


There are several dedicated Amazon SEO tools like Keywordtool.io to find the most searched keywords for your product. Another popular Amazon keyword research tool is MerchantWords. It helps with your product search volume and several other keyword-related services. You can even use this tool to know your product ranking. You can also check which keywords are listed for your products in Amazon using a chrome plugin called KW Index Checker.


3. Add additional contextual information.

Keywords are essential, but contextual and relevant information is equally important for Amazon’s search algorithm. Always add additional contextual information about your product on the listing page to attract your customers.


Imagine you are selling a printer along with your competitors on Amazon. Most people will talk about the different features the printer offers along with its aesthetics. You can differentiate from others by giving a list of compatible operating systems. For example, when you mention that it is compatible with iOS 9 and above, Mac users will automatically keep your product in their minds while picking a printer.


4. Add more but high-quality images.

Images play a major part in pushing your rank to the top of the search results. The thumb rule is ‘more the photos, higher the rank.’ However, that doesn’t mean you add multiple poor-quality images that serve no purpose to the visitor. This is important because most customers will tend to zoom in on your product. If the image used is less than 1000 pixels in height/width, it will start appearing pixelated when zoomed in. To differentiate yourself from your competitors, you can even add videos or 360-degree rotating images.


We have compelling data to prove that images have a significant part in completing the sale. DueMaternity, after adding 360-degree rotating images, found that their conversation rates soared up by 27%.


5. Use bullet points for product descriptions

Simplicity is the key to success, and it cannot be more true in the case of product listing in Amazon. Keep your product description crisp by using bullets. Remember, bullets naturally stand out and help your customers read the content clearly without any interruptions. Automatically, it helps to increase conversion rates. Most importantly, bullets are easily indexed by the A9 algorithm, thereby boosting the sales even further.


6. Use Amazon A+ Content

Amazon’s A+ content allows the brands to customize the description fields to tell their own story with an enhanced visual appeal. It allows you to modify the text placements with attractive images so that your brand stands out from the crowd. This helps increase the number of images on your listing page, thus improving the rank even further.


Closing thoughts

These are some of the popular and simple techniques you can follow to beat Amazon’s A9 algorithm and push your products to the top of the search results. Higher the rank, the better your income. And if you are an emerging business looking to scale up in the eCommerce ecosystem, Powerhouse91 can be the perfect ally in your journey to greatness. To know more about how we can help your online business to succeed, contact us now.


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