Having a high product ranking on Amazon is a great way to increase your sales, as more potential customers will find your products when searching the site. To rank successfully on Amazon, it’s important for sellers to understand how Amazon’s search algorithm (called A9) works.
This post will cover:
- Amazon’s Product Search Algorithm (A9)
- Core Pillars of the A9 Algorithm
- Conversion rate factors
- Relevancy factors
- Customer satisfaction and retention factors
Amazon’s Product Search Algorithm (A9)
Amazon’s product search algorithm is completely different from Google’s. When a buyer searches for a product on Amazon, results are delivered through a two-step process. Firstly, they pull relevant results from their catalogue and then they rank them according to relevancy.
Amazon wants to maximise revenue per customer. They continually evaluate their algorithms “using human judgments, programmatic analysis, key business metrics and performance metrics”.
Core Pillars of the A9 Algorithm
Amazon has three equally important ranking factors:
- Conversion rate – Factors that Amazon has found to have an effect on conversion rates including reviews, image quality and prices. It’s vital for sellers to keep their prices competitive to maintain a good Amazon conversion rate. This is just one of the ways repricing software can help your Amazon business.
- Relevancy – Factors that tell A9 when to consider your product page for a search result. To rank higher, your product needs to be relevant.
- Customer satisfaction and retention – Factors that aid customer retention including Amazon seller feedback and order defect rate (ODR). Make customers happy and they’ll keep coming back. The more positive seller feedback and good reviews you get, the more likely it is that you’ll win the sale.
21 Amazon Product Ranking Factors
Here’s a list of 21 factors across conversion, relevance and customer satisfaction that Amazon’s A9 algorithm considers when ranking your product.
Conversion rate factors
1. Sales rank
Sales rank (also known as the Amazon Best Sellers Rank) is one of the most important ranking factors. More sales = higher rankings and higher ranking = more sales!
2. Customer reviews
The number of product reviews you receive and the quality of these reviews are important ranking factors.
3. Answered questions
Answered questions are listed at the top of the product page and play an important part in conversions.
4. Image size and quality
Sellers should follow Amazon’s image guidelines to ensure their listings are not suppressed. By using high-quality images of a minimum of 1,000 x 1,000 pixels you can enable the zoom feature which allows buyers to see your products in more detail.
5. Price
As well as being one of the most important Buy Box factors, the price of your products also strongly influences conversion rates and sales. Learn more about Amazon Buy Box eligibility.
6. Parent-child products
By using Amazon’s parent-child product functionality you’ll direct customers to a single product page. This will help maximise your customer reviews. Learn more about parent-child relationships.
7. Time on page and bounce rate
The amount of time a customer spends on your listing will show Amazon how interested customers are in your product.
8. Product listing completeness
The more complete your product listing is, the better. Try to complete every single field in the listing setup page.
Relevancy factors
9. Title
A good product title will increase your conversion rate. To optimise your Amazon product title, it should contain keywords, be easy to read and be under 200 characters.
Here’s a good example directly from Amazon.
10. Features/bullet points
Displaying the product features in detailed bullet points which include keywords (like below) is a great way to increase conversions.
11. Product description
Use the product description to expand on your features and include your keywords. It’s worth putting the effort into getting this right as a great product description will increase your customer engagement and conversion rates.
Likewise, a product description which isn’t up to scratch could mean you lose sales (to a competitor) or result in negative buyer feedback. Discover how to remove negative feedback on Amazon.
12. Brand and manufacturer part number
If appropriate, you should always include the brand in your title. This helps buyers searching by brand name to find your products.
13. Specifications
The specifications section is where you should list the technical and physical details of your product including size, shipping weight, colour etc. Completing this section shows Amazon that you’re diligent when it comes to listings.
14. Category and sub-category
When setting up your product listing, make sure you select the most relevant category for your product.
15. Search terms
Amazon gives you five fields with a character limit to specify the search terms that you want to be associated with your product. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to help you.
Here are Amazon’s best practices for providing keywords.
- Don’t provide inaccurate, misleading, or irrelevant information.
- Don’t provide excessively long content. Respect the limits that are set for different fields.
- Don’t provide redundant information that is already captured in other fields such as title, author, product description, bullet points, brand, etc.
- When entering several words as a search term, put them in the most logical order.
- Use a single space to separate keywords. No commas, semicolons or carets are required.
- Don’t include statements that are only temporarily true, e.g., “new,” “on sale,” “available now”.
- Don’t include subjective claims such as amazing, good quality, etc.
- Don’t include common misspellings of the product name.
- Don’t provide variants of spacing, punctuation, capitalization, and pluralisation.
- Don’t include terms that are abusive or offensive in nature.
- Abbreviations, alternate names, topic (for books etc.), and key character (for books, movies etc.) could be included as keywords.
Customer satisfaction and retention factors
16. Negative seller feedback
All negative feedback counts against you equally in terms of product search results. Your feedback rating is also an important factor for your Buy Box chances.
Related: 5 Ways to Improve Your Amazon Feedback Rating
17. Order processing speed
To be successful on Amazon, you need to ship fast and accurately. You’ll also rank higher with efficient order processing.
18. In-stock rate
Poor inventory management can result in popular products going out of stock. Amazon likes sellers who keep a high in-stock rate to minimise refunds and pre-fulfilment cancellations.
19. Perfect Order Percentage (POP)
Sellers who achieve a higher percentage of perfect orders will rank higher than those who experience order issues. Learn more about POP.
20. Order Defect Rate (ODR)
If a customer makes a claim against an order, this is considered an order defect. Defects include negative buyer feedback, A-to-Z Guarantee claim, shipment problems and chargebacks. Note, if the feedback is later removed by the buyer, this won’t count against your ODR. So, it’s worthwhile trying to resolve any issues that might occur. Learn how you can improve your order defect rate.
21. Exit rate
Your exit rate is the percentage of times a customer views your listing and then exits Amazon. Products with a lower exit rate will rank higher and convert more.
Summary
To rank higher on Amazon, you need to optimise your Amazon product listings. By providing relevant and complete information for your product, you can increase your product’s visibility and sales.
You also need to ensure your products are competitively priced constantly. Amazon repricing software can help automate your Amazon prices and increase your sales and profits. We currently offer a FREE 14-day trial for sellers to try before they buy (no credit card required).
Source: Startup Bros
Related: 9 Tips for SEO and Keyword Research for Amazon Sellers
