Amazon Ranking Factors

The Objective The Objective: To take all the things we know, and give you a checklist you can use as you work on improving your rankings. How did we come up with the info presented? •  From our own experiences •  Reading other reports and blog posts

•  A lot taken from Feedbackz.com (we don’t agree on everything): http://www.feedbackz.com/blog/amazon-ranking-factors-complete-breakdown-list/

What Does Amazon REALLY Want? •  If we know this, then we can make “educated

guesses” about how their ranking system would work…

Unsurprisingly…

TO MAKE AMAZON AS MUCH MONEY AS POSSIBLE

(in a sustainable and ‘ethical’ way that’ll keep customers coming back for more…)

How Do Amazon Make Money? Revenue = Number of Products Sold x Sale Price

Amazon’s algorithm is therefore going to be built

around this! This is what drives the ranking factors.

Let’s dive in to the 26 factors!

CLICK THROUGH

RATE

Click Through Rate •  We’re talking about the rate of people who click on

your listing in Amazon’s search results, and how you can improve this metric.

•  We look at the 4 things that make people click through, and how you can improve each one of them.

#1. Quantity & Rating Of Reviews •  This is mainly about social proof, not about the

ranking increase that Amazon gives you when you get more reviews.

•  First tipping point is at about 15 reviews •  Next tipping point is at about 50 reviews. At this

point, customer will feel that your product is ‘proven’ (in some niches this number will be higher. We’ve seen this second tipping point come when we reach about 50% of the average number of the top 5… more on this in a second)

•  You CAN have too many reviews… if your top competitor has 100, and you have 1,000, it may do more harm than good.

Is The Review Score More Important? Or The Quantity?

How Many Reviews Do You Need? •  Add up the review count for 5 products that have

the most reviews on page one of search results, then take the average. This should be your long term target.

Let’s take a look at an example…

Top 5 review counts are: •  348 •  125 •  100 •  87 •  78 The ‘peak’ value from the ‘social proof’ element would likely come once you have about 147 reviews (this is the average). Use this wisely… it’s not an exact rule, doesn’t really take the ‘extremes’ into consideration.

What Rating Do You Need? •  Keep your rating ABOVE 4.5 stars… •  If you go below this, you’re missing out on easy

sales, and you’re standing on a very dangerous slope…

If you have an average rating of less than 4.5 stars, do whatever it takes to get it up!

Both quantity AND quality are important.

#2. Main Product Image How does a customer use images? •  To determine if the product is what they’re looking

for. •  To determine if it is the right variation. •  To pre-filter and eliminate ‘shoddy’ looking options. Included in some vendors images: •  Badges •  Flags •  Other free bonus gifts

Personally, I don’t really like these little badges. I think they clutter the product image and don’t give them a feeling of superior quality… we don’t use them.

Main Product Image Focuses 1.  Size – use as much of the space you have

available. 2.  Make your image look crisp and

clear.

#3. Product Title •  A good product title will increase your CTR! •  People skim product titles looking for keywords •  Amazon’s robots read product titles looking for

relevancy (but this is probably secondary to the CTR importance)

•  On the search result page, Amazon only shows two lines… we prefer shorter titles, not long keyword stuffed titles. Clean. Clear.

#4. Brand Name •  Make NICHE SPECIFIC brand names (if you

haven’t done this, it’s probably not worth changing it now, but do your next brand differently).

If you’re buying a cheese grater, would you be more drawn to one from a manufacturer called ‘KitchenPro’ or ‘5 Star Imports’? Create a new Amazon account for each brand, just ask Amazon for permission, they normally allow it!

CONVERSION RATE

Conversion Rate This is the percentage of people who go to your listing, and then end up buying your product. Amazon watches this metric VERY carefully.

#5. Overall Product Listing Optimization

We’re talking about the things you have direct control over here: •  Other images (in addition to main image). Make sure all

of these are at least 1,000 pixels x 1,000 pixels. •  Use as many images as you can. •  Bullet points •  Description •  Category

Don’t get too clever, focus on three main points: 1.  Reinforce what customer is expecting to see 2.  Confirm product specifications 3.  Give more details about the specifications

#6. People & Benefit Focused Amazon can’t track this as a variable metric, but the impact on conversion rate can be HUGE. •  You are selling to HUMAN BEINGS! •  HUMANS will READ what you write!

•  Write for people, NOT robots. •  Write professionally. •  Use correct spellings for your marketplace (UK vs

USA). •  Focus on BENEFITS (use the ‘so’ trick)

•  Includes an extension cord so that you can BENEFIT •  Extra padding so you don’t BENEFIT •  Free of BPA toxins so that BENEFIT

SALES HISTORY

Sales History •  Amazon keeps track of your historic sales •  Amazon adds a score weight to your past sales

performances for your product listing •  Key metrics include:

•  Total revenue •  Click through rates •  Conversions.

Amazon also tracks sales growth rate in chunks of time: Hot sellers, #1 New Release badges, etc.

#7. Revenue From Past 7, 14, 30 Days, Conversions, Units Sold

•  This isn’t really surprising… •  It’s why you can bounce back easily when you run

out of inventory! •  Steady improvements to your sales and revenue

over time will improve this metric.

#8. Refund Rate •  Amazon watches this too… •  More to do with customer satisfaction than Amazon

revenue here (Amazon wants customers to be happy so they come back for more, when someone refunds it’s a negative metric, and Amazon treats it accordingly).

•  Wouldn’t surprise me if Amazon gave some kind of ‘point reduction’ to your overall ranking score for every refund you get.

What Causes Refunds? •  Number one reason is a sub-standard product! •  It’s always about expectation management… if your

photos are awesome, then your product better look the same!

•  Refunds can be avoided by having pro-active support in place (contact customers saying “we’re here to help for ANY problem etc)

Focus on making little improvements to your products over time!

#9. Age Of Product Listing •  Hard to know for sure if this one makes a

difference, or if the ‘age factor’ is really just about accumulation of sales and reviews… nevertheless, wouldn’t surprise us if it is part of the algorithm.

•  Not much you can really do here… just be aware that some competitors may have a very minor advantage in this area, and in time, you’ll catch up J

#10. Total Historic Sales Revenue •  Obviously this one is also just speculation, but it

makes sense. •  Total sales revenue over time is being recorded on

a PER PRODUCT level, but also PER ACCOUNT level as well.

INTERNAL REFERRAL

PATH

Internal Referral Path •  A BIG part of how Amazon determines where to

rank you for your keywords. •  Amazon directly combine this data with your CTR

and Conversion Rates. •  There’s only so much you can really do to impact

this over a long period of time…

#11. Super URL’s •  Up until right now, we’ve seen time and time again

that using a Super URL this DOES make a difference…

•  But better than giving someone a Super URL, would be to ask them to go and do a LIVE search for your product (because Amazon WILL know if you’ve just ‘faked’ a search using the super URL)

•  When friends or family buy your product, get them to make it look natural, not just use a Super URL… it’s more work, but it’s the only sure-fire way to cash in on the ranking juice!

PRODUCT REVIEWS

Product Reviews •  As mentioned earlier, it’s more about the SOCIAL

PROOF than the review itself, however reviews do still add rank juice.

•  Not all reviews are created equal… if you’re working on matching your competitors, compare apples with apples. What TYPES of reviews do they have: •  Photos •  Videos •  Lengthy Text

•  Review velocity also matters.

#12. Review Tipping Point #1 •  We see it over and over again… magic happens

when you hit 15 reviews! •  After 15 reviews, you’ll get more visitors and make

more sales. •  Most likely two things happening:

•  Social proof takes a leap up •  Amazon relaxes the algorithm… you’ve proven yourself

(a little bit at least)

#13. Review Tipping Point #2 •  We normally see this at around 50 reviews •  After 50 reviews, you’ll get more visitors, make

more sales. •  Again, most likely two things happening:

•  Social proof takes a leap up •  Amazon relaxes the algorithm further, releases the

chains… you’ve proven yourself

#14. Review Length •  This is not just about length, it’s about balance. If all

your reviews are one-liners, it does NOT look normal.

•  If all your reviews are 1,000 words in length, it also doesn’t look normal.

•  You need a balance. Undoubtedly longer reviews are more valuable than shorter ones.

•  Amazon will be watching, and recording the word count most likely.

•  Longer reviews have more words, more chance for keywords to appear… this must also make a minor impact.

#15. Rank Of The Reviewer •  Amazon DEFINITELY give more weight to reviews

from people they ‘trust’… high ranked reviewers. •  Lesser importance on lower ranked reviewers:

#16. Total Votes On Reviews •  The more ‘Review Votes’ you have, the better. •  Votes on Reviews help make them more ‘real’ to

Amazon •  Since votes can easily be manipulated, you’d

assume that Amazon wouldn’t give them all that much weight.

#17. Customer Videos & Images •  Customer videos and images in reviews make the

reviews more comprehensive, and are likely worth more than a review without them.

•  Harder to ‘game the system’ – human filtered.

#18. Customer Questions (And Answers!)

•  We’ve seen these help… possibly just ‘because they’re there’, possible because they contain keywords, or possible because the REPLIES to the questions help conversions (and likely all three).

•  We’ve had customers say that they bought our product because we replied to questions!

•  www.NeedAQuestion.com

INVENTORY AVAILABILITY

#19. Over 150 Units Available •  We haven’t noticed this much ourselves, but some

people have reported seeing sales increase when big orders arrive.

•  150 would likely be a number that is different for each product based on sales velocity etc.

•  Makes sense that Amazon would push something that has no chance of running out of stock!

ON PAGE KEYWORDS

On Page Keywords •  A ‘traditional’ factor we’re all used to. •  Undoubtedly still used for determining relevancy. •  Most likely later out-muscled by CTR and

Conversion rate, but helps a lot initially.

#20. On Page Keywords, Density, Position

•  Amazon scans which keywords you use in your listing.

•  More weight is given if the keyword is in a prominent position on the page.

•  The amount of times you use the keyword (and variations of it) matters… and it’ll have a negative effect if you over do it.

•  Keywords are probably more of a ‘points removed if you don’t have them’ type factor than something that’ll rapidly boost your rankings.

#21. Product Title Keywords •  We think this is a STRONG ranking factor. •  It impacts CTR, and also how Amazon determines

your relevancy. •  Keyword stuffing titles will NOT work, we don’t do it. •  Including unknown brand names in titles is a waste

of space •  Use keywords WITHOUT making your titles messy.

They need to be clear, concise, professional.

Other Title Tips •  Don’t make titles extremely long!

•  "To improve the customer experience, all listings sellers create after July 15, 2015, with a title length more than 200 characters will be suppressed from search and browse. When creating new listings, make sure to keep the title, which is the Product Name, for each product less than 200 characters. Customers will not be able to find your listings created after July 15 until you have shortened their title to less than 200 characters.”

•  Play by the rules!

#22. Search Term Box •  This is the ‘Keywords’ tab when you’re editing your

listing.

Recommendations: •  Use all the space you have available! •  Don’t duplicate words. •  Misspellings are okay to use. •  Brand names are not okay.

#23. Product Descriptions •  Do NOT keyword stuff your descriptions. •  Remember… write for HUMANS! •  Include your keywords in a natural way •  Make your descriptions easily readable

•  Break in to paragraphs •  Use bullet points, bolding etc

#24. Keywords in Customer Reviews •  Harder to control over the long term, but you’d

expect that it is monitored by Amazon. •  Best approach for reviews is to focus on quality, not

keyword stuffing… people do read them, and what the readers thing will impact you more than what the Amazon robots think.

OUTSIDE TRAFFIC

SOURCES

#25. Non-Amazon Traffic •  Easy for Amazon to track, and they WILL be

monitoring it. •  Bottom line is the sales that external traffic result in,

not the amount of traffic… Amazon gets paid when you get paid, so ‘outside traffic’ is a bonus to Amazon, and you should expect to be rewarded.

SELLER ACCOUNT

AUTHORITY

#26. Seller Account Authority •  We haven’t had much of a look at this, but it’d make

sense for Amazon to reward trusted and well performing accounts (account wide, not just product based).

Q&A