Amazon is one of the most recognizable brands in the world and the fourth tech company to reach a $1 trillion market cap. An e-commerce giant, it has over 6 million third-party sellers who list and sell products in 36 categories.

Amazon started out as an online bookstore, but has grown slowly and gradually over the years. As the number of buyers and sellers increases, so does the complexity and sophistication of the engines that power the platform.

Commonly referred to as A9 or A10, Amazon's ranking algorithm determines which products are promoted and displayed on the home page and which are irrelevant. In other words, Amazon's algorithm determines which sellers make millions and which go bust.

Knowing and following the rules of the algorithm is at the heart of building a successful Amazon business.

In this blog, we will share the important Amazon algorithm ranking factors and guidelines you should follow to enhance your brand image, increase awareness, increase traffic, sales, and ultimately generate steady income.

What is the Amazon Algorithm?

By one definition, an algorithm is a set of instructions for solving a problem or accomplishing a task. Popular search engines like Google and Bing, as well as search-based platforms like YouTube, rely on advanced algorithms to help users discover relevant content quickly and accurately.

The Amazon search engine algorithm works in much the same way. The most relevant products (based on keywords) appear at the top of the search results. However, there is one key difference – Amazon places considerable weight on the products it thinks customers are most likely to buy.

Using machine learning software capable of sifting through vast amounts of data, the algorithm can better understand search intent and provide customized product recommendations and promotions.

So, what does all this mean for sellers?

Answer: Knowing how Amazon's algorithm "thinks" allows you to implement effective SEO strategies that can improve your bestseller rankings — but that's not all. Effective listing optimization efforts can keep you at the top of SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Pages) without spending as much money as running PPC ads to get the same results.

What is the difference between the Amazon A9 and A10 algorithms?

A9 is the name of Amazon's algorithm, as well as the name of the subsidiaries involved in creating it. The algorithm has undergone a routing update, and given recent changes, people have started referring to the "updated" version as the A10.

A9 places more emphasis on correct keyword usage and advertising, while A10 places more emphasis on customer experience, such as positive customer feedback.

Note: Amazon does not publish or call their algorithm A10. Instead, the word became popular among sellers.

Factors Affecting Amazon's Search Algorithm

While Amazon has never disclosed how the algorithm works, the following factors are known to yield favorable results for FBA sellers:

sales volume

Sales growth—especially organic sales growth—is one of the most effective ways to win favor with Amazon’s algorithm. A sale is considered organic when a buyer searches for a product, clicks on your listing, and makes a purchase. Amazon charges a referral fee for each item sold, so the more sales you make, the more money Amazon makes.

Sales history is also important as it adds credibility to your store. Products with consistent characteristics from month to month are given more weight than newcomers with the same or higher sales figures.

Impressions and Clickthrough Rate (CTR)

To promote valuable products, the Amazon algorithm analyzes every detail, including impressions and click-through rate (CTR). In order to improve these numbers, sellers must ensure that their products are listed in the correct main and subcategories, and include appropriate keywords. But the work doesn't stop there.

Click-through rate (CTR) is the number of people clicking on your product listing. Products sometimes have high impressions but low click-through rates, leaving sellers scratching their heads.

Often, the culprit behind low click-through rates is substandard product listings. Keyword-laden product titles, lengthy bullet points riddled with grammatical errors, and low-quality images are all surefire ways to get ignored by the algorithm.

Note: An optimized product listing wins over the Amazon algorithm and increases conversions. More on how to create a killer product listing later in this blog!

Bring in traffic from inside and outside of Amazon

Are people interested in visiting your product listings? That's good, because sooner or later, a buzzworthy item will be noticed and promoted by Amazon's ranking algorithm.

There are two main ways to drive traffic to your listing:

Running PPC Ads on Amazon

Participate in advertising campaigns outside of Amazon, such as social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram

PPC (pay-per-click) advertising can help accelerate sales, increase product awareness, and ultimately drive people to buy your product. If people click on your ad and buy your product, it lets Amazon know that you are a legitimate seller and might be worth boosting their ranking page for relevant keywords.

External traffic indicates a strong brand; visitors from outside the platform help build seller authority. Considering how Amazon encourages merchants to participate in multi-channel fulfillment, it pays to advertise off-Amazon.

seller power

While we are on the topic of seller authority, know that the Amazon search algorithm favors established sellers. Why? Because experienced Amazon sellers are battle-tested, they have proven themselves to be reliable business partners, bring in a steady income, and are the least likely to give Amazon a bad name.

Amazon seller authority metrics include:

How long the seller has been active on the platform

Positive Seller Feedback Rating

Good or Excellent Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score

Product returns are low

6 Ways to Win Your Way Using the Amazon Search Algorithm

So far, you've learned about the factors that affect Amazon's algorithm. Next, let’s review strategies for helping product listings rank higher in Amazon SERPs.

1. Know your product and your audience

Gone are the days of reworking and selling products under the pretext of being "private label". Sellers have flooded most Amazon categories with mediocre and low-quality product listings — to stand out, you need to know your product and your audience.

Knowing whether a product will sell or not depends on two things:

Research keywords, which are the search terms buyers use to find and purchase products

Research competitors' strengths and weaknesses

Keyword research allows you to discover buyer search terms with high search volume and low competitor count. The process also involves discovering related or secondary search terms and adding them to the product listing front and back. this helps:

potential buyers find your product, and

Enable Amazon's algorithm to properly index your products and expose them to the correct audience

Without keyword research, you risk competing in an extremely competitive niche or failing to target the right buyers.

The second step – researching your competitors' strengths and weaknesses – will help your product stand out and build a strong brand. The fastest way is to browse the top brands with the highest monthly sales and rankings, and read 5 star reviews.

What do buyers like most about their products? Make a note of these points. Then, repeat the process, but this time filter for all 1-3 star reviews. What pain points are these sellers failing to address?

After completing this exercise, you'll be better able to offer a product that includes all of your competitor's strengths without their weaknesses.

Once you understand your product and who your audience is, you'll be better able to deliver what your customers want to buy.

2. Optimize Your Amazon Listings

Amazon product listings contain useful information to help visitors make the right purchase. For sellers, product listings drive traffic, increase brand awareness, and drive conversions. But this only works for optimized product listings.

Product listings are made up of two parts, the front end and the back end—both must be optimized to rank higher in organic search results. The front-end section of the product listing contains the following functions:

product name

Product Image

Product Highlights

Product Description

Try implementing the following best practices for each product listing section.

product name

Product titles are one of the main things the algorithm considers to decide whether to show your listing for relevant search terms. Then there’s the human aspect of it; a catchy and well-written headline is far more likely to compel a visitor to take action than a jumble of keywords.

Create product titles according to these guidelines:

The title starts with your brand name, then your product name (i.e. your main keyword), followed by a key feature or two, depending on the recommended product title length.

Amazon recommends product titles between 60 and 80 characters in length (the amount may vary by product niche. Find inspiration from top sellers in your category).

Capitalize the first letter of each word (except propositions, conjunctions, and articles).

Use numbers instead of spelling numbers, such as "3" instead of "three."

Don't make claims like "Bestseller", "Guaranteed", etc.

Do not use non-linguistic ASCII characters such as ® or ©.

Note: Before proceeding to the next step, make sure your product title meets Amazon's product title requirements.

Product Image

High-quality product images allow visitors to examine your product from different angles and often prompt viewers to make a purchase. When uploading product images to your listing, make sure they adhere to the following guidelines:

Upload 7 high-quality images (preferably 6 images and a video).

Your product should occupy at least 85% of the image space and should have a white background.

"High quality" images are 500 x 500 or 1000 x 1000 pixels.

Images should be clear, attractive and informative.

Images must not be hand-drawn, blurred, unrecognizable, out of focus, and accurately match the size, precision, and color of the product.

NOTE: Download the Amazon Seller App to take and edit photos from your smartphone.

Product Highlights

Product bullet points (also known as key features) let customers know more about a product's purpose and capabilities. You can also add relevant keywords here to improve SEO and help Amazon connect your product with the right audience.

In addition to being clear and concise, you should also strive to include keywords naturally in bullet points sections — visitors can recognize poorly written and keyword stuffed content, which may prevent them from buying your product.

Make bullet points that please both Amazon and your visitors according to the following guidelines:

Add five bullet points to each product detail page.

Each point starts with a feature and then goes on to detail its benefits.

Keep each bullet point under 200 characters (1,000 characters total for 5 points).

Each dot starts with a capital letter.

Highlight key characteristics that customers want to know about, such as product size, content, country of origin, ideal condition, age restrictions, etc.

Do not include closing punctuation.

Do not include pricing and promotional details.

Amazon gives an example of the main features of a rain gear-related product:

Available in green, khaki or yellow

100% breathable

100% waterproof

Drawstring hood and snap-button adjustable cuffs

Note: Just like the product title, make sure your bullet points adhere to Amazon’s product detail page rules.

Product Description

Fill in the product description section with basic information like brand name, material type, size, color, quantity and packaging details. You can use this area to convey information that you couldn't include in the bullet points section, such as highlighting a specific feature or scenario where your product works best.

Make full use of the brand field section and don't leave it blank. Buyers sometimes use filters to search for products, and if your listing is missing a brand name, you're missing out on valuable sales.

Takeaway: Even if you included your branding details in the title, bullet point and description, make sure to add them again in the branding fields section.

Backend for product list

All the points discussed so far relate to the "front end" of the product listing, the space where customers see it. The backend is invisible to customers and is where sellers add extra information, for example, in the search term field to enhance discoverability.

Some best practices for optimizing your search terms include:

Use generic words to describe your product

Stay within the 250-byte character limit (punctuation and spaces are not counted)

Add synonyms, abbreviations and spelling variations to your products

Enter lowercase

Do not repeat words or use punctuation such as colons, hyphens, etc.

No need to add both singular and plural

Access the backend search terms section for a product by clicking the Inventory tab, selecting Manage Inventory, then clicking the Edit button to the right of the desired listing, and finally selecting the Keywords tab.

3. Set a competitive price

Pricing is probably the most critical factor in determining whether a customer buys your product. So, you shouldn't base your product price on profitability; you should also consider how your brand will be positioned in the minds of your audience.

If the price is set too low, people will doubt the quality of the product, and if the price is set too high, it may affect sales growth. Best practice is to follow a competitive pricing strategy and adjust accordingly.

Determine the best price by:

A/B Testing: A/B, also known as split testing, is when you sell the same product at different price points using different marketing strategies to see which one performs best. Use the Manage Your Experiments tool to analyze the impact of different price points on sales. Visit Amazon's official Create an Experiment page for more details.

Compare Prices: Check out the best-selling products to find out what works. What price did they set? Do they charge extra for add-ons or bundles? Look for bestsellers to gauge a realistic price point.

Finally, we cannot emphasize enough the importance of developing strong relationships with your suppliers. Profitability mainly depends on the rates you get from suppliers and manufacturers.

Negotiating the best possible rates while maintaining quality standards can be challenging, but striking the right balance allows FBA sellers to offer quality products at competitive prices. Product pricing is an important ranking metric. If you can stay profitable by setting your prices slightly below the market average, Amazon will reward you more than your competitors.

4. Get Positive Customer Testimonials

Visitors who land on your listing page cannot actually inspect the product. Instead, people make judgments based on the experience of previous buyers, and they do this by reading product reviews. Amazon reviews act as social proof – it’s what visitors rely on when making a purchasing decision.

This is one reason why Amazon doubles down on banning sellers who engage in illegal activities such as paying for positive reviews. In addition to helping visitors make informed purchases, honest customer feedback is an important ranking metric. Therefore, maximizing the number of positive reviews is crucial if you want to break into the top ranks.

Two effective and safe (i.e. compliant with Amazon terms of service) ways to increase the number of reviews are:

Join Amazon Vine: The Amazon Vine program is only available to brand registered sellers with fewer than 30 product reviews. Eligible sellers must send 30 items to Amazon, who then assign certified testers to review your products and submit honest feedback.

Automated Review Requests: As the name suggests, request reviews from buyers using a reliable third-party review request tool. ZonGuru has a nifty Review Automator tool that eliminates the need to remind buyers to leave reviews manually.

NOTE: There are many automated review request tools available online. But do they comply with Amazon's terms of service? Don't risk getting banned; use a reputable tool provider like ZonGuru to get the job done.

5. Use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)

We have already mentioned some of the factors that positively influence the Amazon algorithm in your favor. However, in all of these steps, there are two that will help strengthen SEO and your chances of winning and keeping the buy box: product price and fulfillment method.

The Buy Box (also known as Featured Offer) is the rectangular box to the right of the product listing that contains the "Add to Cart" and "Buy Now" buttons.

Multiple sellers can offer the same product, but only one can keep the buy button, i.e., direct all orders to their store. Sellers who ship products to customers via FBA get a buy button more often than sellers who fulfill orders themselves.

The benefits of FBA over FBM, but let's save the details for another blog. Suffice to say, if your goal is to improve your Amazon SEO efforts, you should consider selling through FBA (if you haven't already).

6. Apply for Amazon Brand Registry

Amazon Brand Registry is a suite of tools to help build and protect your brand. You must meet certain requirements to access this program. These include:

Active or Pending Trademarks

List of categories in which you plan to sell products

While there are many benefits of Brand Registry we could discuss, in terms of improving rankings, registered sellers can upload A+ content on their product listings. But what is A+ content and how does it work?

Access to A+ content allows sellers to upload premium content – think of it as an additional digital asset that you can use to attract buyers and differentiate yourself from your competitors. Here are examples of A+ content:

Content in section A+ is not necessarily indexed, i.e. using keywords here will not have the same effect as in product titles, bullet points and descriptions. However, there is no question that high-quality A+ content builds brand authority and, when used correctly, increases conversions.

Amazon Algorithm – Frequently Asked Questions

Our blog is almost over. But before we wrap up, let's answer some common Amazon Algorithm 2022 questions.

What are Amazon SERPs?

SERP is short for Search Engine Results Page, which links to search-based platforms such as Google, Amazon, YouTube, etc. It displays and categorizes relevant results based on the search query. Effective SEO strives to drive products to the top of the SERPs. For Amazon sellers, the higher a product ranks on SERPs, the more visitors and sales they can expect.

How long does it take to rank on Amazon?

How long it takes to rank high on SERP page 1 depends on factors such as niche competitiveness, advertising budget, product and product listing quality, and SEO and PPC knowledge. There is no fixed or standard answer to how long it takes to rank on Amazon based on the number of factors involved.

How do you improve your Amazon ranking?

Improve your product rank (or bestseller rank) by doing the following:

Provide quality products that customers want to buy

Optimizing the front-end and back-end of product listings

Use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA)

Keep in stock, especially during the holiday season

Work hard to increase your number of positive reviews

Set competitive prices and run PPC campaigns

Generate off-site traffic

Finally, stay up to date with Amazon’s seller policies and avoid practices that could lead to listing or account suspension.

What is a good Amazon ranking?

A position of 1 on page 1 is the highest position a seller can achieve for a relevant search term. Most buyers never get past the first page when looking for a product to buy. So, if you want to earn a steady income from your online Amazon business, it's in your best interest to implement effective ranking strategies such as the ones you've learned in this blog.

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