In this tutorial article, I will walk you through on how you can dramatically optimize your products ranks, sales and for Google and Amazon Search Engines. Most search engines have different algorithms which you must understand if you want your products to be friendly with them. I will also show you how to tweak your product's keywords in the title, description, bullet point, etc. to yield optimum sales without violating any of the policies of Amazon. I will also show you some relevant SEO tools and feedback software both free and paid ones that will help you optimize your amazon product listing.
SEE: THE 10 TESTED STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING AND MARKETING YOUR EBOOKS TO INCREASE SALES
Key Differences Between Amazon's and Google's Algorithm
Amazon's search engine algorithm wildly differs from that of google search engine. Although both are search engines but their ulterior motives vary. The main motive of google is to provide adequate solutions to people's searches by referring them to websites. But Amazon's main motive is to provide customers with adequate products that will help them solve their problems. This means that Amazon mostly targets on converting searchers to buyers. Google converts searches to patronizers with their Ads banners.NOTE:
Check out these 5 best, free and paid Amazon keyword research tools and how to use them.
Data Structure:
Google expects and encourages webmasters to structure the data or content of their websites. Amazon on the other hand, use their product page index to structure the data by themselves. Webmasters need to understand structured data analysis before their web pages can rank well on google search engine while amazon sellers or authors don't necessarily need to fully comprehend it for their products to rank well on Amazon search engine. But if you are an author and you are really concerned with your product's rank google search engine, then you need to understand Google Structured Data Mechanism (which may require you to create a website for your product).When a keyword is searched on google, it displays web pages with lots of information about the searched keyword. But if the same keyword is searched on amazon's search engine, it displays products that have lots of information about the search keyword with their prices. Below are the screenshots of search result and format for the search keyword: "Microsoft Access 2013 and 2016" in google and amazon search engines.
For Google Search Engine:
For Amazon Search Engine:
Conversion and User Satisfaction:
Google search engine rewards webmasters whose site contents was able to satisfy a search customer and whose sites converts well in terms of the ads (AdSense) that appeared by placing their page links at the top of the search results. Whereas Amazon search engine rewards sellers whose products has the highest number of sales with time and also whose products was able to satisfy a buyer's needs by also placing their products on top of product search results. Now compare that to the basic way to build a web page.On-Page and Off-Page Activities & Results
As a webmaster, in other to gain popularity and trust on Google search engine, you have to spend a lot of your time optimizing your off-page signals. You build links, manage a social media presence, etc. which are the signal google use to measure your site's popularity and trust. Amazon search engine does not really care about these. Their main ranking criteria is the number of sales a product was able to accumulate with time, that is how many buyers that really bought your product after visiting your product page.Page Content Uniqueness Outcome
Google values web pages that have quality unique contents. Amazon does not care about the uniqueness of the product page content. They are only interested on the search keywords that were able to convert searchers to product buyers. This elaborates the need to research for keywords that will really help your product search and descriptions convert to sales on Amazon since your interest as a product seller or book author is to earn higher royalties from your products and books.In Summary: Amazon Search Engine ranks:
Your Book & Product Page Aspects to Optimize for Sales Boost - Amazon Product Page Breakdown
Now that you have fully understood the key differences between Amazon and Google Algorithm, let me now walk you through the various aspects of your product's page to optimize for an increased sales on Amazon.Here are the breakdown of Aspects that make Up a Product Page:
- Title and Subtitle
- Product Images
- Bullet Points
- Product Description
- Product Categories
- Reviews
- Sales (Price)
- Product Back End Search Keywords
- Product Canonical URL Slug
- Product Super URL Slug
Below is a labelled screenshot of the product page of one of the popular product, "Horse Head Mask" and the screenshot of a kindle book page with long title strategy on Amazon.
For the product page sample:
Do Not Blindly Mimic Any Amazon Best Seller Author:
This is because what their products portray on the surface may be misleading. Most of these best selling Authors get such rank through the back door and once Amazon notices their trick, they punish these best sellers severely. Always go through the right way if you want your product to sell for a long time on Amazon.Title and Sub title:
Here are Some Tips on How to Optimize Your Product Title & Sub-title:
1. Do not jam pack keywords in your product title. It does not cause higher search ranking, rather it negatively affects your product ranking on Amazon.2. Check your title and category style guide regularly because Amazon changes these rules from time to time and most time, some new rules counters some former old rules.
3. Your product title and sub title should not for any reason exceed 200 characters (not even 201 characters!). Search engines truncate like google truncates titles in their search result at the 72nd character. Also, Amazon has a suppression rule that ranks down products whose titles are more than 200.
4. Ensure that you insert your product's primary or main keywords before or within the ranges of the following character counts for the different reading devices:
- 35 Characters (mostly on kindle phone reading apps and some smartphones).
- 76 Characters (mainly on most smartphones and some small tablets). But some wide, high resolution tablets truncate the title after 140 characters.
- 115 Characters (mainly on desktop computers).
Product Images:
Here are some other tips on how to optimize your product image:
Bullet Points:
This is very important especially for different products because it is a good place to put some of your main keywords and some few minor keywords for your products. You list the top features of your product.Here are some tips on how to optimize our product bullet points:
1. Make it attractive and relevant. Don't jam pack them together. Space them out!2. Stress your main points. If possible, use all-caps for your main keywords or points.
3. Don't stress more on branding information, instead stress more on the product features. Be specific. Always give the benefits and features of your product.
4. Don't make it too lengthy. Recommended length for each bullet point is 150 to 200 characters. But it most depends on your product category. Some categories have about 100 character limits.
5. Always use clear sentences or phrases because "clarity supersedes cleverness". Don't try too be too clever or smart always. Do it the right way and people will appreciate your work.
6. Create your most powerful points or content in your first three bullet points because the first three show up when your product page is viewed form any device platform.
7. Always overcome objection - Try to prove to customers that your product is superior to those of your competitors. by telling them the problems your product can solve. But don't castigate your competitors!
8. Address your audience individually. This will make them feel that you really care about them. Do not address them as a group.
Product Descriptions:
This is another part of your product page that is of paramount importance because almost all your keywords go here and helps to increase your keywords density. There some strategies you must follow to write a good and appealing description for your product. If you get it wrong, Amazon will penalize you by reducing your product rank on search engines.Here are some tips on how to optimize your product description:
1. Don't make it too short or too long. The recommended range is about 500 to 800 characters.2. Answer all your customer's possible questions. Don't wait until they voice it out in their review.
3. Include all your keywords here both the minor and major ones and repeat your major ones after about every 100 to 150 characters. Be very careful not to overdo it else Amazon will penalize you.
4. Split your description write-ups into short paragraphs, even if your description is long. This will make it more readable and comprehensible. Don't jam pack it.
5. Always address a new issue or point in a new paragraph.
6. Use bullets or asterisks to list your important points or features.
7. Use the supported html tags to optimize your product description. Some of the accepted html tags for your product descriptions are:
<b>, <br>, <em>, <font>, <h1> to <h6>, <hr>, <i>, <li>, <ol>, <p>, <pre>, <s>, <strike>, <strong>, <sup>, <u>, <ul>.
See a list of supported html tags for Amazon and CreateSpace and their description here.
How to Format Kindle, Paperback Book and Product Descriptions with Html Tags
Formatting your book description with HTML tags is a very important Search Engine Optimization strategy and also increases your books and products rank on Online Sales Platforms like Amazon and CreateSpace. Before you can use HTML tags properly to format your kindle and paperback books, you must be a bit conversant with the allowed tags.The four most important HTML tags to use are the bullet points tag (<li>), h1 tag (<h1>), h2 tag (<h2> and the bold tag (<b>). I listed all the allowed HTML tags above.
To format your kindle books with HTML tags, simply insert these tags together with your normal description texts in the description section of the KDP book setup.
To use the Header 1, Header 2 or Bold tags:
Simply place the opening tag (<h1>, <h2> or <b>) before the intended texts and then place the ending tag (</h1>, </h2> or </b>). For example, to use the h2 tags around the Microsoft Access 2016: Type: </h1>Microsoft Access 2016</h2>. The same applies to the h2 and bold tags.The list tag (<li> usage is a bit tricky. But it is very easy to use if you get the concept! The concept is that; to use the list tag for bullet points, you must wrap it with the opening and unordered list tag (<ul> and </ul>).
To use the List tag:
First, put opening list tag (<li>) and the closing list tag (</li>) around each line or sentence in your list. Then, put the opening un-ordered list tag (<ul>) and the closing un-ordered list tag (</ul>) around the entire list itself to indicate you want it to appear like bullets.Here is a practical example:
<ul>
<li>MS Access Use Interface</li>
<li>How to build Sales Budget</li>
<li>MySQL Query terms</li>
</ul>
NOTE:
To format your Paperback and CreateSpace books and products, you need to login to your Author Central Account at https://authorcentral.amazon.com/
To Format your Amazon Products and CreateSpace Description with HTML:
1. Sign in at www.authorcentral.com or setup your account if you have not previously set it up.2. Click the Books tab at the top and then select the book you want to optimize its description (or click on the Add more books if you have not added the book yet).
3. On the Editorial Reviews tab click the Edit button for Product Description.
4. This prompts the Edit review window where you can format your book review and descriptions to your taste. To add HTML tags, click the Edit HTML tab as shown in the screenshot below. Preview it to make sure it appears properly and then save it.
NOTE:
Product Categories
Here are some tips on how to optimize your product keyword:
How to Pick the Right Category for Your Book:
Reviews:
Here are some tips on how to get highly rated positive product reviews:
NOTE:
Product Price and Sales:
Product Back End Search Keywords:
How to Find the Right Keywords for Your Products
The quickest and easiest way to find the suiting search keywords for your books and products is to use Amazon search engine to search one of your product's main keywords. The search engine provides you with suggestions. For example, if you wrote a book on Microsoft Access 2016, one of your main or primary keywords maybe "MS Access". It does not end there! You need to carry extensive keyword research using these suggested keyword with some keyword research tools like amz.one, a research tool provided by amazon to help authors and sellers optimize their product pages. It has both free and premium versions.Note that your primary keyword should appear two to three times for every 150 to 200 words in your book description.
Here are some tips on how to optimize your product keywords:
2. Use all the available keyword fields and spaces. On Amazon, there are seven fields that accept 50 characters each.
3. Do not need to repeat any words and do not use commas because they will be ignored.
4. Do not use quotation marks because they will unnecessarily limit your keywords relevance to search engines.
5. Do not include multiple variations and synonyms of some words like "textbook" and "text book". It is just repetition and misuse of keyword space. Also note that including common misspellings is unnecessary.
6. Research for more relevant keywords and change the keywords occasionally from the back end.
Your Amazon Product Canonical URL Slug:
How to Find the Canonical URL for Your Amazon Product
Your Amazon Product Super URL Slug:
NOTE:
- Paid advertising campaigns like Google Adsense and other PPC networks like Bing Ads, Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, etc.
- Social media
- Blog posts
- YouTube videos
General SEO Tips for Your Products
1. Know Your Customers:
2. Read your Competitor's Product Reviews and Compare them with Yours:
3. Search Other Media Like Social Media and Youtube:
4. Make Notes of Lifestyle Situations:
5. Shop on Amazon Regularly:
Take Notes of the following:
- What made you click on a particular product, that is what tickled your fancy on that product and why you clicked it.
- Which part of the product listing first caught your attention.
- How many product you checked before you finally bought one.
- What made you not to buy the previous product you checked, that is what annoyed you about the product and its listing.
- What made you choose the product you finally bought, that is what you saw in the product that was not available in the previous products you kicked.
6. Experiment Different Ideas:
Some Amazon Listing Optimization Software
Here is a List of Some Recommended Product Optimization Software/Tools With Their URLs:
- Unicorn Smasher - http://www.unicornsmasher.com/
- Keyword Tool - http://keywordtool.io/amazon
- Amz Tracker - https://www.amztracker.com/
- Amz One - http://www.sellics.com/
- Merchant Metric - http://merchantmetric.com/
- Amz Scout - http://amzscout.ositracker.com/
- Sellics - http://www.sellics.com/
- Amz Shark - https://amzshark.com/
- Keyword Inspector - http://keywordinspector.com/
- Ama Suite - https://amzsuite.com/
- Amz Finder - https://www.amzfinder.com/
- Amz Alert - http://www.amzalert.com/
- Amz Space - https://amz.space/
- Amz Ping - https://amzping.com/
- Helium 10 - https://www.helium10.com/
Some Amazon Feedback Software
Here is a List of Some recommended Feedback Software/Tools With Their URLs:
- Feedback Genius - https://www.feedbackgenius.com/
- Feedback Express - https://www.feedbackexpress.com/
- Feedback five - https://www.feedbackfive.com/
- BQool feedback - https://www.bqool.com/
- Get Feedback - https://www.getfeedback.com/
- Customer Sure - http://customersure.com/
- Client Heartbeat - https://clientheartbeat.com/
- My Customer Feedback - http://mycustomerfeedback.com/
- Survey Monkey - http://surveymonkey.com/
- Get Satisfaction - http://getsatisfaction.com/
- Hively - http://teamhively.com/
- Type form - http://typeform.com/
- Promoter.io - http://promotor.io/
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