What is the Amazon algorithm?

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:39

Welcome to the Bring your product idea to Life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.

I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:00:58

Let's get started. Hello, and welcome to this episode of bring your product idea to life.

So, have you ever wondered how Amazon decides which products get to page one of the search results?

Because as we all know, as customers as well as sellers of Amazon, unless you're on page one, you really don't have that much of a chance of your product being found. Because let's face it, most of us, myself included, don't really go beyond page one when we're searching on Amazon.

We good news is this is not a mystery. It's a bit of a mystery, but not a complete mystery.

Amazon has an algorithm which we're going to talk about in this episode, and what we do know about it will really help you, because once you understand what Amazon wants, the factors that you know can get you onto page one, then you'll be able to work with it and help to improve your visibility. So that's what we're going to be covering in this episode. So Amazon's algorithm is called. It used to be called a 9, now it's called a 10.

Allegedly, as I say, this is all quite secretive, so I'm going to share with you today the things that we do know in really simple terms and then the things that we can do to help it.

But the one thing that we do know about the Amazon algorithm for sure is its main goal is to show the customer the most relevant product for whatever it is they've searched for. Because we have to remember that Amazon is a marketplace and customers are there to shop. And Amazon makes money for every sale made on the platform.

So it's within their interest to show the customer that they think best matches their search, hoping this will increase likelihood of a sale. So it's all about relevance and performance, because for every sale that you make or one of your competitors makes, Amazon makes money.

So it's within their interest to show the customers the product they think they are most likely to buy. Unless, of course, you are paying for ads.

I should add that as a little disclaimer, if you pay for ads, of course, that also increases your chance of appearing on page one. But we're not talking about advertising in this episode.

We're going to talk about your Organic search ranking and some of the things you can do to help that which by the way adds can help with as well. But let's talk organic for today.

So the key factors in Amazon's algorithm, whether it's called a 9 or a 10, whatever it's called right now, the main factors are relevancy, performance and customer experience. So let's talk about relevancy first.

So relevancy is talking about having a well optimized product listing that reflects the product that you're selling.

So as you will know, every listing that you that you list has to have a product title, best of key features, a description and search terms that are well written and optimized for SEO. And this is really important. So well optimized is important. So having all the relevant keywords in there, but the keyword here is relevancy.

So let's say that you're, you have you put a keyword into your listing because you can see it's very fast. Let's say fashionable. I say fashionable. You know what I mean?

There's a keyword that's very highly searched at the moment and you think, great, I'm going to use that in my listing and maybe in my ads to drive people to my listing. And maybe your product isn't quite the same.

So maybe for example, you sell a blue towel and you can see turquoise towels are selling really, really well. So you think, okay, I'm going to put turquoise towel in my listing text.

I know this is a very silly example, but bear with me, I'm going to put turquoise tower in my listing text because I can see, I've used Jungle Scout or another software and I can see lots of people are searching for turquoise towels. So even though my tail is blue, I'm going to put turquoise towel in my text. The problem is if that you do this and you start to appear, sh.

Show up the turquoise towel, but your product isn't a turquoise towel, it's a blue towel. One of two things will happen. Either customers won't buy your product so it will show up but they won't click through.

Or maybe they will click through but they won't buy. That's one thing that can happen. And what that tells Amazon is actually this product isn't a turquoise towel. It's not relevant to turquoise towel.

So you're going to start appearing lower and lower in the search results for that search term.

The other thing that might happen is people might buy your product mistakenly thinking it's a turquoise towel and then return it and high return rates affect your customer experience. And therefore again, Amazon is going to start showing you lower in the search results.

So while it's really important to have product listings that are really well optimized for search, the key thing here is relevancy. The products and the keywords and phrases you choose to use in your listing need to be really relevant to the products that you're actually selling.

And then the second factor is performance. So in really simple terms, the thing that affects ranking most of all is your product sales.

However, I appreciate that the problem is here that unless you've already made sales, you won't be appearing on page one, or maybe even page two, three, four, because those spots on page one are going to be the products already making Amazon a bit of money.

So to rank for performance, unless you've been on Amazon a while and you've been, you know, you've made consistent sales and you've got good feedback, is going to be really, really hard. So I do want to acknowledge that one now before I talk about it.

So having good performance is essentially, yes, having good sales, having high click through rates, having high conversion rates, having a good sales history, having good reviews, keeping your product in stock is also important.

So let's say if you're using FBA or FBM and you continually go out of stock on a certain product, you will start to drop through the rankings for that because customers can't actually buy it. So you need to work hard on all of these things.

And as I say, to rank for performance for new product is really hard and a reason that a lot of sellers do use ads initially because you're not going to be ranking organically based on any performance factors if you haven't made a single sale. And this is the reason why brands will sometimes say to me, I can't even find my own listing on Amazon when I search for it.

And it's because you're not ranking anywhere because your listing could be really relevant, let's say, if you're a new seller.

So it could be really relevant for things that customers going to search for but nobody's finding it because you're not ranking for performance because it's new and you've got no sales history. So it is really tough for new sellers. So I do want to acknowledge that if you're really new to Amazon, this is always going to be hard.

It's a lot easier when you've been on there for a while and you're starting to rank for performance once you've had sales because then Amazon can see that your listing is performing. It can see the customers like it. It can also see it's relevant because customers are typing something in the search bar to find your listing.

They're finding it and then they're buying it. So it is a lot easier when you've been going for a while.

However, if you are new to Amazon, we are going to be talking about some of the things you can do to help that. And then the final thing is, as I say, the customer experience. So your price needs to make sense the delivery speed.

I'm told, or I've heard that using FBA helps with your ranking. Amazon haven't confirmed this, so I cannot say that it's true. As for most of this, Amazon do keep their algorithm quite secretive.

These are just some of the things we can glean about it. Returns rate will also definitely impact your ranking. That one I think we can say pretty safely to be true.

If you have a product with a really high number of returns, obviously that tells Amazon that it's not as relevant coming back to that factor and that they might start to decrease your ranking based on that and customer feedback as well. So a product with excellent reviews is always going to outrank a product with negative reviews. So those things are really important.

So let's talk about some of the things you can do to improve.

So if you are just starting on Amazon or if you've been there for a while, one of the key things you can do is to make sure your listings are complete, to make sure they're accurate and they are full of relevant keywords and phrases. Phrases. I would also suggest using really high quality images and great product copy because that will help with conversions.

And also make sure that you're keeping products in stock because as I mentioned earlier, running out of stock will affect your rankings. I would do everything you can to get reviews.

If you are doing your own fulfillment especially, I would make sure that you are dispatching all of your orders on time. You're sending them via a trackable measure. So all of those, all of those things are in place and you're performing really well there.

If you're using fba, keep an eye out on the customer performance.

If Amazon are delivering stock late or they're delivering it damaged, make sure you get that feedback sort of struck from the record, as it were, because that's also really important. That will also affect your ranking. If you have any negative feedback.

And if you're new to Amazon, the best thing I can advise you to do is to focus on getting reviews and sales, however you do that. So reviews, you can use Vine. I've got a whole episode on getting Amazon reviews. You can go through more detail.

You can use vine, you can use your email list, social media, lots of ways to get reviews on Amazon. No easy ways. Vine is probably the easiest. However, you do pay for that. So that may or may not be easy.

But getting reviews is really, really important.

And getting sales, and again, whether that's via ads, friends and family, driving your email list to Amazon, doing whatever you can to get those sales really helps. Because once you start getting sales, your ranking automatically increases. When you're at 0 sales, your ranking is very low.

Every sale you get is going to push you higher up the rankings. That's really, really important. I'm just going to talk about a few myths I've heard about the app algorithm I believe to be myths.

Anyway, just debunk those for you before we finish. First one is that is not all about keywords. Yes, keywords are important. Yes, keywords help.

But you can have a beautiful keyword rich product listing if your product gets a high number of returns or if nobody buys it, or if you have terrible images. Like all these things matter as well. So ranking highly isn't just about having a listing that's full of keywords. Also, let's talk a bit about ads.

So ads can help with the sale, getting sales, but they don't guarantee your organic rankings. You're not automatically going to start ranking organically for a keyword because you're driving traffic there via ads in time.

If you're using a certain keyword in your ads and customers are clicking on the ads and then they're going on to buy your products that you're telling Amazon actually you are relevant for that keyword and that will affect your organic rankings. But it's not going to happen overnight, but it can and will over time. And the third thing is that the algorithm isn't static.

It's going to change and it's quite secretive. So everything I've explained now isn't official. This hasn't come from Amazon. It's what we can just glean from what we know about how it works.

But I would say there's nothing in it. None of the advice I've given you here isn't great advice anyway for anywhere that you're selling your products.

So I think it is all still really relevant in terms of what you can actually go away and do. I would say focus on conversion first, because as I've said, Amazon promotes what sells.

So getting traffic to your listing is one thing, and it's a really good thing.

However, whether however you're going to drive traffic, whether it's organically, whether it's via ads, you want to have a list that performs well for you first.

So something you can go away and do is have a look at your performance metrics and have a look at your conversion rates and see how well your products convert. And if you've got some products or any products with a low conversion rate, you might want to look at what you can do to improve that.

So whether that's looking at the text, the images, answering more customer questions, whatever it is.

But I think that's, that's the key thing that I would focus on, because the more sales your products make, the higher you're going to rank for performance and relevance. And of course, you'll be making Amazon money, which they love, and they'll be more likely to show your products to more people.

So if you would like any help in reviewing or improving your listings, please do get in touch. Next week's episode is going to be me answering the questions I've been asked the most in this past year. So that would be a great one to listen to.

And that episode is actually going to be on Friday. So as of January, well, actually as as of January, but also as of next week, I'm going to be moving to one episode a week. A week.

So it's still going to be a mix of these sort of episodes.

So just me and the usual guests that I have on a Friday, but we're going to be alternating a little bit and just moving to Friday only episodes for now because let's face it, you probably have listened to a lot of podcasts and it's a lot to keep up with. And I record a lot of podcasts and it's a lot to keep up with.

And I think moving to the one Friday episode will be a really nice structure going forward.

So yes, there will be an Amazon episode next week, but it will be on Friday and then from January you'll be hearing just from me every couple of Fridays, interspersed with our amazing guests. So thank you so much for listening to this episode. Thank you so much for getting all the way to the end.

If you have any questions, you know where I am. Vickykiweinberg.com and I will see you next Friday for my next episode.

Vicki Weinberg: 00:13:45

Thank you so much for listening right to the end of this episode. Do remember that you can get the Fullback catalog and lots of free resources on my website, vickywineberg. Com.

Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it, and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.

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