how to optimize your products for amazon.com by anthony verre
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From SMX East 2013 / SearchMarketingExpo.com - Maximizing Sales on Amazon & eBay - How To Optimize Your Products for Amazon.com by @TonyVerre #SMX #22D. Slide deck from Anthony Verre of Rockfish Interactive on best practices for optimizing your product feeds for Amazon.comTRANSCRIPT
HOW TO OPTIMIZE
YOUR PRODUCTS
FOR
AMAZON.COM
#
Anthony Verre
Rockfish
@TonyVerre
#SMX #22D
October 2, 2013
#
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Everything You Always Wanted To Know Me* (But Were Afraid to Ask)
The Professional• Rockfish Assoc. Director of Search
Strategy
• eCom SEO Lead for WPP Team Kimberly-
Clark
The Personal• Married, Father of 3 Girls
• Former Literary Teacher-Turned-SEO
• Digital-Obsessed Search Geek
• 1-Time Triathlon Finisher
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon: Search-Centric eCommerce
1999 June, 2004
Jan, 2010 Jan, 2013
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon Wants Consumers To Search
You Tell Them
What You Want
They Give You What
Best Fits Your Needs
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Unlocking the A9 Black Box
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon 101: Defining the Elements
Amazon Element Definition
Vendor Central Amazon.com’s 1st Party retailer destination to create and
manage your products, manage your inventory, view item level
reporting on sales and inventory, view invoices/payments and
access to ARA data (Invitation Only)
Seller Central Amazon.com’s 3rd Party seller destination to create and manage
your products, manage your inventory, view invoices/payments
and analytics (professional only) (Subscription-Pay Model)
Amazon Predictive Search The most commonly typed keywords and phrases consumers
use on Amazon queries
Amazon Retail Analytics (ARA) Amazon analytics on product sales and consumer search terms
Pageview Rank Metric that shows how “visible” and “how much awareness” a
product has with consumers on Amazon.com
Seller Rank Metric based on Amazon.com sales that is updated hourly to
reflect recent and historical sales of every item sold on
Amazon.com
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon Vendor Central vs. Seller Central
• 1st Party Retailer Hub
• Amazon Invitation Only
• Amazon responsible for all
logistics
• Works with Vendor Central
Team or Agency to set up
products
• Access Amazon Retail
Analytics (ARA)
• Ability to Advertise on Amazon
• 3rd Party Seller Hub
• Individual/Businesses in
Subscription-based model
• Seller manages virtual
storefront
• Products are listed by Seller
• Access analytics (Professional
Only)
• Ability to Advertise on Amazon
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
What’s in Amazon’s A9 Algorithm?
Relevance
Seller Rank
PageviewRank / CTR
Amazon uses Product
Information + Consumer
Interaction to power the
components of their A9
algorithm
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon’s Virtuous Optimization Cycle
Predictive Search &
Vendor Central
Product Optimization
PageViewRank & CTR
Seller Rank
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Google + Amazon = Win
Primal consumer behaviors move across platform. If
the query has high purchase intent in Google, they’re
doing it the same way in Amazon.
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon Predictive Search
Use Amazon Predictive
Search to see what
keyword phrases
consumers use to find
products.
Screen shoot. Catalog. And
test in Amazon Retail
Analytics (ARA).
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon Vendor Central
Amazon Retail Analytics (ARA)
gives you consumer search term
data across Amazon as a whole
and by Top-Level Categories
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon Vendor Central
Search Frequency is
“Percentage of
significant search terms
on Amazon with fewer
searches performed
during the reporting
period.”
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon’s Virtuous Optimization Cycle
Predictive Search &
Vendor Central
Product Optimization
PageViewRank & CTR
Seller Rank
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
2 Types of Product Content
All Products
Free
More Search
Weight
Non-
Customizable
(Uniform fields)
Not All Products
Extra Cost
Less Search
Weight
Customizable
Templates and
Information
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Optimizing Basic Product Content
Product Title
Key Features
Product
Description
Search
Keywords
As all products must have basic content, these
elements are the prime area to optimize and have the
most search weight.
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Optimizing A+ Product Content
• Optimize A+ Content with key
unbranded phrases
•Optimize Alt-Text on all images
with branded and unbranded
keywords
• Content: 300 - 1200 words
•No ASIN linking, Brand Store
linking only
•Images: 2 - 5 main images
Pay-to-Play content. Less search weight but can
provide a relevance boost.
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon’s Virtuous Optimization Cycle
Predictive Search &
Vendor Central
Product Optimization
PageViewRank & CTR
Seller Rank
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
What’s PageView Rank?
All ASINs on Amazon
accumulate PageView
Rank. This metric shows
how “visible” and “how
much awareness” a
product has with
consumers.
A general correlation can
be between a lower
PageView Rank and
increased order counts.
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
How Can You Increase PageViewRank, CTR, and Orders?
Use multiple digital channels to drive traffic to your
products, and measure them.
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon Services: Sparkle Search & Banners
Sparkle Search is Amazon’s
version of Paid Search. How it
works:
•Target up to 100 keywords
(branded, unbranded and
cross-category)
•Drive Consumers to Coupons,
Brand Landing Pages or Brand
Stores
•Pay for Impression Share, Not
Per Click
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon Services: Sparkle Search & Banners
Amazon offers multiple ways for
retailers to place ads (in a
variety of standard & custom
sizes) in virtually any area of the
site.
Amazon offers targeting and
serving options depending on
the banner ad.
See the full list of Amazon
Media Group offers here: http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=az_adv_ln_dads_as?&node=3055324011
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon Brand Stores
Amazon offers retailers brand
stores to drive consumers to a
brand destination on
Amazon.com.
Three Types of Brand Stores:
1. Free
2. $10,000
3. $70,000
The difference in price extends to
various types of customizations
and targeting allowed for brand
stores.
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon’s Virtuous Optimization Cycle
Predictive Search &
Vendor Central
Product Optimization
PageViewRank & CTR
Seller Rank
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
What’s Seller Rank?
The Amazon Best Sellers calculation is based on
Amazon.com sales and is updated hourly to reflect
recent and historical sales of every item sold on
Amazon.com.
Simply put: the more a product sells (volume), the
better the Seller Rank.
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Amazon provides Seller Rank at a category
level/department and sub-category
level/department.
Two Types of SellerRank
Category Seller Rank Sub-Cat Seller Rank
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Does Seller Rank Matter? It Depends.
Some Amazon Search Queries
are much more Seller Rank-
driven than others. If the query
has a high search frequency or
is a part of the categorical
taxonomy, it’s likely more
Seller Rank-driven.
Queries with less search
frequency or are out of
categorical taxonomy are more
likely to relevance-driven.
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Not All Queries Created Equal
“LED TV” “Moist Wipes”
44%25%
6%13%13%
Seller Rank Breakdown
LED TV 1- 10 Seller Rank LED TV 11-20 Seller Rank
LED TV 21-30 Seller Rank LED TV 31 - 40 Seller Rank
LED TV 41- 50 Seller Rank LED TV 51+ Seller Rank
6%
6%6%
13% 13%
56%
Seller Rank Breakdown
Flushable Moist Wipes 1- 10 Seller Rank Flushable Moist Wipes 11-20 Seller Rank
Flushable Moist Wipes 21-30 Seller Rank Flushable Moist Wipes 31 - 40 Seller Rank
Flushable Moist Wipes 41- 50 Seller Rank Flushable Moist Wipes 51+ Seller Rank
75% of products for “LED TV” are in the Top 30 Sub-
Category Seller Rank; 18% for Moist Wipes.
@rockfish | @TonyVerre
#smx #22D
9/26/2013
Winning Means A Well-Oiled Machine
There isn’t a single phase of
the A9 algorithm and
Virtuous Optimization Cycle
that is inherently more
important than another.
All of the elements of the
Virtuous Cycle have to work
in unison.
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