{"id":21997,"date":"2016-08-12T13:04:55","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T20:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/?p=21997"},"modified":"2020-09-25T11:31:29","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T18:31:29","slug":"amazons-seo-secrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iteratemarketing.com\/blog\/amazons-seo-secrets\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon\u2019s SEO Secrets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why They\u2019re Everywhere & How To Beat Them<\/h2>\n

Anyone who has ever tried to market an eCommerce store knows the feeling: You take a survey of the competition and inevitably you run into a few big companies. If you\u2019re in consumer goods maybe you\u2019ll bump into Overstock, in construction: Home Depot, in industrial: Grainger. <\/span><\/p>\n

But across the board, you\u2019ll almost always bump into Amazon.<\/span><\/p>\n

It can be frustrating, especially when you\u2019ve been in the industry for twenty years and know the products forwards and backward. I\u2019ve even heard multiple stories from site owners talking about routinely being asked for troubleshooting help from people that bought from Amazon. Not fair at all, but unfortunately the algorithms (and many price-conscious buyers) don\u2019t care. <\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no reason to fret though, once we understand how Amazon does it, we can all start to fight back.<\/span><\/p>\n

So How does Amazon rank so well?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Now Amazon has some advantages that not everyone can emulate, like size and the ability to market themselves while surviving on razor-thin margins. But that said there\u2019s no conspiracy here and they can be successfully fended off.<\/span><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0<\/span>Backlinks are Amazon\u2019s #1 dirty little secret: How they get backlinks<\/span><\/h3>\n

Amazon doesn\u2019t just have the advantage of a headline-grabbing company, brand recognition, and a CEO who grabs headlines for ventures in rockets or failures with new product adventures – it also has a healthy referral program. For those unfamiliar with how this works, referral programs allow you to create a link to a company’s product and they\u2019ll give you a percentage kickback if anyone makes a purchase as a result of clicking on that link. Of \u00a053,365 links that Amazon received from June 6th back to May 5th. 68% were from its referral program.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll notice that most major online retailers like Overstock, Home Depot, Grainger, Northern Tools, REI, etc have similar programs in place. (And as we\u2019ll see with Amazon, almost all of them have started writing out guides because backlinks are not enough anymore.)<\/span><\/p>\n

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How to Respond:<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no fun answer with this one. The best solution may simply be to join a referral program if you can afford to part with the margin and cost of setting one up. <\/span><\/p>\n

That said backlinks aren\u2019t the only thing at play here, and there is a lot you can do to stay focused as an agile e-commerce store. <\/span><\/p>\n

Biggest takeaway: With the right approach on everything else in here, and a concerted effort on building out backlinks and quality to your own category pages you <\/span>can<\/b> compete with Amazon\u2019s numerical advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0<\/span>People Know Amazon & Search Engines Respond To That Recognition<\/span><\/h3>\n

There is no doubt that google responds to how users <\/span>click throug<\/span><\/a>h on the SERPs and even relies on<\/span> AI to decipher <\/span><\/a>the evolving complexity of what people want. The truth is that the more people recognize and love your brand, the more you can rely on getting people to click on your name. Unfortunately with Amazon\u2019s massive reputation and free shipping on items that many people love, it can be tough to deal with the fact that they\u2019ll always reliably get clicks, especially when your site is unfamiliar.<\/span><\/p>\n

How To\u00a0Respond:<\/b><\/p>\n

When it comes to reputation, you\u2019ll always be fighting an uphill battle against Amazon, unless you\u2019re another massive online retailer. <\/span><\/p>\n

That said, there is actually a lot we can do to counteract the pull – and don\u2019t worry, handing out free shipping isn\u2019t going to be one of my recommendations. <\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Make your customers love you too<\/b>. The Beatles were right – At the end of the day, you can\u2019t buy love. While people may like and order from Amazon, you have the expertise, agility, and hopefully desire to outperform them on customer service. If you follow the steps outlined below for \u201ctechnically\u201d competing with amazon, the people-pleasing, as well as the rest of the success puzzle should come together nicely. <\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Make your site feel familiar.<\/b> Remember if we do get customers to come to our site, we want to make sure that we can keep them around. Think about their experience, and think about all the authority symbols you can add to make them feel comfortable with their choices. <\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Make your titles competitive.<\/b> People still treat title tags like they\u2019re just about keywords, but this is can be another great place you can leverage your agility. Amazon doesn\u2019t have the bandwidth to customize all the title tags on their site to an excellent degree; use the fact that it wouldn’t take thousands of hours to write custom title tags for your site as an opportunity to appeal to searchers by presenting the most useful information directly on the search page.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Topic Relevancy. <\/strong><\/strong>Topic relevancy is using relevant terms on your page to communicate that your page covers the topic in detail rather than repeating keywords with little or low-quality text. Google wants pages that cover the topic in-depth and overcoming this obstacle can potentially improve your Google rank at a faster pace, often pushing past Amazon. Amazon often uses weak descriptions provided by the sellers. Here is the catch! You can do better by including in-depth content that Google requires by including specific keywords, use related terms, video, editorial reviews, or instructional content.
    <\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Website Relevancy<\/strong>. Your website content should match your targeted specific keywords. You should focus on being a niche expert by including rich keywords, it\u2019s related content on your homepage, and internal pages supporting the main keyword theme of your website.<\/li>\n
  6. Make your price competitive<\/strong>. Your prices should be competitive with Amazon or other big e-commerce brands selling the same products. We all look for products that are of high quality and good price, right? The same concepts need to be applied to your e-commerce brand to drive in the traffic.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    4.\u00a0<\/span>Leveraging user data & testing<\/span><\/h3>\n

    We\u2019ve all hopefully read the <\/span>300 Million Button story<\/span><\/a> and realize that constant testing and tweaks to any e-commerce store are essential to success. Amazon is always testing out new features to see how they please users and affect conversion. While the changes will seem subtle over as they happen even in the course of a year or so things can change pretty quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n

    For example look at this listing of the PS4 from <\/span>March 31, 2015<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>
    \"image03\"<\/p>\n

    Courtesy of <\/span>wayback machine<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

    And look at it \u00a0now:<\/span>
    \"image11\"<\/p>\n

    While the changes happen gradually, they make the old product page look much older than it really is, and display the refinement of priorities that Amazon has recognized through careful testing. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Another great example of Amazon\u2019s testing and usage of user data is their augmented shopping experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"image01\"<\/p>\n

    Their \u201cFrequently Bought\u201d together and \u201ccustomers who bought this item also bought\u201d categories help people unfamiliar with the product find the right item quickly. <\/span><\/p>\n

    While this may be a better tactic for upsells and cross-sells it\u2019s also key to nurturing customer experience. <\/span><\/p>\n

    How To Respond:<\/b><\/p>\n

    You may not have the capabilities for a robust \u201crelated product\u201d or shopping cart grouping feature right now – but you should always be thinking about it. At the very least items like these can be added manually on product pages or written about in an in-depth manner in onsite resource guides or blog posts. <\/span><\/p>\n

    5. Product Listing Optimization<\/h3>\n

    Your product title is one of the most valuable and essential SEO elements, therefore, you must craft it carefully. Read it a couple of times before publishing it to ensure that your title is of top quality with the right amount of keywords used. A competitive product listing and title on your website can help you have an edge over big e-websites such as Amazon.<\/p>\n

    How To Respond:<\/b><\/p>\n

    Your product title should have:<\/p>\n