Organic keyword ranking sounds complicated, but it’s not; it simply means how well your product page attracts potential customers based on the keywords it contains, “organically”, that is, not by pay per click advertising.
It’s a big deal; nearly three-quarters of customers click on the result that comes out on top when they search for a product. If you’re not in the top three you have a 10% chance, the best, of getting their business. So you really do need to rank high for each keyword to have your best chance of a bite at the cherry.
From the point of view of keywords, Amazon is just like Google – it’s a search engine. But unlike Google, where you might be searching for a historical date for your kid’s homework, for a ‘how to’ video to unblock your sink, or for advice on how to budget, searches on Amazon are transactional. That is, they’re always related to an intention to buy, maybe right now, or maybe in the future.
The search engine, then, has as its goal finding every buyer exactly what they’re searching for, based on the search terms they submit. So your goal is to make sure that anyone who is looking for the type of product you sell will see your product top of the list. And you do this by finding the right keywords, and including them in your product page and in your keyword list.
You need to think about customers here and accept that though the answer might be “microfiber cat blanket” the question might be “how can I keep my cat dry?” A good way to do this is to take a piece of paper and write down all the reasons your product might be ideal for someone, and all the reasons they might be looking for it. Then consider what keywords you might use to attract each buyer.
You might also look at keywords under a number of headings.
• Synonyms. For instance, if you sell a soft blanket for babies, you could also use synonyms for soft (fuzzy, fluffy, gentle, warm, cozy), or for blanket (cover, coverlet, comforter).
• Getting more specific. If you sell red lipstick, ‘red’ can be made more specific – cherry red, crimson, vermilion, bright red, and so on.
• Intended use. So instead of ‘sink plunger’, you could use keywords such as sink unblocker, unblock drains, blocked sink, and so on.
• Expanding – long-tail keywords. If you tried, let’s say, to compete with the big airlines on ‘air ticket’, you would probably not get to the top of any search list. But what about ‘big discount air ticket Hawaii’? That’s more specific. Or ‘mom daughter best wedding gift’? (You might want to space these out with a few more words in between so they actually make sense when someone’s reading your page.)
It’s sometimes useful just to type each of the keywords you’ve thought of into Amazon and see what comes up. For instance, for ‘sink unblocker’, you may see that liquid unblocking products come top of that list, so that might not be a great keyword for your plunger after all.
Don’t forget you can use back-end search terms which customers won’t see, but Amazon’s search engine will still use. So if you have Spanish-speaking customers, why not include pantalón as well as ‘pants’ on the back end? That might get you a good number of extra sales.
Look at your reviews. If a number of words keep turning up in your reviews, why not use them as search terms? Sometimes, your customers know better than you do!
Finally, remember to keep monitoring how well each search term is performing. The key to a sustainable, long-term FBA business isn’t a single great launch, but continuous tweaking and optimization.