How to audit your product's presence on Amazon

As a seller of natural products on Amazon, it’s all too easy to believe that, once you’ve launched a product page listing, sales are a given. However, there are now more than 560 million products listed on Amazon in the U.S., and that number is growing by the day. Competition is tight for sales on the retail giant. It’s essential that you make your brand stand out if you want to succeed.

By auditing your product’s presence on Amazon, you can determine whether you have thoroughly optimized its listing. This is an essential piece of any successful Amazon SEO strategy. Just like any comprehensive content audit, an Amazon audit examines current copy and brand elements, seeking areas of both strength and weakness. In undertaking an Amazon audit, a you should address several items.

First, you will need to consider your overall brand presence on Amazon. Is it properly established? Are your products both competitively priced and in stock? Are you winning the Buy Box? Important also for natural products—do you set yourself apart as a purveyor of earth-friendly, organic or unique items?

Next, you should evaluate the keyword research you have conducted. Have you successfully targeted the most relevant searches for your brand and within your competitive set? Do product page listings integrate keyword research?

Finally, an audit will determine whether you have correctly implemented best practices in terms of Amazon SEO and Amazon copywriting. This involves five key elements of a successful product page listing, all of which should be evaluated.

Brand appearance

The first essential element of your listing involves your brand's appearance on the platform. When you search for your natural products company, what do you see? Are you in the top search positions on page one, or are competitors advertising against your brand terms? Being in the top position for your brand terms is essential on Amazon.

Even more importantly, you want to ensure that your listings are appearing first. Oftentimes, resellers will duplicate your product listings or competitors will try and copy your brand terms with Headline Search and Sponsored Product Ads. You’ll want to be sure your listings appear above these on each page.

Amazon gives companies limited space to brand themselves. Images, Enhanced Brand Content (or A+ content if you’re on Vendor Central) and the increasingly important Amazon Storefront are some of these methods. Your Storefront acts as a brand hub; not only does it help organize your products, it offers valuable real estate to engage in brand storytelling. In addition, Amazon is now providing brands with information on traffic sources. Your Storefront can be a powerful tool when driving external traffic to Amazon.

A savvy Amazon SEO strategy takes into account the key factor of its algorithm: driving sales. Two of the key factors in your sales figures will be your product’s price and its availability. In terms of product availability, Amazon’s algorithm reacts in real time. If you are out of stock, another seller will win the Buy Box. If you are beat on price, the seller with the lowest price (as long as they’re Prime eligible) will win the Buy Box.

Keyword research

Keyword relevance is a major determining factor for Amazon SEO. As such, any solid SEO optimization strategy integrates several best practices, such as conducting keyword research and crafting keyword-rich content. In addition, take a look at what keywords your competitors are targeting. What words and phrases are they highlighting in copy? If they’re relevant to your product, does it make sense for you to weave some of these terms into your copy?

Excellent copywriting

It’s not merely enough to integrate keywords into already-existing copy. A nuanced Amazon SEO strategy acknowledges copywriting best practices specific to the platform, including an excellent title and well-crafted bullet points. When it comes to the title, a good rule of thumb is to stay under 50 characters. Integrate your primary keyword into this copy piece, as it is the first and most important element in your listing. Other elements to consider including are brand name, product name, and variants like color, quantity and size.

The second most important copy feature are your bullets. They should be keyword-rich, incorporating both primary and secondary keywords. Consolidate into five points in order of importance, and avoid repeating the same benefits or differentiators from bullet to bullet. Lead with key selling points in all caps. For instance, this is a great place to mention your organic ingredients or all-natural production process. Be sure to stay within a 250-350 word character range for each bullet.

A longer copy piece towards the bottom of the page, the description section allows for more narrative and brand-driven copy. You should use up to 2,000 characters explain what makes your company great. Use keywords here if possible, but also tell the story of your company and let its personality shine through. Customers respond to this sort of storytelling.

Hidden keywords

Amazon gives sellers the opportunity to provide a list of “hidden” keywords on the backend in order to enhance product discoverability. Order these keywords from most important to least important, separating them by commas. Do not repeat the same keywords over and over again.

A properly designed Amazon listing can mean the difference between natural products that sell well and those that do not. Take the time to build your listing according to A9 best practices and you should see your search rankings, and ultimately, your sales, improve.

For help with your tactical Google SEO and Amazon SEO needs, reach out to the experts at Galileo Tech Media.

Galileo Tech Media provides managed SEO and content marketing services that ensure maximum visibility in organic search results.