Tag Archives: Search engine optimization

3 Ways You Control To Rank Higher On Amazon

How to maximize your chances of shoppers finding your products on AmazonYou can’t grow your sales on Amazon (or any ecommerce site) if you can’t be found.

The giant in online retail, Amazon is a great source for generating profits, whether as a supplement to other channels or as your main sales channel. But with intense competition and multiple sellers, it takes some creativity to stand out and grow sales.

It turns out the secret to ranking higher in Amazon’s search function isn’t what you think it would be.

Luckily, you can definitely apply certain strategies on Amazon to rank better. Here are tips to help set you up on the right path to success.

How to maximize your chance of shoppers finding your products on Amazon

3 key elements that go inHow Amazon ranks your product in a searchThere are 3 key elements that go into how Amazon ranks your product in a search:

  1. Product title
  2. Product description and bullets
  3. Hidden key words

Amazon’s product title is the most important search factor. While you would expect the product title to be a key contributor to the search ranking algorithm, would you guess that it’s weighted at 60%?

This suggests that you carefully craft your product title. Amazon suggests incorporating the following attributes in product titles.

  • Brand and description
  • Product line
  • Material or key ingredient
  • Color
  • Size
  • Quantity

Another way to think about this is: Brand Name, Model Number, Detailed Product Description, Color. You have to write really detailed titles and include relevant keywords.

Surprisingly Bullet Points and Product Descriptions don’t carry a lot of weight with Amazon’s search function

Are Your Getting Found on AmazonThe bullet points appear underneath the title. Because of the proximity to the title, image, price and add to cart button, you might think it should be treated as an important field for keywords.

Product descriptions are hidden deep on the page but are the one place where you can really provide a lot of detail on the product. Because the descriptions can be so rich, you would think that Amazon would mine this section for keywords to improve search results.

Surprisingly, bullets points and product descriptions are not critical to ranking better in search. Together the bullet points and product descriptions only carry a 10% rank in the Amazon search algorithm.

The optional Amazon hidden keywords carry more weight than you would guess in ranking well in an Amazon search

3 key elements that go into how Amazon ranks your product in a searchIf for any reason you could not use a keyword in the other fields, by all means add it to the keyword field. Amazon will use it in determining rankings. In fact, these keywords will account for 30% of your ranking factors.

This is a great opportunity to add additional information that is relevant, but would somehow clutter the other fields

I use this field to add richness around a product’s use or category. For example, we have a nautical home décor line that we can make more relevant in search results by using hidden keywords like coastal, beach, cottage, seaside, lake, etc.

Selling success on Amazon starts with being found but it doesn’t end there. Nor are these the only components that go into Amazon’s search function. But they are the critical few factors that you can directly control in ranking higher in any Amazon search.

Good Selling!

Active Search Results (ASR) is an independent Internet Search Engine using a proprietary page ranking technology with Millions of popular Web sites indexed.

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Build Your Content Marketing Using Rubbermaid’s 7-Step Strategy

Content Marketing Like RubbermaidBuilding materials are not bought as often as shampoo or other FMCG products. Especially big-ticket items like roofing, siding and windows.

As a result, there’s little brand preference and sense by consumers that a lot of research needs to be done to learn about choices and options before the first dime is spent. Most of that research is done on the internet.

Google even wrote a book about it, calling this online decision-making moment the Zero Moment of Truth — or simply ZMOT.   (Follow this link to download both the ZMOT eBook and handbook from Google.)

You can use content marketing to give consumers a rich education in your product category and build brand preference despite a lack of familiarity with the project.

Use content marketing to stand out and gain preference by helping consumers become educated and knowledgeable about your category

UI-01-060514-175.jpgEven companies as sophisticated at marketing as Rubbermaid can be guilty of wanting to give a lot of product details at the expense of project insights.

But with complex projects – like designing, buying and installing a new closet system – consumers wanted a lot more information about what would be involved to build out a closet that matched their needs or dreams.

A few years ago, Rubbermaid did not have a presence on the web for its closet or garage product lines beyond showing the individual products available. Research showed, however, that consumers found organizing closets to be overwhelming and they had identified the web as a key resource for finding information about closets systems and how-to project advice to gain the confidence to select and purchase.

7 simple steps to building a ZMOT strategy like Rubbermaid did

zmotYou can build an online strategy educates consumers and builds project confidence in seven steps.

  1. Create a micro-site for each key product segment. That will allow you to highlight the features & benefits of your product systems, show project photos and answer common questions.
  2. Develop an online product selection configurator or design tool for each product segment to make product selection and design simple. Make sure it provides a SKU specific shopping list for consumers to take with them to the store.
  3. Maximize “findability” with SEO and key words search terms through search engines and utilize elements, especially video, that could be used on YouTube and other sites to generate additional traffic.
  4. Create a “where to buy” function to allow customers to find the closest retailer or installing dealer.
  5. Build content rich pages for all of your online key online retailers. Repurpose all the content you have generated for yourself for their websites.
  6. Create a blog and prominently feature your core product lines in it.
    Use partnerships and guest blogs from industry pros or key trade organizations to build added credibility.
  7. Finally, promote your blog and rich content extensively on social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

Content marketing is a key way of building your brand preference by helping consumers become educated and knowledgeable about your category

OnlineShoppingFeatureImgKeyboardUsing a content marketing strategy will not only draw more consumers to your website, but you will be arming them with project information instead of product specs simply by utilizing the web as your call to action in ads, PR and merchandising.

The end result will be consumers spent more time with your brand, more confidence in the project and, most importantly, more product sales through online and in-store retailers.

Good Selling!

Photo credit: Patrick Gensel/Flick

Active Search Results (ASR) is an independent Internet Search Engine using a proprietary page ranking technology with Millions of popular Web sites indexed.

Are You Enamored With Your Website?

Enamored With WebsiteToo many B2B companies have forgotten the purpose behind their websites.

Instead, they have become enamored with themselves.  Their websites have become their way of showing off their technical expertise.  Or using the web as an electronic replacement for their printed materials.

So if I know enough to go to their website for a technical spec, and I work hard enough to find it, then I’m in good shape.

Except that I might not every get sold on why I want their product in the first place.

Here’s the irony.  Some web marketing guy in the company is bragging about how deep visitors are drilling into the site.  Taking pride in how long visitors are staying on the site.

Hello!  We’re lost.  And we’re not enjoying how hard we’re working to get what little we’re given.

Every website needs an underlying philosophy

The brand vision is the roadmap to a strong brandEvery building materials manufacturer needs to think about how to bring their sales materials to life.  The sales force does it every day.  The web should be a tool and reinforce the key messages that the sales team is sharing with customers and prospects.

The best way to think about your website philosophy is with this structure in mind:

  • Product
  • Purpose
  • Education

The website should be focused on delivering for the visitor:

1. Information

It’s not enough to share the features of your product line.  Buyers are looking for the benefits your product is providing.  Too often more features will be viewed as added cost, eliminating the possibility of being added to a project. By the same token, using the lowest, priced, most basic products will rob you of an important way you could be differentiating yourself in the marketplace.

2. Resources

Create A Resource Rich Website To Keep Audience EngagedBecoming known as a resource will bring you more viewers.  Regardless of whether they see themselves as potential purchasers or not, by being the resource for critical information those viewers will gain a new and deeper understanding of your company and product.

Here’s an example.  If a home owner comes to your website to learn about when to reshingle their home and learns more about your brand as an authority in roofing, they may become sold on your brand.

If your website can help the home owner select the right product, they may upsell themselves as they become educated and immersed in your materials.  Obviously this isn’t happening in a single website visit, and it’s only logical that they’d want your website to direct them to a skilled and qualified roofing contractor who can help them understand the total cost.

Now that web marketer can start bragging about a sticky web site and know that there’s a good reason behind it.

3. Tips/Insights

You’ve heard it before, content is king.  It applies to your web site as well.  Creating fresh, timely content through tips and insights is a reason to have homeowners as well as builders and installers wanting to come back to your site.  The more practical and helpful your approach, the greater the engagement and interest your site will generate.

Go back to your own website and look at it with this new lens

Using Outside In ThinkingHas it become an electronic version of your old sales binders?  Is it reaching all the players in the channel…from consumers confused about what and how all the way to contractors and builders saying why?

Have you made it relevant and used it to educate?  Inform?  Engage?

And most importantly, are you using the web to convert consumers from prospects to buyers through effective communication— consistently driving your brand promise in a meaningful way?

Good Selling!