While brands have likely been prepping for months and are down to the wire making quick changes to stand out in the crowded landscape, our Amazon SEO team is here to remind us all that Prime Day is when year-long SEO work optimizing PDPs comes to fruition. And they are definitely not saying, “I told you so….”
Optimizing PDPs through SEO modifications and updated copy and imagery can be considered a long game - it takes time to see results, but they are critical tasks that shouldn’t be overlooked. If a brand has been keeping up on optimizing PDPs throughout the year, they are better set up for better organic visibility that is critical to this year's Prime Day, and essential to maintaining flywheel momentum and organic search visibility post event.
Amazon Retail Readiness Basics
While you can’t go back in time to adjust your PDPs, brands can make a renewed focus on always-on optimizations. This should include:
- Maintaining listing order and active featured offer
- Ensuring product data completeness and attributes following Amazon standards
- Implementing visual merchandising through variation, virtual bundle, and A+ cross-sell strategies
- Analyzing the brand landscape and assortment in SERP
- Optimizing copy, imagery and enhanced content to be mobile-friendly and retail ready
- Increasing discoverability through keyword-rich content and backend generic keyword fields
Amazon organizes search functions around two important aspects: frontend product details and information found in the backend of the platform. Ensuring every ASIN is complete in the backend - and this includes even product attributes not required - is critical not just for tentpole events but for general catalog maintenance, as it enables SERP inclusion through a shopper’s refinement. Amazon often makes updates to the backend product attributes without notification, so scanning attributes and data every so often is an essential task.
A well-variated product assortment can improve the shopper experience and SERP discoverability, so it’s important to have a strategic approach to how your products should be variated. As Amazon continues to enforce variation manipulations, it’s important to ensure parent families developed are in line with Amazon standards as to not get suppressed or even suspended. Alongside variations, utilize other visual merchandising elements such as virtual bundles and A+ cross-sell modules to give exposure to related products and seamlessly build larger baskets.
Third-party sellers can often be an issue for brands, and it’s been shared that more than 60% of sales on Amazon come from independent sellers (Amazon). 3P sellers can threaten search ranking, create a confusing shopping experience, and damage a brand’s reputation to consumers. Most importantly, not having a pulse on 3P sellers can result in an overall loss in sales. Brands should regularly assess their third-party presence in the search engine results pages (SERPs) to identify sales threats, mergeable duplicate listings, and potential revenue opportunities.
In addition to all the Amazon SEO and catalog tasks, it’s important to ensure each PDP is updated with accurate, engaging copy, compelling imagery and A+ pages and an optimized Brand Store. In general, brands should follow these best practices to keep PDPs retail ready:
- Keep content within Amazon character limits for titles, bullet points, and descriptions
- Incorporate keyword-rich, informative copy using Amazon-specific search terms in addition to review and return insights from Amazon’s Product Opportunity Explorer
- Main image is on a plain white background
- Have a total of 6-7 images and video
- Utilize lifestyle imagery and the product in different environments that appeal to your target audience
- For A+ pages, ensure you’re utilizing all 5 available modules and taking advantage of free Premium A+ (available for brands on Seller Central)
- Incorporate a variety of modules on an A+ page, using large images, live text and a comparison chart that can cross-sell your catalog
- Create a scalable Brand Story element to tell your brand’s unique story, highlight product collections and direct shoppers to the Brand Store.
To help improve discoverability and increase your spot on the SERP, brands should audit their keyword usage and current organic rankings. Ensure your brand's top priority terms are within the content, especially in the title and bullet points. This can help with rankings on the search results page, and also ensure that the correct audience is landing on your PDP. Use a variety of keywords with higher and lower search volume amounts for wide coverage, utilizing backend keyword components alongside frontend fields to increase keyword indexing opportunities.
Additionally, with the recent announcement of Amazon’s COSMO, a newly integrated AI tool impacting their search algorithm, it’s important for brands to optimize their listings for intent. COSMO aims to revolutionize Amazon search navigation by moving away from traditional product-centric taxonomies towards a customer focused approach, highlighting the intent of the product search over exact matching keywords.
Keeping a catalog retail ready at all times is a lot of work, but it pays off by fueling the flywheel, keeping ASINs discoverable and accurate, improving the shopping experience. It’s not just a set of tasks to complete for Prime Day, but a critical part of selling on Amazon.
Could you use a strategic partner to help keep your catalog complete for Prime Day and beyond? Contact us today.