Amazon offers sellers of all kinds of products a great opportunity to market to people all over the world and increase their potential income. In fact, It’s one of the most profitable online marketplaces, with billions of visitors each month. So it’s no surprise that today, we see over 600 million products listed on the site. While this may sound sweet to the buyers as it means even more options, it does present a big challenge to the sellers.
With millions of sellers active on the site, catching the attention of customers gets harder. If you want to stand above the pack, you will have to do something drastically different from everyone else. This is where finding quality link-building opportunities can become a vital part of your business strategy. In this post, we have outlined how to begin and what to expect.
Why is Link Building Important for Optimization of Your Amazon Listings?
Unlike regular blogs, you have limited control over your Amazon on-page SEO. And there’s really no more sustainable way to get around the competition than using search engine optimization tactics. Otherwise, how can you stand out from hundreds of similar brands selling the same kind of products, some of them at even cheaper prices? If you already know the importance of backlinks in getting your website to a better search ranking position, you might be wondering if the same principles apply to your Amazon listings.
Well, turns out that strategic and quality links from relevant sources can have a huge impact on your Amazon listings. Yes, including the visibility boost and more visitors. You can increase your sales rates or attract and retain more customers by having a few inbound links from relevant web pages. This is why many sellers set up an account on reputable online directories that can help them buy guest posts in related niches where the backlink placement will appear more natural.
Link Building Opportunities: How to Improve Your Ranking Effectively
One of the major benefits of using links to boost your ranking on Amazon and across the web is the ripple effect it creates. How this positive feedback loop works is that the more visibility you gain, the more opportunities you get to make more sales, which means more reviews and even more visibility, and so on. Yet, not every link will give you this kind of result. Here’s how you can find the right kind of link-building opportunities that will drive these kinds of outcomes.
#1 Get Inspiration From Your Competitors’ Backlink Profile
This is a very common technique for savvy Amazon sellers to find viable opportunities without doing too much work. But there is a technique to this. You should look at who the highest-ranking competitors in your niche are, then check out their backlinks profile. What you want to do is to discover which web pages or sites are linking to them. You will likely find that there are tons of pages that link back to them, but Voy Media recommends that you focus on those with high traffic, good domain authority scores, and low spam scores.
If the website is also ranking high in a related competitive niche, that could be a sign that a backlink from them will be valuable. Reach out to them and present your well-thought-out offer (some freshly updated content, interesting research or stats, etc.). If your proposal is good, you can get a link placement to your Amazon listing in exchange.
#2 Don’t Forget About the Good-Old Guest Posting
This is slightly similar to the first, but instead of doing competitor backlink analysis, you have to spread a wider net. You can scour social media, use Google search, or check out the truly big brands in your niche that provide related products or services. Once you find viable prospects, you will have to reach out to them and convince them to publish one of your content pieces on their web page. In exchange for your well-researched piece, they can then include a backlink to your product listing. Remember to use natural anchor tags that fit the context of the article, and ensure your link offers some added value.
#3 Join the Amazon Associate Program
Signing up for the Amazon Associate program can be a good link-building opportunity, especially if your product has a wide market reach or is quite popular. As more bloggers and other content creators write about your offering, they will have to include links to them, which will direct more traffic to your page. You get to improve your visibility and make more sales as a result. Just ensure that you understand and follow Amazon’s policies so you can enjoy the full benefits that come with the program.
#4 Run a Podcast and a Blog
This one is not for everyone unless you have the time and are willing to make that long-term commitment. Still, creating a blog site where you provide more detailed, helpful updates about your products, including niche news, product launch updates, and troubleshooting ideas, can be a good way to attract links to your Amazon listing. Remember that there are only so many links you can plug into your page, so don’t overdo it. The goal is to end up with a thriving online community that will talk about your product, share it, and generally help you expand your reach. The same goes for podcasts.
You can invite manufacturers or product experts to discuss features, ideas about the next innovations or updates, etc. People love to share their interests and hobbies. By creating blogs, forums, or any other online community, you are helping them relate more to and form a lasting relationship with your brand. This, in turn, boosts your visibility, which means more opportunities for backlinks.
#5 Consider Using Web Directories
While slightly more expensive, this offers the fastest results for improving your ranking while also saving you more time and effort. By setting up an account on a credible web directory, you increase your chance of being seen by potential customers and other business owners who may want to link to you in the future. Still, try to be very careful and do thorough research before choosing this option. Picking the wrong platform could land you, or more accurately, your product listing, in a bad place with the algorithm blacklisting it and making it almost impossible for people to find you through organic searches.
Challenges of Doing SEO for Amazon Products
You already know that your best chance to break your sales record is by incorporating SEO for Amazon products. But doing this also comes with its own challenges. Here are some of the more common ones:
- Too much competition. According to the reports, there are about 2,000 sellers joining the platform every day. This means that no matter how obscure your product niche is, you’ll probably have at least a few dozen people all vying for the same target audience as you. Also, no matter how good you are at SEO, more competition means that you will have to constantly be at the top of your game to avoid being pushed to the background.
- Complicated Algorithm. The Amazon algorithm has its unique quirks, which can make it difficult for sellers to get instant results from their SEO efforts. Throw in constant updates, and it becomes easy to lose track. Still, by learning how to optimize your product listings effectively, you’ll be able to notice improvement and, in time, hit your targets.
- Slightly longer learning curve. Often, sellers focus on keywords, better pricing offers, and quick response time as their strategy. But you’ll need to go beyond the surface if you really want to outrank others, which is why link-building is so important. However, you’ll find that it will take some time to figure out the other aspects of search engine optimization techniques that can help you. If you are not willing to do it yourself, you can always get some professional help. Still, first, learn how to choose the best Amazon SEO agency, which can be a bit tricky.
- Finding the right balance between search-friendly keywords and customer-centric keywords. Believe it or not, sometimes you will find that there is a risk of leaning too much towards one side to the detriment of the other. For example, you might focus on optimizing your content for the algorithm and end up skipping some relevant information that could nudge more people to make a purchase.
- Minimizing negative reviews. Reviews can and do affect your Amazon SEO efforts, so you’ll need to keep them at the barest minimum or avoid them altogether (mission impossible). So before you invest in SEO for Amazon product listings, you want to ensure that you have established a good relationship with your cursor and have built a reputation for quality service.
Best Practices and Tips to Boost Your Amazon SEO Strategy
Learning how to leverage SEO for a new project is especially challenging, but it doesn’t always get easier for the old and established products. Here are some ideas to help you boost your Amazon SEO strategy, whether you are just starting or have been selling the same thing for years.
- Relevant long-tail and short-tail keywords are essential. Using both relevant long- and short-tail keywords helps the algorithm understand what your products are and how to rank them accordingly. Use them in your product title, image tags (where applicable), product description, etc. In return, when people type the keywords into the search box, your product listing also appears alongside the other brands.
- Use relevant, clear & quality images. Your images are there to help you rank better and attract more sales. You want to avoid any visuals that don’t accurately depict what the product looks like, as this can attract negative reviews from angry customers and tank your rankings.
- Pay special attention to your product listing page. You want to optimize this and provide helpful information that potential customers will need to understand the features of your offering. Keep it concise and clear. Additionally, you can use bullet points to highlight the major features.
- Try partnering with relevant influencers or link-building agencies. The more inbound links to your product listings, the better your visibility and rankings will be, so use this to your advantage.
- Offer better prices. Everyone loves getting a bargain and feeling like they have saved some extra cash. So, you can sell the same product slightly cheaper than your competitors to entice more customers. But beware, if it’s too low, people might think there’s something wrong with your offering, and you could end up losing money too.
- Promotions and special discounts for bulk purchases. Use this to attract more traffic. You can also throw in a free shipping deal if possible.
- Encourage buyers to drop reviews and respond when they do. Since client opinions affect your ranking, you want to get as many customers as possible to leave their comments and ratings. Be sure to respond to them, as this will boost engagement.
- Outsource your SEO when possible. To be honest, not every seller will have the time to learn all the intricacies of search engine optimization techniques and best practices. So, if this is you, you should consider outsourcing it. This will help you focus on other business-critical aspects, like building good customer relationships, ensuring stocks are always high, etc. Just be sure to use a reputable partner to reap the benefits.
- Monitor your Amazon rankings. This will help you notice a drop early and address that on time to avoid making losses.
