6 Signs Your SEO Needs Help
With a new year underway, many brand leaders are busy doing two important things separate from their usual day-to-day duties: 1) identifying and tackling challenges they haven’t had time to deal with over the last several months; and 2) trying to figure out how they're going to achieve that next level of business growth ahead of 2024.
One challenge that can be put on the backburner even though it can affect growth is SEO for Amazon listings—which is why a lot of Brandrunners often dedicate time in January to some kind of SEO effort. They understand the power of the Amazon algorithm and the value in starting a new year right by shoppers.
The problem is, they don’t always know where to begin—like, do they concentrate on the bottom of their catalog (where sales are weakest), or on their top seller (which perhaps could generate even more revenue with a little SEO help)?—or even if they should be embarking on such an initiative in the first place. They just think of SEO as a fix-all solution and something they should be investing time and/or money in.
It doesn’t have to be that way. If your SEO needs help, there will be signs. You just have to know what they are. Here are six that will take the guesswork out of how much SEO attention your listings require ...
1 - Some copy elements on your listing are blank
Copy is the backbone of an Amazon listing. If you have gaps here, address them—that’s low-hanging fruit. By having robust, researched copy in all of your fields—from title (100-150 characters) and feature points (5) to product description (no matter how good already) and back-end keywords—you will be able to optimize your organic ranking and indexing on the platform and set yourself up for the best customer experience.
2 - copy for the listing was written without SEO research input
It’s easy to reuse product copy written for packaging, print catalogs, sell sheets, or website pages. But that’s not going to do you any favors. The better strategy: Run your ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers) and top performing search terms from non-Amazon platforms (e.g., social media channels, Google, and your own website) through an Amazon-specific SEO tool to confirm you’re prioritizing and including the right vocabulary.
It’s also wise to take into account search ranking and relevance to your product for all terms. And don’t forget to consider SEO research for your back-end keywords, too; you'll maximize the impact if you avoid using keywords already in your front-end copy.
3 - your listing’s conversion rate has dropped significantly
There are various factors that can play into a conversion rate drop. Sometimes a drop is due to a new-to-brand marketing push or spend increase that brings a lot of new traffic but not necessarily a comparable amount of conversions.
But other times, the drop is due to your SEO, such as what keywords you’re using or how the product is described. If keywords and descriptions aren’t relevant enough, shoppers may come to your listing and see that it isn’t quite what they were looking for, resulting in less conversions.
4 - top converting marketing keywords aren’t in the listing copy
We often gain keyword insights through marketing efforts but forget to incorporate those findings into the product detail page. By taking into consideration your best performing non-branded advertising terms for your on-listing copy, you can be sure to catch changing trends early. If you do this right, organic and paid traffic work together in harmony to optimize your product’s search ranking. Keep an eye on this and be sure your listing reflects the insights you’ve gained.
5 - your listing’s title and feature points lack sharpness
If your title and feature point fields don’t squarely address what the product is (which is exactly an easy mistake to make, even for product experts), what problem the product solves for, and what makes the product different or better than others that shoppers can choose from, then you’ve got an issue. You may have keywords in the copy that have good search volume, but if they aren’t relevant enough to the true differentiators of your product, your listing won’t perform optimally.
6 - your listing’s search ranking has dropped
If a new competitor is on the marketplace and is stealing market share, or your product has been recategorized on Amazon, then your search ranking could drop—in which case an SEO refresh, with all the correct terms, could help. There’s an emphasis on “could” because, contrary to other signs your SEO needs help, there could be something else at play here. Nevertheless, it’s worth flagging and engaging with an ecommerce specialist such as Netrush about what is truly happening.
summary
The start of the year is usually when Brandrunners look at how to better tackle challenges they’ve been facing and what can be done to bolster business growth. For that reason, a lot more attention gets paid to SEO for Amazon listings in January than in other months. That’s good—especially if it’s clear that SEO has been put on the backburner for a while, or the brand is experiencing issues that are likely related to SEO.
But before you dig in, it’s important to take inventory of where you’re at with SEO. Do you simply think it’s a path you need to go down? Or do you know, because one or more of the signs detailed in this post are there.
There are even more signs than the ones listed above. Netrush not only understands them all, but knows how to act on them. If you’d like to learn more, or are ready to tackle an SEO refresh with Netrush, contact us and let’s talk.
ABOUT kathleen burckhardtKathleen leads content strategy for Netrush’s brand partners and manages the editorial and strategic direction of creative on its Studio team. She is the company’s in-house expert on content opportunities and limitations on Amazon, and possesses international experience in ecommerce strategy and cross-cultural communication—making the Swiss-American-Canadian a key member of the Netrush family. Connect with Kathleen.