Keyword Research and Listing Optimization Amidst COVID-19

Payoneer Customer Success Manager Namita Khuntia recently sat down with Ankhitha Nagaraj, Head Customer Success Team at SellerApp, to discuss how Amazon sellers can best use their time during COVID-19 to undertake keyword research and listing optimization.

The right keywords used in your advertising and brand creation are vital for marketplace sellers since they improve your chances of appearing in search results, thereby driving traffic and ultimately leading to greater sales opportunities and conversion.

Amazon sellers have been dealing with the prioritization of essential products, with many sellers of nonessential products concerned about their futures. Ankhitha offers tried and tested strategies for finding the right keywords and how to use them to improve ranking and build brand recognition so that even if you are facing hurdles due to the current situation, you will be well-positioned on the marketplace.

Watch the full webinar with added tips, case studies, and Q&A

3 Ps of Product Research

When you are selling on Amazon, there are three main things to keep in mind in order to succeed:

• Product: Choose winning products that you can buy at low cost but can generate high sales margins.
• Price: Find the right price range to keep customers buying while keeping your costs down.

And the third P and the main topic of Ankhitha’s presentation:

• Position: Once you find your product, it is vital to position it by building visibility, creating a trustworthy brand, and delivering on customer expectations to establish customer loyalty and longterm success on Amazon.

The magic formula for success on Amazon

Finding winning products and listing them at the perfect price point won’t get you very far on Amazon if you don’t position your products for ranking. To ensure that your audience is finding and choosing your items from among a sea of competing products, optimizing your listing is critical. With the extra time many sellers have on their hands as a result of COVID-19, right now there is an opportunity to work on finding the best keywords and ranking strategies to secure your position. There are three main things to focus on when you are optimizing your product listings:

1.    Discoverability

Enhancing visibility is key to success when selling on Amazon. Ankhitha explains that it’s vital to know your audience and reach out to them directly. Establish a niche and utilize keywords that position your product to rank on Amazon. Look for keywords that are:

• Longtail and expressing what your audience is looking for in queries
• Have a good search volume
• Relevance
• Trending

Building keyword relevancy on Amazon’s algorithm means finding keywords and matching them to sales. Higher relevance will secure higher ranking and more people finding your product when they use search terms that match your chosen keywords. There are some other factors that contribute to keyword relevancy on Amazon that you should integrate into your research and optimization. These are:

• Sales history
• Reviews and ratings
• Customer experience

Finally, to keep ranking, it’s important to measure visibility and track your keyword ranking consistently to ensure optimized Amazon placement over time.

2.    Brand trust

Amazon is a very competitive selling environment, so if you don’t have a trustworthy brand you won’t be able to sell. Listing is the most important aspect of brand identity building–when a customer lands on your listing, you need to make sure that your brand looks credible and enticing. How? Ankhitha gives some great advice on fostering brand trust:

• Professional images and short videos. Aside from drawing in potential customers, this strategy will also optimize your ranking.
• Compelling ad copy. An attractive product title combined with seamlessly integrated keywords, bullet points talking about key features of products, and repeating keywords in a visually pleasing way will both optimize your listing and present a professional-looking brand.
• A+ content: Using storytelling and video will help connect emotionally to your audience and increase conversion.
• Reviews: This is a great way to build brand credibility, especially if the reviews include images. Shoppers listen to other shoppers, so user-generated content pushes conversion.
• Emotionally connect: By using the right keywords, you can echo the language your customers use when they are looking for a product. This, along with images and videos, will help you connect with your audience.
• Differentiate: No matter how great your product and listing are, if you can’t distinguish your listing from the competition then your audience will not be able to find you. Innovate and differentiate using keyword research to hit that mark.
• Optimize: Periodically review your listing to re-optimize with new trending keywords. While this does maximize discoverability, you need to do this carefully and take some time before picking your keywords.

One of the most useful parts of the webinar is when Ankhitha responds to real-time viewer questions. To hear robust and useful tips on how to optimize your listings on Amazon, click below:

Watch the full webinar

3.    Great customer experience

Once you have launched your listing on Amazon, keeping up with your customers is vital to maintaining optimal ranking. There are two environments to engage with customers, on or off of Amazon, and each area offers unique opportunities to interact and build brand loyalty.

On Amazon:

• Answer any questions
• Comment on negative reviews
• Offer promotions and discounts
• Monitor inventory so you don’t go out of stock and you meet Amazon stock requirements
• Ensure delivery times are met

Off Amazon:

• Build email lists and engage directly with customers
• Drive engagement with A+ content
• Use “Notify Me” for out of stock items
• Manage customer expectations and preempt any changes in service

Ankhitha’s Pro Tip

Competition research is critical! Finding weaknesses or gaps in your competitors’ listings can help direct your optimization strategy, including finding the right keywords to boost your ranking. We all have a little bit more time on our hands right now with COVID-19, so taking this time and using it effectively is really important. Here are some things to look at when you are researching your competition:

• Product analysis: How optimized is the listing? Look for weaknesses or gaps that you can fill.
• Listing analysis: Are there gaps in the listing you can fill? Look for keywords you can use to rank.
• Sales data: What is your competition’s pricing and promotion strategy? Monitor inventory and buy box so you can take advantage of unavailable inventory.
• Customer reviews: What are the customers saying about their experience? This gives insight into any weaknesses you can leverage as a strength.

Whether you are selling essential or nonessential items, if you implement these strategies you will see a positive sales growth. Global eCommerce sales will reach $4.2 trillion in 2020 and quarantine is bringing in new audiences, new consumers, and new categories. This is your time to shine and expand your offerings, implement strategies to position your products, and propel positive growth no matter what you are selling.

Supercharge Your Amazon Business

Keyword research and listing optimization can be time intensive. SellerApp’s keyword research platform helps sellers pick the right keyword for title, bullet points, and descriptions to help build relevance and rank on Amazon. SellerApp connects marketing, sales, and operations into a single platform ensuring growth and success.

Once you are ranking and selling, implement a frictionless payment platform with Payoneer’s cross-border solutions. Payoneer offers innovative ways to receive disbursements of your Amazon sales into a Payoneer account that can be easily withdrawn in your local currency, saving on fees and making getting paid quick and easy.