Amazon SEO Guide: How the A9 Algorithm Ranks Listings

Amazon SEO is the practice of optimizing your listings to rank higher in Amazon search results. Amazon's search algorithm (commonly called A9, with ongoing updates some refer to as A10) ranks products based on relevance and performance. Relevance signals: keyword match in title (highest weight), keywords in bullet points and description, keywords in backend search terms, and category/product type accuracy. Performance signals: sales velocity (products that sell more rank higher — this is the most important signal), conversion rate (products that convert a higher percentage of page visitors rank better for the keywords that drove those visitors), click-through rate from search results (products that get clicked rank higher for those searches over time), customer reviews (higher average rating and more review count improve ranking), and price competitiveness (products priced within a competitive range convert better, which feeds back into ranking). The circular problem: to rank well, you need sales; to get sales, you need to rank well. The way out is advertising — Sponsored Products campaigns generate sales at keywords you target, and those sales improve your organic rank for those keywords over time. This is called the "PPC flywheel" and is why new Amazon products invest heavily in ads at launch.