Product relevance refers to the degree of relevance between the product content that buyers are looking for and the products displayed by Amazon. By understanding product relevance, sellers can master how to make the products better displayed to buyers through the A9 algorithm when publishing products. The product relevance of the A9 algorithm on the Amazon platform mainly includes category relevance and keyword relevance, which are introduced in detail below.
1. Category relevance
Category relevance refers to whether the category selected by the seller when publishing the product is consistent with the category to which the product belongs. If the category to which the product belongs is selected incorrectly, the A9 algorithm will block the product. For example, a seller publishes a set of tableware, which should be published under the home and kitchen category, but the category of the product is selected as the book category when publishing. When buyers who buy tableware search for products through category display, they cannot find the product at all, which will cause the tableware product to be unable to sell normally.
If sellers are unable to determine what category their products belong to on the Amazon platform, they can find products similar to their products on the Amazon platform and determine which category their products should be published under by observing the categories to which these products belong. The category information of the product will be displayed below the specification display area of the listing.
On the page, sellers can see that the major category of this product on the Amazon platform is baby products, and the subcategory is teethers. The ranking of the product in the major category and subcategory is also displayed here. Sellers can also click the “View baby products sales rankings” and “teething” links to enter the corresponding category product ranking page and view other products in the corresponding category.
2. Keyword relevance
Keyword relevance refers to the degree of relevance between some words in the product information filled in by the seller when publishing the product and the words used by the buyer when searching for the product. The more accurate the keywords of the product, the greater the probability of being displayed when the buyer searches for related keywords. Product keywords are mainly included in the two display positions of the product title and the five-point description. In addition to these two display positions where product keywords can be filled in, product keywords can also be filled in and displayed in the Search Terms column of the product publishing interface. A9 algorithm crawling is described in detail as follows.
(1) Product title
Product titles must be searchable. When designing product titles, sellers can use Sonar or other Amazon platform keyword mining tools to mine relevant keywords for the products they sell, and ensure that these keywords are frequently searched by buyers so that buyers can search for the products.
In addition, product titles must comply with the Amazon platform’s title specifications to avoid violating the rules and causing the title keywords to fail to be crawled. Basic rules include but are not limited to the following points.
① The title must not exceed 200 characters, including spaces.
② The title must not contain promotional phrases, such as Free. Shipping or 100% Quality Guaranteed.
③ The title must not contain decorative characters, such as ~,!,*,?,<,>,#,*, etc.
④ The title must contain the identification information of the product, such as Hiking Boots or Umbrella.
On the other hand, as one of the first displayed contents that buyers see when searching for products, the product title should include the brand name, product size, product color, product use, product style, etc., so that buyers can have a clear understanding of the product before clicking on it.
Therefore, when designing product titles, sellers can use certain title formulas to form readable product titles so that buyers can accurately read the information in the product title. The title formula commonly used by sellers on the Amazon platform is: brand + style + material + use + features + color + size + name. In actual operation, sellers can increase, decrease or adjust the content in the formula according to the characteristics of the product. For example, the title of a bedding is: Wamsutta Luxury 400-Thread-Count Sateen Queen Sheet Set, the formula of the title is: brand + style + number of stitches + material + name.
(2) Five-point description
Due to the character limit of the product title, only the main keywords of the product can be displayed. Then, the seller needs to further introduce the product information through the five-point description and fill in other attribute keywords, parameter keywords, etc., so as to be captured by the A9 algorithm.
After the seller fills in the product keywords in the five-point description, it is also necessary to ensure that the five-point description can provide sufficient and attractive information to stimulate the buyer’s desire to buy and promote the order. This is an important part of increasing product sales. When the seller is publishing the product, the filling of the five-point description of the product should pay attention to the following points.
① Product parameters should be accurate
Most of the buyer complaints on the Amazon platform are due to the buyer’s lack of understanding of the product description or a certain degree of misunderstanding. If the parameters in the description are not accurate enough, this kind of after-sales incident will occur. For example, the seller sells a thermos cup, and then writes in the five-point description that this thermos can keep the water temperature for more than 10 hours, which will result in poor sales. Because foreign buyers are very rigorous, these buyers will not pay for what the seller says “more than 10 hours”. What they need to know is the exact value, such as 10 and a half hours or 11 hours.
②Product advantages should be highlighted
Sellers should pay attention to two aspects when describing the advantages of products: the first aspect is what advantages the seller’s products have compared with similar products. For example, for cups, sellers can describe the advantages of the material, design style, etc. of the cups compared with cups of the same type; the second aspect is that sellers should show buyers what benefits of using this product and what kind of consumer experience it can bring to buyers. Through this description, sellers can let buyers better understand the advantages of the product.
③Product problems should be explained
Sellers should write down the problems that may occur during the buyer’s use of the product, such as the phenomenon that the printer will jam when used improperly. When buyers encounter such a phenomenon, they generally will not leave bad reviews for the seller.
④Product after-sales service should be guaranteed
The after-sales service guarantee of the product is a point that buyers value more. Regardless of the category of the product, it is best to indicate that it can be returned or exchanged. If the product is more complex, such as electronic products, it is best to write that the product comes with instructions for use, so that buyers can read the instructions carefully, and explain that if they have any questions, they can send an email to ask questions at any time.
(3) Search Terms
Search Terms is located in the Keywords column of the product release interface, and is mainly filled with keywords related to the product. Although Search Terms is not a required option and is not publicly displayed by Amazon on the platform front desk, it is a factor that can affect the product search ranking. Therefore, experienced sellers generally use Search Terms as a keyword supplement and fill in some attribute keywords. The following are the basic requirements for filling in Search Terms.
① Cover synonyms of the product, and the English spelling must be accurate. Keywords can be words, phrases, long-tail words (referring to non-central keywords on Amazon but can also bring search traffic. For example, if TV is a target keyword, then TV series are long-tail words).
② Cover the usage scenarios and daily collocations of the product. When filling in, put the more relevant keywords in the front position and arrange them in order according to the popularity of the keywords.
Learn one more trick: Buyer shopping behavior correlation
Buyer shopping behavior correlation refers to Amazon’s tracking and recording of buyers’ various browsing behaviors on the platform, which is also one of the product correlations that affects the A9 algorithm. The products that buyers have viewed and the listing pages they frequently visit will be recorded, and a buyer portrait will be formed through a large amount of behavioral data. Therefore, A9 can know the buyer’s consumption level, preferences, tastes, etc. When the buyer searches for product keywords, Amazon will match them with relevant products. This kind of correlation has little to do with the buyer’s posting of products. It is purely the buyer’s personal behavior, and the seller only needs to understand it.