Amazon Search Engine Optimization
While Facebook and Google are the main companies we’ve been discussing in class, another company that has grown to be an integral part of life is Amazon. With the rise of online shopping, Amazon is often the go-to site for many consumers. As a result, Amazon has a similar goal as Google: to return relevant search results to its consumers. However, there is a big difference between the two as well; Google will direct the user to other relevant pages while Amazon directs them to relevant products. Thus, the factors that determine the ranking of products in the Amazon search engine are different from the ones Google uses to determine rankings of pages. Some examples include immediate sales, verified reviews, and click to sales. These factors all come together to form Amazon’s search algorithm: A9.
Amazon’s search algorithm ties into our topic of web search and page rankings. Just as PageRank assigns scores to different pages, A9 assigns rankings (and thus positions in the search results) to the products sold by sellers. The only difference lies in the goals of Amazon’s search engine and Google’s search engine: products versus pages. Thus, product reviews and immediate sales are more relevant to Amazon than Google. However, factors like immediate sales provide opportunities for sellers to manipulate the algorithms: different sites where sellers can provide their products for a discount in exchange for an agreement with consumers to buy the product can result in an increase in immediate sales, especially for a newer product. This would also inflate the click to sales component of the product’s ranking as well. Thus, while the details of A9 are known only to Amazon, hopefully they can handle manipulation of this kind so that consumers can find good results for their searches.
https://www.semrush.com/blog/amazon-seo-tactics-because-amazon-is-a-search-engine-too/