Why is AMAZON SEO so dang important (and weird!?)

Have you started making really pretty things, decided to sell them, and now don't know where to go from there?  You're thinking "How am I supposed to get found, especially on Amazon?"

SEO (or Search Engine Optimization) is the really scary way of saying "the words any website looks for to put your stuff in front of someone who wants to see it."  Yes, I just made that up.  But for real, you have this beautiful thing you made but if you call it "beautiful thing," there's not a soul on God's green Earth that will ever find it.

You may already sell on Etsy.  You may already sell on Facebook.  And as a huge supporter of all things handmade, I say "go you!".  But you're here because you have a bigger dream.  You want Amazon.  You want the sales, the customers, the growth.

With that begs for an understanding of why Amazon's SEO is so weird and different than what you're used to.  For some of you, its just so different than how you've listed on Etsy.  For some the listing setup is too complicated with all those boxes. 

But the way Amazon does it serves a purpose, promise!

Amazon is good at tons of things, but there are two good things I believe Amazon is the best at.  ONE: Logistics (we'll discuss their FBA processes in another post!).  TWO: Putting the product in front of the person who wants to see it and buy it.

On Etsy, you may be used to coming up with 1 million different ways to describe your product then listing the best of those in lots of different orders in your titles.  Then you take those exact same things and match them in your tags.

Amazon is so different and weird for your Etsy seller brain because they want you to give them ALL.OF.THE.WORDS. people could use to find your product.  You still put the best ones in the title that describe it the most (but not over and over again with the same words in different orders!) and then they want you to give them ALL.OF.THE.OTHERS in the countless boxes they give you.  

From the moment your listing is up, their computers are churning, showing your item to people with countless different searches that have a combination of your words. 

They're trying to see what your product really is and what people really want to see it.

The beauty of Amazon is that the longer your listing is up, the more they can truly find which of your words is getting to the right customer the most.  Maybe your item gets found more with "Mom present" than "Mom gift" on Amazon.  Having both of those words in your back-end boxes will let Amazon do the hard work.  But you gotta give them both of those words!

There will be many more pieces of information to come to help this all make more sense, but for now, I have one task for you.

MAKE A BRAIN DUMP LIST.  List out all of words people use to describe or search for your product.  All of the people who might want it.  What holiday they might buy it for.  What broad category could someone be searching that you can fulfill a need they didn't know they had?

Keep it.  We'll come back to it soon!

For now, simmer on this info above.  Grasp how Amazon has become such a powerhouse and how if you give them what they need to go powerhouse on your products, they can run with it and SELL THEM!  

Stick with me and we'll do beautiful things together in the name of your business!!!