How External Traffic Can Boost Your Amazon SEO

Selling successfully on Amazon and other marketplaces largely depends on appearing when potential customers search for products like yours. This applies to generic searches on the marketplace or through various category lists and other exposure opportunities.

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By generic search terms, I don't mean terms like "gift" or "tool." While these could generate a lot of traffic and sales, appearing for such generic searches is extremely difficult. What I actually refer to are generic terms that describe your product/products.

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Generic Search Terms

For instance, if you sell phone cases and your brand is called "Cool Brand," you obviously want to appear in search results for terms like "Cool Brand" and "Cool Brand iPhone case." But more importantly, you want to appear for searches like "iPhone case" and "iPhone 11 case."

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Initially, appearing only for your brand name is common, but as soon as possible, you want to be visible for more generic search terms. These are the terms that will bring significant traffic and sales. If you only appear for search terms that include your brand name, it might be better to avoid Amazon altogether. After all, Amazon takes a referral fee, and if customers can only find you by your brand name, it might be better for them to find your website directly.

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However, if you actually invest in Amazon and aim to appear for generic search terms, then purchases made through searches containing your brand name and those made via external traffic are fantastic. Why? Read on, and I'll try to explain.

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What is External Traffic?

External traffic is traffic that comes from another source. On Amazon, internal traffic is traffic that comes from searches and ads on Amazon. Meanwhile, external traffic is traffic that comes to Amazon from sources like social media, email, and websites.

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Why is External Traffic So Beneficial?

Since Amazon takes a referral fee on all purchases made through their platform, many e-commerce businesses prefer to drive all external traffic to their own website. This is very logical. Why would you want to pay Amazon (or any other marketplace) for purchases you generate yourself?

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There are instances where it might actually be preferable. In the end, it’s about the total profit and not the profit from each individual sale, right? And by driving external traffic to Amazon, you can start appearing for more and more generic search terms on Amazon, thereby gaining a lot of internal traffic and sales from Amazon.

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In other words, the total profit can become larger, despite a referral fee. Additionally, you can use Amazon's affiliate program to get back some of the cost that goes to referral fees.

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How Exactly Does External Traffic Help?

As mentioned, external traffic can help your products appear higher in search results. Just like there are various ways to work with SEO on Google, this is a way to work with SEO on Amazon.

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There are several factors that affect SEO on Amazon, and some of these can be influenced by external traffic. Especially since external traffic tends to come from customers who already have a relationship with your brand and therefore likely behave differently than customers who come via Amazon and don’t know you.

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For example, external traffic tends to increase the average conversion rate, time on product pages, number of reviews, and CTR (click-through rate). All of this positively impacts your ranking on Amazon.

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Of course, an influx of traffic, whether external or internal, increases total sales. This is important for Amazon SEO. Amazon wants to make as much money as possible, and their algorithms are designed for this. It means that if a product sells very well, Amazon wants to expose it more and more.

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This is clearly the biggest advantage and extra beneficial because many larger companies do not work with external traffic in this way. BUT, external traffic is not just good for this. It also gives you and your company control.

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Gain Control with External Traffic

External traffic can be an excellent tool for rising in search results on Amazon, but not only that, it’s also great for gaining control.

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Amazon has many different rules and systems, and sometimes they don’t favor individual sellers. Therefore, it’s fantastic to be able to drive traffic independently of Amazon. There are many examples of when this is relevant, but a clear example is when a new product is launched on Amazon.

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Example of Using External Traffic

On Amazon, there is something called the "Buy Box," which is the little box where it says "Buy Now."

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When you, as a customer, click on it, you buy the product from the seller who "owns" the Buy Box. Because multiple sellers can sell the same product, like a MacBook. For such a product, there are many resellers, but only one of them owns the Buy Box. As a customer, instead of clicking "Buy Now," you can click further to look at all the resellers and then choose one you prefer.

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When a new product is registered on Amazon and your company sells it, Amazon doesn’t assign the Buy Box to anyone (for some unclear reason). It doesn’t matter that your company is the only seller. Instead, each customer has to click further to look at all resellers and make the purchase there.

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After a few purchases, the Buy Box is usually assigned to the seller, but... The problem is that you can’t advertise on Amazon without owning the Buy Box. So it becomes a catch-22. You don’t own the Buy Box until sales have come in, but you can’t drive any sales until you own the Buy Box.

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As you can probably figure out, this is a great opportunity to use external traffic since you can directly drive traffic, get the first sales, and then start advertising to drive even more internal traffic on Amazon. You have to adapt to Amazon’s rules and systems, but with external traffic, you can tackle the problem in the best possible way and regain control.

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*There are more ways to solve problems like these. But this is a common issue, and this is probably the fastest way to solve it.

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Summary – External Traffic on Amazon

External traffic is important when it comes to Amazon. It can help with Amazon SEO, which ultimately determines if you succeed on Amazon or not, but it can also give you control. Control that you otherwise completely leave to Amazon. There are many times when you can be left at the mercy of Amazon’s system, and owning your own traffic is often the best way to handle the problem.

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