Summary: Indexing and Ranking are two commonly used terms on Amazon, in relation to the Amazon SEO process.
Think of Indexing Versus Rank in a Two Step Manner:
Step 1: You must be indexed
Step 2: You can then "rank" on your indexed keyword
Video: Optimizing SEO Search Terms and Keywords for Amazon Seller Central - Best Practices Tutorial
Index Vs. Rank
Index:
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Being indexed means that your product is searchable on Amazon for a specific keyword.
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Typing a keyword into Amazon will bring up various products in the search results for that given keyword. For example, if a listing indexes for "wine glass", your product will be in the search results when a buyer looks for wine glass on Amazon.
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An easy formula to check if your product is indexed for a specific keyword is by typing in the search bar "ASIN + Keyword".
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If your product appears, you are indexed for that keyword.
Rank:
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Ranking means the position your listing is on for specific keywords.
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Note: You can't rank for a keyword without being indexed for that same keyword.
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An Amazon sales rank or BSR (best sellers rank) is a number typically (in most categories) between 1 - 1 million. It describes how well your product is selling in relation to other products in that same category. The lower the BSR rank, the better a product is selling.
Take Away: Indexing Means a Search Term is attached to your product, while ranking means how well or how high the product “ranks” or shows up on Amazon.
Summary:
There are 3 main factors that influence ranking on Amazon. Text, relevancy, and conversions.
Text-Based Ranking Factors
Text is the bare bones of SEO. We need to utilize text inside the listing in order to index for different keywords on Amazon. When you add keywords to the listing (title, bullets, description, backend keywords, alt text, etc.), Amazon crawls the copy and associates the listing with the keywords included. If you don't have keywords included in your listing, you likely will not index for them and therefore, you won't rank.
The biggest mistake sellers use when crafting their listings is not including as much text as they have room for. Correctly utilizing the right amount of keywords in each section of your listing is essential for full ranking potential.
Relevance-Based Ranking Factors
You need to make sure your product is relevant to the keywords you're associating with it. Amazon is a search engine for customers. When they type keywords into the search bar, they intend to find products that are in line with those search queries and purchase. Including non-relevant keywords will hurt your conversions which will, in turn, hurt organic rankings. Utilizing relevant keywords throughout your listings will help create good conversion rates. The more conversions (sales) a listing makes, the better the organic rankings it will have. Let's cover this part next.
Conversion-Based Ranking Factors
As stated above, the more conversions a listing gets, the more sales it gets. In turn, the more sales a listing gets, the better Amazon will reward it by increasing organic rankings. A conversion rate is a rate at which a customer falls on your listing and purchases the product. Amazon wants to make money, so the algorithm will favor listings that result in a sale on a given keyword.
Increasing conversions can take many forms. From high-quality images, well-written copy, competitive price points, good reviews, and many more factors.