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Amazon Aggressively Fights To Dominate Google Page One

Amazon, which is using a combination of organic and paid listings to get shoppers to click, wants to dominate search engine results on Google when consumers search for products.

A study released this week from Searchmetrics shows the lengths Amazon goes in order to lure searchers from Google. It’s based on the first page of desktop search results. Analysts studied 10,000 keywords for which products on amazon.com rank number one in organic results. Brand searches containing the word “amazon” were removed. Keywords were primarily transactional or purchase-related.

In 45% of the cases, Amazon already has the first organic listing in 45% of the queries, Sometimes there are more than one organic search results on the Google search result page for product-related searches.  

There is often competition between paid and unpaid listings for Amazon’s top organic keywords. it seems Amazon fights back against its competitors by purchasing a large number of ads, even when it has the top result.

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For example, the data shows Google paid ad listings serve up for 27.5% of the searches when Amazon ranks at the top organic position. Some 12.9% of the top ads and 19.8% of the bottom ads are placed by amazon.com, with the remainder bought by competitors.

Google benefits either way. Amazon pays for listings despite having the most relevant organic result, which is interesting in itself.

Images and videos also come into play. In 44% of the searches when an Amazon product image appears in the top results. Amazon typically has at least one product image in 95% of the Image boxes that serve up.  

For keywords where Amazon ranks with the top organic result, images appear 43.8% of the time, and videos in the carousel appear for 34.5% of searches. Some 12.9% of search engine results pages contain both image and video carousels. They serve up among the organic listings.

Amazon also combines Google Ads and Google Shopping to ensure it makes multiple appearances on the first page, even when it has the first organic result, according to the findings.

Google Shopping ads are displayed for 56% of keywords for which Amazon occupies the top organic ranking slot. The study suggests Amazon’s organic snippet competes for the attention of searchers with the carousel of product offers in Google Shopping ad units.

Google wins financially either way.

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