Should Amazon's hyperlinks, a "double-edged sword", be used?

A URL is an alphanumeric link that, when clicked, takes you to another site or page on your current site. URLs make browsing the internet easy because users don’t need to type in a complex series of letters and numbers to get to the page they want. Amazon hyperlinks are used to send buyers to your Amazon page from external sources. Common external sources used for hyperlinks are social media sites and pay-per-click campaigns where users can include links to their Amazon products or pages, allowing potential buyers to click directly to the product.

Amazon Hyperlink Index

Each link contains an important parameter called qid. If you try to perform the same search multiple times quickly, the two links will look different.

Here is an example of a customer searching for "white noise machine" to illustrate the difference between a hyperlink and a regular link:

In a regular search, a customer would type “white noise machine” into the Amazon search bar. This would generate the parameter “field-keywords= white+noise+machine” and produce the results in the following screenshot.

On the search page, you will get a link like this:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=white+noise+machine

Next, we’ll dive in and analyze some of the key metrics for Amazon search links:

1. ''/s/?url=search-alias''

This is the metric Amazon uses to identify product categories. In the image above, you can see “Showing results in Health & Household. Show instead results in All Departments.” Based on this, you can see that Amazon ranks these “white noise machine” search results in the Health & Household category.

2. ''&field-keywords="

This parameter helps the Amazon algorithm identify this search page based on the specific keyword you used: “white noise machine”.

3. ''ref= "

The “ref=” is a method Amazon uses to track how the buyer arrived at this search result.

4. ''&20''

This parameter is represented in the link as a space symbol, and can also be represented by a "+" symbol.

If a customer clicks on one of the products (https://www.amazon.com/Adaptive-Sound-Technologies-LectroFan-Non-Looping/dp/B00E6D6LQY/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1537253978&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=white+noise+machine&psc=1), Amazon’s system will notice that it was searched using the keyword “white noise machine.” Amazon’s intelligent system will collect users’ search behavior and continue to add to it.

If a customer now visits the same product through a super URL, such as: https://www.amazon.com/Adaptive-Sound-Technologies-White-Noise-Machine/dp/B00E6D6LQY/&field-keywords=white%20noise%20machine, from your external site, this visit, and potential sale, will be associated with the search keyword “white noise machine”.

Advantages of Using Amazon Hyperlinks

Unlike normal links, Amazon hyperlinks make the Amazon algorithm believe that the page or product was found through a normal Amazon organic search, rather than by a customer clicking on a link. In addition to registering as a regular search, Amazon hyperlinks can also be programmed to specify search keywords.

All of this is important because Amazon’s goal is to identify the most popular products in a category and show them to its customers. When you use regular links to send buyers to your Amazon product pages, your ranking will not be affected at all, while using Amazon hyperlinks will stimulate the Amazon algorithm and directly affect your ranking.

Free Amazon Hyperlink Generator

One of the easy ways to create Amazon hyperlinks for your products is to use a hyperlink generator. Here, we have listed some free software on the market:

1. AMZTracker

One of many useful tools for Amazon sellers, AMZ Tracker promises to give you a huge ranking boost no matter how much traffic you send to your Amazon product pages from external sites. This handy tool will give you a specially shortened link to use on social media, newsletters, emails, and any other external site.

2. AMZ.ONE

Another member of the popular AMZ family of tools, AMZ One’s online generator will generate an Amazon hyperlink for you and promises to significantly improve rankings when the link is placed on sites like Facebook.

3. Sellerapp

Even for beginners, Sellerapp is quick and easy to use. Simply copy and paste the product ASIN or link from Amazon into the tool, then enter the product's primary keyword. Sellerapp will identify the top performing keywords for your product and generate your hyperlink for copying and pasting.

4. RankBrain

Rankbrain is also a basic online link generator. Although its functions are relatively basic, it is easy to use.

Disadvantages of Using Amazon Hyperlinks

However, using Amazon hyperlinks also has its downsides.

While Amazon does not have an explicit clause prohibiting the use of hyperlinks, there are some rules that do state that hyperlinks are not allowed:

Amazon Algorithm

Amazon's terms and conditions prohibit manipulating Amazon's algorithm in any way. Due to the sophistication of Amazon's technology, including the ability to read keywords, timestamps, and search parameters, it is very likely that Amazon will be able to tell if you are using a hyperlink. Users of less sophisticated hyperlink generators should proceed with caution, as they are likely to be quickly identified. Even as hyperlink generators become more sophisticated, Amazon's technology is evolving to match them.

Do Amazon Hyperlinks Really Work?

Many Amazon sellers who have chosen to use Amazon Super URLs claim that this strategy no longer works for them in terms of optimizing keyword rankings. It may be that Amazon has realized that the practice of using super URLs is relatively common and has taken steps to eliminate them to make them ineffective.

Impact on conversion rate

As briefly mentioned earlier in this article, even if an Amazon hyperlink works, it may not help you. It can prove to be very useful for directing customers from an external site to your product, and Amazon records it as an organic search and visit, which is all good news.

However, it all depends on your product and its sellability - if users are brought to your product page, but do not buy the product, then the result is good. However, if your product page gets a lot of visits without a purchase, this will affect your conversion rate in a negative way. This is something Amazon will notice, and even if it does not detect that you are using hyperlinks, it may cause your ranking to drop, so it is something to think carefully before generating your own hyperlinks.

Remove review

Some Amazon sellers, especially those selling books, have noticed that a lot of positive reviews have been removed from their product pages. One possible explanation for this is that Amazon's systems may have recognized the fact that a large number of people using a certain link have left similar positive reviews on your page. In many cases, Amazon's automated systems will identify these as fake positive reviews and remove them from your page.

Summarize

While Amazon hyperlinks should be used with caution, many Amazon sellers agree that hyperlinks can be a useful tool for promoting products that sell for a short period of time.

Since using hyperlinks can generate a lot of visits without resulting in purchases, you may be able to offset the loss in conversion rate by including a discount or offer in the hyperlink.