AMALYZE Pulse / SERP Volatility

If search results or rankings change suddenly and unexpectedly during a keyword search on the Amazon marketplace, one of the most frequently asked questions so far on the part of Amazon sellers and vendors has been: “Has Amazon tweaked the A9 algorithm, or is it my fault?”

So far, there has been no objective answer to this question. With the introduction of AMALYZE Pulse, we are offering a solution to this problem for the first time ever. This is done by evaluating the Amazon search results with regard to the actual deviations, related to the otherwise “usual” fluctuations, for all Amazon.de main categories.

This makes it possible to see at a glance whether any changes in the search results are global changes that actually suggest an algorithm update, or whether the fluctuation in the ranking of Amazon products is rather a purely subjective perception.

Each Amazon category examined is based on several thousand category-specific keywords, the so-called keyword set. The keywords in these sets are representative and include brands, keywords with high, medium and low search volumes, keywords consisting of individual words (fat-head keywords) as well as multiword combinations (long-tail keywords). These keywords are queried by AMALYZE with a significantly higher frequency than usual, and the changes between two queries are then compared. From these changes, the differences and thus the so-called volatility are calculated.

Each category has its own volatility; for example, an average of 5% of the search results in the category “Home & Kitchen” may be volatile, compared to 15% in the category “Sports & Outdoors”.

The standard volatility for each Amazon category is calculated from the volatilities of the last 30 days. This average volatility of the respective category within the last 30 days is set to 0% in the chart. Deviations (upwards or downwards) from this norm volatility are indicated accordingly upwards or downwards in the chart.

A high downward deviation (e.g. -60%) means that the volatility on the corresponding day was significantly lower than the 30-day average of the respective Amazon main category, i.e. there were significantly fewer changes than usual in the search results.

A high upward deviation (e.g. +60 %) means that the volatility on the corresponding day was significantly higher than the 30-day average of the respective Amazon main category, so there were significantly more changes than usual in the search results.

Neither or – or both.

Basically, a high or low volatility says nothing about whether this is “good” or “bad” for you. A basically higher volatility means on the one hand that it seems to be easier to work your way up to the top in the search results, but also more difficult to keep them. A fundamentally lower volatility, on the other hand, means that on the one hand it seems to be more difficult to improve positions within the search results, but on the other hand it is also easier to hold them.

In this respect, both have their advantages and disadvantages.

It is ideal to work your way up to the top spots in the search results in times of high deviation, in order to have consolidated the position in times of low deviation.

A high deviation from the norm volatility means that the deviations of the search results within the respective Amazon category on the corresponding day are significantly higher than in the 30-day average. In concrete terms, this means that there are more changes than usual for the respective category. This can be a sign for an algorithm update.

A low deviation from the norm volatility means that there are fewer changes within the category-specific keyword set than the 30-day average. The sea is virtually still.

In addition to the respective Amazon main categories, the deviation (upwards or downwards) from the standard volatility of the last daily measurement is indicated. This shows at a glance whether the deviations in certain categories are larger or smaller than in others.

By clicking on the name of the respective main category (e.g. electronics, home &kitchen, etc.), the AMALYZE Pulse Volatility Diagram will be displayed adjusted accordingly. The deviations from the standard volatility (in relation to the 0% line) appear in the diagram as colored bars with a deflection upwards or downwards. If you mouse over the individual bars of the diagram, you get the respective daily volatility value.

Clicking on “All Categories” switches back to the cross-category view of the diagram.

The volatility deviation is calculated daily for the previous day. In this respect, it is correct that no data is output for the current day.