Who is behind this
The Amazon Ranking Guide is published by ZBD Growth, an Amazon advertising and brand-management agency. The research here is a by-product of the day job rather than a content strategy that went looking for a subject.
Why this site exists
Working across a portfolio of Amazon accounts, you end up needing answers to questions the published literature does not actually answer. Does pausing advertising cost organic position? Is the honeymoon period real? Does exceeding the backend byte limit lose the whole field? What happened to listings when titles were cut to 75 characters?
Every time we went looking, we found the same three things: content written before the last relevant change, content that asserted weighted ranking factors nobody has ever published, and content produced by someone selling the tactic being evaluated.
So the standard here is narrow and deliberate. Label every claim by evidence strength. Quote Amazon's own wording where Amazon has published wording. Say plainly when something is unverified, and leave it out of the recommendation. Show disagreements between credible sources rather than picking the convenient side. Publish the null results.
On independence
We are not neutral about everything — we run an agency, and the site says so on every page. What we do commit to:
- No affiliate links. Nothing on this site earns a commission on a tool recommendation.
- No invented numbers. If Amazon has not published a weight, we do not give you one.
- No tactic we would not run on our own accounts, and an explicit account of the risk on the ones we would not.
- Corrections stay visible. When we get something wrong, the page says what changed and when.
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amazon.com, Inc.
About ZBD Growth
ZBD Growth manages Amazon advertising and brand operations for sellers and brands: campaign strategy and daily optimisation, listing and catalogue work, reporting that ties advertising to organic outcomes, and the unglamorous account hygiene that most of the problems on this site turn out to be.
The work runs on our own tooling — daily keyword, placement, search-term and inventory data warehoused per account, with automated rules proposing bid, budget and targeting changes that a human approves. That infrastructure is also what makes the research programme possible.
Get in touch
If you want this applied to an account rather than explained in the abstract — or if you think something on this site is wrong and can show why — we would like to hear from you. Corrections are genuinely welcome and get credited.
Prefer email? hymie@hymiezebede.com