Amazon Listing Optimization Guide

What is Amazon Listing Optimization?

The process of upgrading your Amazon product listings to increase traffic, click through rate (CTR) and conversion rate and rank as high in the search results. Even if your Amazon product listing is selling perfectly, it is recommended that listing optimization should be made to drive more sales and take your business to the next level.

To achieve this, you should improve the relevancy of your product. The contents and details available on your listing (backend and frontend) should have essential information so Amazon’s algorithm can identify your product accurately. This way, your listing is visible to the right target audience. Let me share you how I am doing it and the best practices.

Here are some listing optimization recommendations:

1. Product Title

It should be informative and easy to read. When shoppers see your product, they can quickly know the key facts and highlights of the product. Amazon allows up to 250 characters for most categories. Although some recommend up to 200 characters only, I personally agree with Amazon's recommendation to keep it under 80 characters to display the complete title for those who are using their mobile devices.

What am I doing?

• Keyword Research. Understanding the product as it should have the keywords with the highest search volume and are closely relevant to the product you are selling. I also use Brand Analytics (Amazon Search Term) to check on these keywords and 3rd party keyword research tools.

• Competitor Analysis. Learn and get inspiration from best selling products. Other than reverse ASIN tools, I also use Product Opportunity Explorer to get ideas of the performing search terms used by competitors. This tool also provides search volume, search volume growth, units sold, # of top clicked products, click share and insights valuable for your business.

• 1st and 2nd Keywords. Use high search volume and highly relevant keywords that describes exactly your product. The landing page of this keyword shows the same product as yours.

• For brands. It should include the model #, form, size, colors, etc so the shopper can easily find the right product they are looking for.

Best Practices

• Do not use ALLCAPS.

• Capitalize the first letter of the word except on prepositions, conjunctions and articles.

• Numbers should be numerals.

• Do not use promotional messages like free shipping, for sale, 100% quality guaranteed, etc.

• Do not use symbols.

• Avoid using subjective commentary phrases.

• Never use offensive and abusive content.

• For variations, details like color, sizes, and the like should be added on the title.

2. Images

Invest in photographers. Your image should drive page interaction and is tailored for those who are using mobile devices.

Ensure that your first photo fills 85% of your real estate. It should have high resolution, high quality and zoomable images. It is said that zoomable images enhance conversion rates and are appealing to the algorithm. Your product images should display your product from different angles and highlight important details.

See technical requirements as advised by Amazon:

Product images submitted to Amazon must meet the following technical specifications.

• TIFF (.tif/.tiff), JPEG (.jpeg/.jpg), GIF (.gif) and PNG (.png) format

• Image pixel dimensions of at least 1000 or larger in either height or width preferred

• sRGB or CMYK color mode

• File names must consist of the product identifier (Amazon ASIN, 13-digit ISBN, EAN, JAN, or UPC) followed by a period and the appropriate file extension (Example: B000123456.jpg or 0237425673485.tif)

3. Bullets

It is adding value to your product. This gives shoppers a clear overview of your product's key features. Amazon recommends up to 1000 characters for all five bullets to improve readability. Thus, when you create your bullets, be concise and easy to read.

Best Practices

• Keep it short. Being shorter than 1,000 characters improves discoverability of content in your bullet points.

• Attention Getter. Add a short phrase to capture the attention of the shopper.

• Benefit. State the benefit of the product and followed by the feature specifications.

• Feature. State the physical feature of the product and followed by the benefit

• Informational. List answers to questions customers may ask before the purchase.

• Keywords. You can add high search volume and highly relevant keywords for SEO purposes.

4. Product Description

You can use this to elaborate the details of your product. You can highlight the value, innovation and benefits to fully understand the positive impact of selecting your product among others. Never mention your competitor brands. Make it different.

5. A+ Content

It is available for brand owners. It is also proven to boost conversion rates and acquire high ranking on Amazon search results. Adding A+ content to your product detail pages can help result in higher conversion rates, increased traffic, and increased sales when used effectively.

6. Backend Search Terms

This will help the algorithm identify your products as searched by the customers. For an ASIN to be considered optimized, it must contain a minimum of 224 worth of bytes from high value search terms (out of 249 total). Ensure that you continue to review the ASIN Search Terms Optimization Details from Amazon Seller Central. It provides you with “pink” keywords that are low value search terms and recommends replacement.

Best Practices

• Conduct a keyword and competitor research in your category.

• Identify converting keywords or search terms for your listing.

• Do not use inaccurate and misleading information.

• Do not use the same search term that is already available on the frontend.

• Put them in the most logical order

• Use of single space to separate keywords

• Do not include subjective claims or promotional messages

• Abbreviations, alternate names, spanish terms and misspelled words can be added.

Evaluate and Monitor indexation and organic ranking

Use of Helium10 to assess ranking and indexation of the listing keywords. And to measure progress, I ran a weekly report like this:

Moreover, note that if you have keywords and are highly relevant to your product that are not indexed, you may move it to heavily weighted fields like title.

Lastly, keep in mind that it is not just optimizing your product listing but it is also about maintaining and keeping the quality and integrity of your product. This does not only improve your conversion rate and ranking but also drives loyalty so your existing customers will continue to patronize your product.

I think you are now ready to create your own.

If you need help, please be in touch here.