How to Optimize your Amazon Product Listing
It’s no secret that Amazon is one of the biggest and most successful e-commerce platforms on the planet, and it’s still growing. The aim of the game is to sell, right? So, as a brand, you list a product on Amazon, sit tight, and wait for people to buy it. And that’s it? Wrong!
Just like Google, Amazon has an algorithm that influences who sees your listings and when they see it. (In another post, we’ll go into this in more detail). In simple terms, the A9 algorithm hides behind Amazon’s Search Results Page and decides which products to recommend. It uses data such as listing keyword placement, conversion rate, consumer purchase behaviour, sponsored-product ads, and others.
Before you list a product, it is essential to do some Amazon-keyword research. Without keyword research, you’re listing your product blindly. You may know how you would search for your product, but you don’t know how your customers will search for it. And that can make a big difference.
Optimizing listings on Amazon is crucial for brands who want to smash their profit goals on the platform and sell, sell, sell! With all of the above in mind, we at Unicorn have put together a simple to-do list for sellers and vendors to ensure they are optimizing Amazon listings to the full.
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Start with your title
We recommend including your most important, high search volume keywords in the title.
Think about it from your potential customers’ perspective. They’re going to search for exactly what they are looking for, so these words should be included in the title. You have a character limit of 80-200, depending on your product category, so be sure to check this with Amazon’s Style Guides. Be sure to include as many as possible of your priority keywords in the title, too. The title still needs to make sense though, so never stuff the keywords where they’re not needed.
Consider these key tips.
- Cap up words: Capitalize each main word and every verb in a title, but not very short general words like “and” and “the”. Always capitalize the first word in a title—even if it’s “and” or “the.”
- Don’t overdo it: Don’t use ALL CAPS
- Clear and concise: Include the product type and name, the brand and only colour or size if relevant
- Say “no” to &: always use the word “and” in lowercase
- Follow the rules: Amazon has a specific product-title formula for some categories, so check this out before you publish your listing
- Add spaces in long titles: spread out the title with hyphens or colons to make it more legible
Describe features AND benefits in the bullet points
This is where you can showcase key features of the product. We recommend that you include five bullet points in this part of the listing and use 100-120 characters per bullet point. Give the consumer the vital information of what your product actually does at the same time you provide the benefit. We also encourage our clients to use high-impact keywords at the start of each bullet point to catch the consumer’s eye.
Add extra oomph with the product description
Elaborate on the bullet points above, and really give the customer a reason to buy your product. You can add html to this description to make it more readable and appealing to consumers. Include details about your brand and any “extras” you may offer, such as a warranty.
Double your Revenue in 3 Months
We specialize in scaling Amazon Brands: recently we more than doubled the ad revenue of one of our clients (from $130,000/mo to $270,000/mo) at the same time as reducing ACoS to under 8%. All in just 3 months!
Find out how we can help you too by requesting a FREE Amazon Brand Audit.
Back-end keywords
As well as including your keywords in the product listing itself, it is important to include keywords that you haven’t used in the title, bullets and description in the back end. This is a good place for common spelling errors, keywords that you find hard to incorporate into the front end of the listing. Also include specific holiday-related keywords. Amazon takes this very seriously, so be sure to choose them carefully. Don’t exceed the 250-bytes limit, which includes spaces, hyphens, commas, etc., and you will already be in Amazon’s good books.
Images
They say that the average attention span is down from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to eight seconds now in 2018. This makes it even more important to use good images; they can sell faster than any piece of text can. Sellers and vendors can add up to nine images within a product listing, including a main image. Well-photographed, professional images will set you miles ahead of your competitors. Ensure that your main image is on a white background, and include a mix of product and lifestyle images.
If any of this sounds complicated, why not let us do it for you! We have a team of experts in Amazon listing optimization for small and established brands. If you’d like to know more, get in touch. We’d be happy to provide a free audit of your current listings.
