June 3rd, 2021
Amazon prominently holds the title as the world's largest online retailer and with that brings a vast catalog of merchandise and sellers. In 2019, Amazon had more than 2 million active sellers worldwide. Every year more than a million new sellers join Amazon, however less than 10% are able to achieve $100,000 per year. One of the first things to focus on as an Amazon Seller is your Amazon product optimization.
What is Amazon Product Listing Optimization?
Amazon listing optimization is the process of improving Amazon product pages to help improve your organic rankings and sales. In order to effectively optimize your listing you’ll need to utilize relevant keywords, write strategic copy for the title, bullet points and description, include high-quality product images and increase the number of reviews as well as answer customer questions.
The goals of focusing on listing optimization are to improve your:
- Search relevancy or visibility
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Conversion rate (CR)
How Do I Optimize an Amazon Listing?
Identify Relevant Keywords
Keywords drive your search results and visibility. A product that is buried in the search results and not ranking for relevant keywords, will also have lower click-through and conversion rates.
The first thing to do is identify the top ranking keywords for the product. This can be done by researching your competition on Amazon, searching Google and investing in software to help generate keywords. Research is essential to identify keywords that help to describe the product correctly.
Once you have a list of keywords you’ll want to incorporate them into your product listing title, bullet points and description. Start with the most relevant keyword and make sure to include that in your product title. Then use the next few keywords that are most relevant to your product in your bullet points and description.
It may seem like a good idea to add in as many keywords to your listing as possible, however that won’t necessarily help your Amazon product optimization and it may end up making your content confusing to the shopper. Utilize the most relevant keywords within your content as long as it adds to the content and makes sense. Then, add additional keywords as part of your backend keywords. Adding backend keywords will also help with the search results.
Write Informative Content
Have you heard the phrase ‘content is king’? It's catchy but also accurate. Having quality content is necessary for optimal Amazon product optimization.
The title of your Amazon product listing is the first thing that a customer will see when they find your listing. It is also an important factor for Amazon’s search engine (but not the only factor) to be able to connect your listing with the search that the customer is conducting. Make sure when writing your title you incorporate the most important keywords for your product and that it also clearly describes the product.
The next text that customers will see are the bullet points. Make sure that you are leading with the most important information about your product. You have five bullet points to break down your information into but remember, on mobile devices the user may only see the first three bullet points. These bullet points should be informative but also concise to give the customer a quick overview of the product. This information is crucial for driving conversions because most customers will never read beyond the bullets.
Lastly is your product description which is found under the images and bullet points. This text area is used to elaborate on the information in your title and bullet points because that space is limited and to be used to provide a quick snapshot of the product.
In all of these areas utilizing keywords that pertain to your product is important and the reason we start with keyword research. Start with your most important keywords in your title and work down to your bullet points and then the description. Any keywords that don’t fit nicely into your writing (remember don’t cram in keywords) can be used in your backend keyword section.
Share Eye-Catching Product Images
Shopping online has been a huge benefit for most people but there is one drawback - customers can’t actually hold and review your item in their hands. That’s why it’s necessary to have professional photography highlighting your product.
Within your product listing you have the opportunity to add several images. Start with a standard product image with a white or plain background but then think about what you customers are asking themselves when looking at your product. Is size a question? Include an image with dimensions to help explain the size visually. Think about utilizing infographics to showcase your image but also easily highlight product details and features. Share lifestyle photos to show the product in use and give shoppers an idea of how this product could be used in their everyday lives.
It is important to remember that quality is key. Clear and crisp photos help to sell your product as well as loading them correctly when creating your product listing.
Gain Reviews and Answer Questions
Lastly, Amazon puts a lot of focus to make sure the shopper experience is the best. They support this mission through reviews (and they have strict guidelines to make sure the reviews are authentic), as well as including a section for people to ask questions about your product. Both of these areas are highly important for your Amazon product optimization and are sometimes overlooked.
Getting quality reviews plays a significant role on the product ranking but getting reviews can be a challenge. If you have a new product on Amazon you can enroll in Amazon’s Vine Voice program which helps listings with less than 30 reviews generate credible reviews.
Since the customer experience is in high regard, as it should be, be sure to answer questions that customers have. This is also a key step to effectively optimizing your product listing. The questions that customers ask on your product page can be answered by sellers, vendors and other customers. As an Amazon seller it’s important to keep an eye on these questions and if they don’t get answered you should answer them. Even online, quality customer service is important for a successful business.
Additionally, there are best practices to follow when trying to get reviews for new products and established products. We’ve identified those in more detail here, How to Get Amazon Reviews - The Right Way.
Following these four steps will help get your Amazon listing optimized for increased success. If you are unsure about Amazon’s guidelines or finding yourself starting at a blank screen when trying to write content, our team is here to help. Simply schedule your free 30-minute consultation to learn more.