The best ways to motivate consumers to buy your product, while still meeting the Amazon listing guidelines, is a balancing act that only the most successful Amazon sellers know. Amazon is a buyer-based search engine. What that means is that Amazon’s goal is to ensure when shoppers search for a product they are shown relevant listings that drive them to buy. At the end of the day, Amazon is a business and its main goal is to sell as many goods as it can to as many consumers as it can.
Listings that appeal most to Amazon are also those that appeal most to customers.
Amazon has designed its algorithm and SEO practices to reward listings that best serve consumers. Here are four areas to focus on in order to get your product listings optimized for Amazon success.
1. What Keywords Do Consumers Use to Describe Your Product?
Relevant keywords are the foundation of any Amazon listing. If the foundation is strong your product will appear higher up in search rankings and drive greater conversions.
Amazon’s algorithm is fairly simple. Consumers search keywords and the seller listings that best match those keywords are populated in order of relevance. In order to discover the keywords that are best suited for your listing, we recommend a keyword search engine optimization (SEO) analysis. This will help to research relevant keywords for customers and also provide keywords to incorporate into your listing copy.
Keyword match isn’t the only direct factor that affects your ranking (price, product availability, selection and your sales history all play a role) but it is the factor that is most easily changed.
2. Crafting a Strategic Product Listing
The content included in your listing has more of an affect on your Amazon search rankings than any other factor – which makes sense since it’s the component consumers interact with most. Crafting well-written content that strategically incorporates your most valuable keywords is the key to optimizing your listing for higher rankings and conversions.
When writing your creative and captivating copy you’ll need to address these main sections:
Product Title: This is the first part of your listing that shoppers will see. It needs to clearly identify the product and should include only the most important keywords.
Product Bullet Points: This series of five bullet points gives customers a quick glimpse as to the main features of the product. These features are informative and concise. It’s important to note that many buyers will never look beyond the bullets to your product description, so this content is crucial to driving conversions.
Product Description: The product description is used to elaborate on the information in your title and bullets, and will give consumers a complete synopsis of your product while maximizing keyword usage.
Backend Search Terms: Taking the most important terms and properly formatting them for Amazon’s backend.
3.Catching the Eye with High Quality Product Images
The copy that is written for your product listing is important but it’s only half of the solution to creating an effective listing. Online shoppers can’t feel and interact with products the way they can in-store, so product photography has to bring the product to life. High-quality imagery works in tandem with copy to support your message and help drive greater click-through rates and sales.
In an effort to provide shoppers with a complete and authentic view of your product, one should focus on:
- Showing a 360-degree view of the product
- Highlighting product information or features
- Giving consumers a feel for how the product could work in their everyday lives
- Help consumers grasp the size of the product
- Give information on product usage
4. Go a Step Further and Develop Your A+ Content
A+ Content (formerly known as Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) to 3rd party sellers) allows brand owners to tell their brand story and further describe their product with additional photos and description space. This additional information helps engage the consumer and increase conversion rates. It also is beneficial in providing a better description of the product which in turn reduces product returns
Guidelines For Building Your Product Listings
Amazon has some specific guidelines that are intended to keep Amazon listings consistent across the selling platform for all sellers. In crafting your Amazon listing, strive for copy that compels your core buyer to buy. Customers can’t touch and feel your product so you want to provide clear, concise, and informative descriptions. It is best to accompany the verbiage with well-lit photos that show the product in detail from several angles, if possible. The overall quality of your Amazon listing, as well as the degree of your adherence to Amazon listing guidelines, can make or break your sale.
Product Title Guidelines
Characters
- Optimal length should be 80-250 characters depending on category; we recommend 80-120
- Mobile users can only see first 55-63 characters
- Some ads limit the visible title to only 30-33 characters
- Keep mobile and ad display limitations in mind when deciding title order and length
Capitalization
- Capitalize the first letter of each word; don’t use ALL CAPS and don’t capitalize conjunctions and prepositions
Numerals
- Use numerals instead of spelling out numbers; don’t use symbols and ASCII characters
Avoid
- Promotional messages - don’t use “sale” or “free shipping”
- Subjective commentary - don’t hype as “best seller” or “hot item”
- Don’t list your merchant name as the brand (in the Amazon listing entry form) unless the product is private label
- Dashes are discouraged in favor of commas in your Amazon listing since standards limit characters to 52 and a character is saved by using commas in place of the space-dash-space. The use of dashes in the title of your Amazon listing is not prohibited, the use is generally discouraged.
Avoid
- Promotional messages - don’t use “sale” or “free shipping”
- Subjective commentary - don’t hype as “best seller” or “hot item”
- Don’t list your merchant name as the brand (in the Amazon listing entry form) unless the product is private label
- Dashes are discouraged in favor of commas in your Amazon listing since standards limit characters to 52 and a character is saved by using commas in place of the space-dash-space. The use of dashes in the title of your Amazon listing is not prohibited, the use is generally discouraged.
Bullet Point Guidelines
General Information
- The bullet points are first thing the viewer's eye scans to after the product title.
- Amazon allows up to five bullet points, and that is the number of bullet points viewable when seen over a laptop or PC; mobile devices only display the first three bullet points in an Amazon listing. Put the most important selling info in those first three points.
Characters
- 500 characters maximum but between 30 and 70 characters works best
- Use semicolons to separate phrases within a single bullet point
Capitalization
- Begin each bullet point with a capital letter
Numerals
- Always use numerals (never spell out numbers)
Avoid
- Do not include promotional and pricing information (“Sale!” etc.)
- Avoid cliche selling lines such as “excellent product quality” etc.
Remember
- For listings that describe sets of products, list what is included in each set
- Copyright and trademark infringements are not allowed in your Amazon listing
- Write with sentence fragments and do not include ending punctuation
Product Description Guidelines
General Information
- Focus on the unique properties of the product but keep it concise
- Provide simple, to-the-point facts to describe the product
- Paint a picture for the consumer; what would it be like to own the product
- Discuss key, unique features and benefits, highlight product applications
Characters
- You can use up to 2,000 characters to describe the product in your Amazon listing
Avoid
- Using all caps
Remember
- Use line breaks to split up text
- Include information that is commonly asked for
- Cover the who, what, when, where and why
The Goal: Rank Higher
Crafting compelling copy, showcasing eye-catching product photos and backing it all with the best keywords for your product are what we call Listing Optimization. It’s all about maximizing your keyword ranking to help achieve greater conversions. By increasing your customer conversion rate, you can achieve two very important things for your listings and business.
- Optimized listings lead to increased sales and revenue - Even if the number of visitors to your listing remains the same, better content naturally leads to higher conversions and sales.
- Increased sales generate more listing traffic - Amazon actively rewards listings that are most successful at converting customers. The best listings rank higher in customer searches on Amazon and, as a result, are seen by more shoppers and produce even greater sales.
Tell a Story
The goal of any listing is to appeal to a consumer. Amazon values the satisfaction and user experience of the shopper overall, formulating its algorithm and SEO practices to reward and boost listings that best serve shopper needs. If you ever get stuck when writing a listing, take a step back, put on your consumer hat and filter your listing through the eyes of a shopper.
