Amazon Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of writing your product listings with high-value keywords to rank higher in product searches on Amazon.com. If you’ve never given any thought to optimising your products for Amazon, today is a great day to start. Fortunately, optimizing for Amazon isn’t difficult once you understand optimization in general. Once you’ve established a strategy, you’ll be all set.
By taking a few simple steps to optimize your product listings, you can rank higher in Amazon’s search results, which can lead to increased traffic and sales. As an Amazon seller, you can use SEO tactics to:
- Drive more traffic to product listings
- Increase product and brand visibility
- Boost conversion rates and sales growth
The idea is to constantly improve your Amazon listings by analysing sales data, conversion rates, PPC keywords, category shifts, seasonality, and other factors. In this blog, we’ll be going through the different factors you’ll need to consider optimising your Amazon product listings and keep up with today’s highly competitive market.
Conduct keyword research using the best Amazon tools
Keyword optimisation is an important aspect of any Amazon product listing. Finding and using keywords that are related to your offering is critical to ensure that the product is indexed for relevant search terms and that the listing has a probability of appearing in organic search results.
Shoppers can search for items using search terms or keywords. These are the phrases or word they type into the search box located at the top of the Amazon.com homepage. With their own A9 and A10 algorithm, Amazon retrieves relevant products and results for the word or phrase, and the customer then browses through the results page to see which product they feel best suits their needs.
Reverse ASIN tools like Helium10 and JungleScout are excellent tools that can help you check and monitor your competitors’ listings. It’s also important to think about the queries customers might have about the functions, quality, or attributes of the product. Consider what information you can include in the title to get them to click and read your listing.
Optimise your product listing title
When creating a product title, include the most crucial details that you would look for if you were the customer. This way, the buyer can decide if the product meets their needs or fulfils what they’re looking for.
Your listing title is critical because you only have a moment to catch a shopper’s attention. The product title is one of the primary fields used by Amazon and search engines to measure the relevance of a detail page as part of a customer search. This means that your product listing title is one of the most important elements on your detail page – so make sure you use high-value keywords that will help your rank while keeping it reader-friendly.
Seller Central has a detailed guide on the current Amazon product title requirements. It’s a good idea to always check these guides to remain up to date to any changes. Here are some of the key things to remember:
- Your listing title must be within the recommended length of your product category characters, including spaces.
- It should not contain promotional phrases, such as “free shipping” or “100% quality guaranteed”.
- Refrain from using special characters for decoration such as ~ ! * $ ? _ ~ { } # < > | * ; ^ ¬ ¦
These three things apply to all products on all of Amazon’s worldwide marketplaces. Failure to comply with these requirements may cause your listing to be taken down or suppressed from Amazon search results.
Persuasive and SEO-friendly bullet points
The bullet point section is another critical part of your listing both for ranking and influencing buyer behaviour. This section provides the customer a convenient way to skim through your product’s key features and benefits. SEO-wise, this also has the biggest impact next to your product’s listing title.
You have up to 2,000 characters. However, Amazon only indexes the first 1,000. Since this section is also designed to be skimmable, it’s best to use short and easy to read sentences. Using descriptive language and a friendly tone can also help customers visualise the experience of using your product and the benefits it brings.
Here are some of the best practices we have at Brandvault.
- Highlight the top five features that you want your customers to consider. This can be your products key features or any important information you feel your customers need to know like dimensions, warranty information, or age appropriateness.
- Keep the sum of all bullet points within the 1,000-byte limit. Depending on the category, we also limit each bullet point to 150 to 250 bytes.
- Begin each bullet point with a capital letter and spell out measurements, such as quart, inch, or feet.
It is also best to avoid doing the following as these are prohibited by Amazon.
- Avoid using vague statements especially when talking about product features and attributes.
- Do not include the seller or merchant name and company-specific information like URL or email address.
- Do not add any promotional information or details about another product you’re offering.
Compelling product descriptions
Another integral part of Amazon listing optimization is your listing’s product description. It has a 2,000-byte limit and appears lower on the product page. If you have A+ content, this may not be visible to your shoppers. However, they still help boost your listing’s ranking because they provide you with another opportunity to use high-value and longtail keywords that best suits your product.
Here are some things to keep in mind when writing your product description.
- It’s important to optimise and use the right keywords but avoid keyword stuffing or writing sentences that read like they’re made for a robot.
- Keep the reading level to around Grade 8 or 9. This way, it’ll be easy to digest and understand even if they just skim your content.
- Do not use any HTML tags or include any information that can get your listing suppressed. This includes unsubstantiated claims, shipping or promotional information, and subjective terms like “best soap”.
When listing products on Amazon, it’s important to keep in mind best practices for quality listings, and to check Amazon’s product listing guidelines for specific policies, rules, and general listing restrictions. You should also carefully assess your product before specifying its condition. It’s also a good idea to review the condition guidelines for unacceptable and prohibited items and listing restrictions that require statements or disclosures.
Make use of hidden keywords or search terms
Backend keywords are hidden keywords added in the backend and are not visible to your browsers and shoppers. It’s a great opportunity to use relevant high-value keywords you couldn’t incorporate in your title, bullet point, or product description section. Simply put, it allows you to target keywords you could not target on the product page.
Hidden keywords or search terms lets you create engaging and readable content for their product page, while still ensuring that Amazon indexes all the keywords relevant to your product. Therefore, utilizing this section and maximizing the 250-character limit for this section is key to improving your product listing’s visibility and conversion.
There are a lot of reasons why adding hidden keywords or search terms is so important. First, hidden keywords provide Amazon’s algorithm with additional information to ensure that your products searchability and discoverability. If you use the right hidden keywords, then more customers are likely to see your product included in the first page of their search results.
Another reason why the backend keywords are so important is that it gives you more freedom and control over the tone and feel of your product listing copy. From a branding perspective, the words you use and don’t use are both critical to sending the right kind of messaging about your product and brand. There may be words or phrases that you’d rather not use. It could be because they’re grammatically hard to use or simply off-brand. By using hidden keywords in the search terms field, you can still associate your product with those keywords without actually using them in your product listing. This gives you more control over how customers perceive your product and brand.
Explore your growth opportunities with Brandvault
Some of the world’s leading brands have trusted us for years to help them drive the right messaging in the Amazon marketplace. Our team of Amazon experts can you develop solutions focused on increasing traffic and improving conversion rates, with the end goal of increasing your revenue and profits. We can help you identify high-value keywords and incorporate them in your listing title, bullet points, and product description. We also produce expertly crafted images, videos, and A+ Content.
Optimised listings help customers find your product, tell a compelling story to the right audience, help you raise conversion rates, earn more reviews, and solidify your brand presence. We’d love to help you discover your potential to scale, meet your targets and goals, and actualise your vision for your brand.
We offer expert e-commerce solutions all under one roof, from world-class collaborative teams who are also passionate about initiating change and consistently creating positive outcomes for our brand partners.
We’re excited to be your Amazon solutions partner. Let’s take the first steps now to optimise your listing and grow your brand. Click the Contact Us button below to get started.