In a market as fiercely competitive as Amazon, having a great product is only the beginning. To really drive sales and grow your business at scale, you’ll need to prioritize optimizing your product listing.
Creating your first – or 50th – Amazon listing can be daunting, especially in the face of so many competitors. To optimize your product listing, you’ll need to take a close look at every aspect and ensure there are no gaps that might be filled by the competition. Luckily, there are many tools and proven processes available that you can use and follow, to get your listing in top-tip shape. If you’re launching your first product on Amazon, check out our ultimate guide to launch products on Amazon.
In this article, we’ll be diving into each part of your Amazon listing, and how you can improve it to help boost clickthrough rate, conversions, and search visibility.
Understanding the Amazon A9 Algorithm
Before we run through the individual parts of your Amazon listing, we must first understand how the Amazon A9 Algorithm works. Amazon’s SEO function, the algorithm uses a specific set of criteria to rank products in their search. The more you optimize your product listing for SEO, and follow Amazon’s guidelines, the better your chance of higher rankings for chosen keywords.
So what does Amazon take into consideration when ranking products? This can be broken down into two rough categories:
While this might seem like a lot to keep track of, we can roll all the optimizations for the above in one simple refresh of your listing, and most things listed are entirely under the seller’s control.
The algorithm, of course, is not so cut and dry as this and includes intent signals, behavioral and semantics matching, and more. But for the case of your individual product listing, understanding and keeping in mind the optimization and updating of these criteria could be the difference between 1 sale a day, and 100. We’ve gathered 10 additional Amazon best practices to help you sell more.
{{amazon-ad="/external-components"}}
How to Optimize Your Product Listing
Now that we’ve got a firm grasp on what Amazon looks at, let’s run through each part of the Amazon listing, and how you can enact changes to better your place in the search rankings.
.jpg)
Keyword Research
Before you start optimizing your product listing with keywords, you first must identify which ones to use. Choose keywords that are both relevant to your product and audience and have the potential for success. For instance, if you’re just starting out, choosing “hat” as your main keyword can be harmful – with such vast competition, your keyword will be just a drop in the ocean against big players. In this case, you might want to choose a longtail keyword such as “blue children’s hat”. This effectively creates a niche, singling out customers that are looking specifically for a blue hat for a child, rather than a hat in general. That in turn increases your chance for a conversion, as they will be more invested.
Pro Tip: long tail keywords are those which are longer and more specific. It’s a best SEO practice to include high volume (many searches), and longtail (niche) keywords in your keyword strategy.
There are many tools available for you to use when conducting your keyword research. We’ve listed in this article here, the top Amazon optimization generators to choose from. Be sure to do some competitor research as well, to make sure you’re competing in the same space, while also maintaining your edge.
Pro Tip: If you’re feeling stuck, choose one “seed” keyword to start, pop it into a generator and start widening its reach
Once you’ve decided on the keywords to target, it’s time to optimize your product listing for those keywords.
Product Title
When choosing your product title, put yourself in the shoes of the customer. What do they need? What will they be searching for? Answering these questions can guide which keywords to highlight in the title.
Amazon allows 250 characters for a product title, though it is advised to limit your title if possible to no more than 60-80. So, ensure that your title is both relevant and concise, to avoid suppression! Customers are scanning for the first thing that grabs their attention as a possible solution, so select your keywords with care.
Another thing to consider when creating your product title is what needs to be included, by the nature of the product. Some products, such as a broom, are relatively self-explanatory and won’t need all the details upfront for the customer to click on the item and learn more. Other products, however, would need more information included in the title in order for the customer to consider it, such as clothing including its size, or how many liters a water bottle can hold. You might also want to think about including the product’s different use cases, such as storage containers being multi-purpose.
Here are a few guidelines Amazon provides in regard to the product title:
- Keep the title ~60 characters long – longer titles risk losing the customer’s attention
- Capitalize your title, but do not have it in all caps
- Have the brand at the start of the title
- Use numbers such as “1” rather than written, like “one”
- Do not use ASCII characters
Product Key Features/Bullet Points
Now that you’ve got your title in order, it’s time to move on to highlighting your product’s features in the bullet point list.
Amazon allows up to 5 bullet points for each product, with a character limit of 1,000 for all 5 bullets, combined. Sticking to the theme, be concise in how you craft your bullet points. You want this to be informative and to the point. Capture the customer’s attention with short sentences and ensure they can understand exactly what it is you’re selling from only a quick scan.
.jpg)
Again, put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What do they want, and what are they looking for? If you know the answer to those questions, you can easily weave the solution straight into your features and benefits. Amazon has provided a few guidelines to keep in mind when writing these bullet points:
- Highlight key features such as dimension, conditions, content, uses, etc
- Reinforce the information given in the title
- Do not include pricing information or promotion material
- Be consistent
Product Descriptions
Moving further down your listing is your product description. With 2,000 characters to work with, this is the place to really sell your product to potential customers. Remember – they’ve clicked on your listing, so they’re already interested. This is where you can bring them over the line to convert.
Use short, easy-to-read sentences, and be clear about the product’s main use, and what sets it apart from the competition. A good rule of thumb is to run through the same bullet points you just highlighted, in more detail. Introduce more features that were not included in the top 5, and back up your product with use cases. If you want more tips on how to create a product description that converts, head over to our article on How to Write Amazon Product Descriptions Buyers Can’t Resist.
If you’re in a particularly saturated market, it might not be enough to describe your product and its features in detail. Be creative and get potential customers to envision themselves using the product. In the case of our blue children’s hat, instead of only saying that the hat is “size small and machine washable”, consider phrasing it as “can toss in the washing machine after a day at the beach”.
Product Images
Another way you can optimize your product listing is through your images. With so much choice, sometimes it doesn’t matter how effective your keywords, or how well-crafted your descriptions are if your images aren’t up to scratch.
Choose images that showcase your product in the best possible light, and which appeal to your audience. Though be sure to adhere to Amazon’s guidelines. We’ve outlined these requirements, below:
Technical Requirements
- 1,000 px on each side to allow for zoom
- 500 px to 10,000 px on their longest side
- JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg), TIFF (.tif), PNG (.png), or non-animated GIF (.gif) file formats, and
- Clear, unpixelated, and have no jagged edges
Main Product Images
This is the first image that appears on the product detail page
- Accurately represent the product, and be realistic and of professional quality
- Have a white background – this allows for consistency across all Amazon products
- Show the product as 85% of the image
- Cannot include text, logos, borders, color blocks, or watermarks
- Show the entire product within frame
- Cannot feature accessories that will not be included when the customer purchases your product
- Include only a single unit of your product
- Cannot include packaging
- Cannot include a mannequin, in the case of selling garments
All Product Images
- Accurately represent what you are selling
- Match your chosen title
- Cannot contain nudity or be sexually explicit
- Cannot contain customer reviews, ratings, or claims
- Cannot include Amazon logos or trademarks
For more information and tips on choosing images for your product details page, head over to our blog, where we’ve outlined Amazon image sizing and specs
Product pricing
Many things need to be considered when choosing an appropriate price for your product. When pricing your Amazon listing, ensure that you’re considering the competition. It’s not just the A9 algorithm that favors relevant pricing – your potential customers do, too! Including competitor prices in the decision-making process can help to keep your product listing competitive.
Other things that you need to consider when crafting your pricing strategy are:
- Shipping and delivery: do you ship worldwide? Or are you locally based? How much would packaging cost to ship?
- A/B Testing: if you’re not entirely sure how to price your item, Amazon allows you to run a split test. By setting up this experiment, you can analyze how potential buyers respond to different price points, and adjust your overall strategy accordingly
- Keep an eye on rankings: if you find your product listing slipping down the rankings, it could be an indicator that it is not appropriately priced, relative to the market and other Amazon sellers
If you have wiggle room to work with, you can also take advantage of Amazon’s automated pricing, which automatically adjusts the prices on your SKU catalog in response to events.
At the end of the day, this is your product, and only you can know the correct price that will achieve your business objectives. However, a little tweaking here and there can go a long way in helping Amazon favor your listing.
.jpg)
Product reviews
Catered to the customer experience, reviews have a significant impact on how Amazon ranks product listings. No matter how great your keyword and pricing strategy, how eye-catching your images, or how informative and enthralling your descriptions, if you don’t have great reviews, your product listing is likely to get thrown to the bottom.
You know what they say – there’s no such thing as bad publicity. In the case of your Amazon reviews, this is not strictly true, but bad reviews still have merit. If you find your products receiving more poor ratings than good, it’s prime information to analyze and use to optimize both your product, and how it is presented in your listing. Here are a few ways you can use reviews, even poor ones, to optimize the customer experience:
- Check for patterns – is there one single thing people dislike, which can be changed?
- Be proactive – ask for reviews, or use a survey to gather customer feedback. Use this information to adjust your product where necessary
- Find a good ratio – it’s okay to have a bad review here and there, as long as they’re outweighed by the positive. Try to get as many people reviewing as possible. One way to do this is by including an incentive to review, such as 5% off your product.
So there you have it! If you want to grow your business by boosting sales on Amazon, there are many things in your control that you can do to optimize your listing. If you are looking for direct listing insights and recommendations, you can integrate your product catalog with our new AI Listing Insights tool– the first visual optimization tool to measure the performance of your creative. Want more Amazon Seller tools? We’re here to help you develop your Amazon product listing– take a look at our top 15 Amazon Seller Apps to help grow your business.
In a market as fiercely competitive as Amazon, having a great product is only the beginning. To really drive sales and grow your business at scale, you’ll need to prioritize optimizing your product listing.
Creating your first – or 50th – Amazon listing can be daunting, especially in the face of so many competitors. To optimize your product listing, you’ll need to take a close look at every aspect and ensure there are no gaps that might be filled by the competition. Luckily, there are many tools and proven processes available that you can use and follow, to get your listing in top-tip shape. If you’re launching your first product on Amazon, check out our ultimate guide to launch products on Amazon.
In this article, we’ll be diving into each part of your Amazon listing, and how you can improve it to help boost clickthrough rate, conversions, and search visibility.
Understanding the Amazon A9 Algorithm
Before we run through the individual parts of your Amazon listing, we must first understand how the Amazon A9 Algorithm works. Amazon’s SEO function, the algorithm uses a specific set of criteria to rank products in their search. The more you optimize your product listing for SEO, and follow Amazon’s guidelines, the better your chance of higher rankings for chosen keywords.
So what does Amazon take into consideration when ranking products? This can be broken down into two rough categories:
While this might seem like a lot to keep track of, we can roll all the optimizations for the above in one simple refresh of your listing, and most things listed are entirely under the seller’s control.
The algorithm, of course, is not so cut and dry as this and includes intent signals, behavioral and semantics matching, and more. But for the case of your individual product listing, understanding and keeping in mind the optimization and updating of these criteria could be the difference between 1 sale a day, and 100. We’ve gathered 10 additional Amazon best practices to help you sell more.
{{amazon-ad="/external-components"}}
How to Optimize Your Product Listing
Now that we’ve got a firm grasp on what Amazon looks at, let’s run through each part of the Amazon listing, and how you can enact changes to better your place in the search rankings.
Keyword Research
Before you start optimizing your product listing with keywords, you first must identify which ones to use. Choose keywords that are both relevant to your product and audience and have the potential for success. For instance, if you’re just starting out, choosing “hat” as your main keyword can be harmful – with such vast competition, your keyword will be just a drop in the ocean against big players. In this case, you might want to choose a longtail keyword such as “blue children’s hat”. This effectively creates a niche, singling out customers that are looking specifically for a blue hat for a child, rather than a hat in general. That in turn increases your chance for a conversion, as they will be more invested.
Pro Tip: long tail keywords are those which are longer and more specific. It’s a best SEO practice to include high volume (many searches), and longtail (niche) keywords in your keyword strategy.
There are many tools available for you to use when conducting your keyword research. We’ve listed in this article here, the top Amazon optimization generators to choose from. Be sure to do some competitor research as well, to make sure you’re competing in the same space, while also maintaining your edge.
Pro Tip: If you’re feeling stuck, choose one “seed” keyword to start, pop it into a generator and start widening its reach
Once you’ve decided on the keywords to target, it’s time to optimize your product listing for those keywords.
Product Title
When choosing your product title, put yourself in the shoes of the customer. What do they need? What will they be searching for? Answering these questions can guide which keywords to highlight in the title.
Amazon allows 250 characters for a product title, though it is advised to limit your title if possible to no more than 60-80. So, ensure that your title is both relevant and concise, to avoid suppression! Customers are scanning for the first thing that grabs their attention as a possible solution, so select your keywords with care.
Another thing to consider when creating your product title is what needs to be included, by the nature of the product. Some products, such as a broom, are relatively self-explanatory and won’t need all the details upfront for the customer to click on the item and learn more. Other products, however, would need more information included in the title in order for the customer to consider it, such as clothing including its size, or how many liters a water bottle can hold. You might also want to think about including the product’s different use cases, such as storage containers being multi-purpose.
Here are a few guidelines Amazon provides in regard to the product title:
- Keep the title ~60 characters long – longer titles risk losing the customer’s attention
- Capitalize your title, but do not have it in all caps
- Have the brand at the start of the title
- Use numbers such as “1” rather than written, like “one”
- Do not use ASCII characters
Product Key Features/Bullet Points
Now that you’ve got your title in order, it’s time to move on to highlighting your product’s features in the bullet point list.
Amazon allows up to 5 bullet points for each product, with a character limit of 1,000 for all 5 bullets, combined. Sticking to the theme, be concise in how you craft your bullet points. You want this to be informative and to the point. Capture the customer’s attention with short sentences and ensure they can understand exactly what it is you’re selling from only a quick scan.
Again, put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What do they want, and what are they looking for? If you know the answer to those questions, you can easily weave the solution straight into your features and benefits. Amazon has provided a few guidelines to keep in mind when writing these bullet points:
- Highlight key features such as dimension, conditions, content, uses, etc
- Reinforce the information given in the title
- Do not include pricing information or promotion material
- Be consistent
Product Descriptions
Moving further down your listing is your product description. With 2,000 characters to work with, this is the place to really sell your product to potential customers. Remember – they’ve clicked on your listing, so they’re already interested. This is where you can bring them over the line to convert.
Use short, easy-to-read sentences, and be clear about the product’s main use, and what sets it apart from the competition. A good rule of thumb is to run through the same bullet points you just highlighted, in more detail. Introduce more features that were not included in the top 5, and back up your product with use cases. If you want more tips on how to create a product description that converts, head over to our article on How to Write Amazon Product Descriptions Buyers Can’t Resist.
If you’re in a particularly saturated market, it might not be enough to describe your product and its features in detail. Be creative and get potential customers to envision themselves using the product. In the case of our blue children’s hat, instead of only saying that the hat is “size small and machine washable”, consider phrasing it as “can toss in the washing machine after a day at the beach”.
Product Images
Another way you can optimize your product listing is through your images. With so much choice, sometimes it doesn’t matter how effective your keywords, or how well-crafted your descriptions are if your images aren’t up to scratch.
Choose images that showcase your product in the best possible light, and which appeal to your audience. Though be sure to adhere to Amazon’s guidelines. We’ve outlined these requirements, below:
Technical Requirements
- 1,000 px on each side to allow for zoom
- 500 px to 10,000 px on their longest side
- JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg), TIFF (.tif), PNG (.png), or non-animated GIF (.gif) file formats, and
- Clear, unpixelated, and have no jagged edges
Main Product Images
This is the first image that appears on the product detail page
- Accurately represent the product, and be realistic and of professional quality
- Have a white background – this allows for consistency across all Amazon products
- Show the product as 85% of the image
- Cannot include text, logos, borders, color blocks, or watermarks
- Show the entire product within frame
- Cannot feature accessories that will not be included when the customer purchases your product
- Include only a single unit of your product
- Cannot include packaging
- Cannot include a mannequin, in the case of selling garments
All Product Images
- Accurately represent what you are selling
- Match your chosen title
- Cannot contain nudity or be sexually explicit
- Cannot contain customer reviews, ratings, or claims
- Cannot include Amazon logos or trademarks
For more information and tips on choosing images for your product details page, head over to our blog, where we’ve outlined Amazon image sizing and specs
Product pricing
Many things need to be considered when choosing an appropriate price for your product. When pricing your Amazon listing, ensure that you’re considering the competition. It’s not just the A9 algorithm that favors relevant pricing – your potential customers do, too! Including competitor prices in the decision-making process can help to keep your product listing competitive.
Other things that you need to consider when crafting your pricing strategy are:
- Shipping and delivery: do you ship worldwide? Or are you locally based? How much would packaging cost to ship?
- A/B Testing: if you’re not entirely sure how to price your item, Amazon allows you to run a split test. By setting up this experiment, you can analyze how potential buyers respond to different price points, and adjust your overall strategy accordingly
- Keep an eye on rankings: if you find your product listing slipping down the rankings, it could be an indicator that it is not appropriately priced, relative to the market and other Amazon sellers
If you have wiggle room to work with, you can also take advantage of Amazon’s automated pricing, which automatically adjusts the prices on your SKU catalog in response to events.
At the end of the day, this is your product, and only you can know the correct price that will achieve your business objectives. However, a little tweaking here and there can go a long way in helping Amazon favor your listing.
Product reviews
Catered to the customer experience, reviews have a significant impact on how Amazon ranks product listings. No matter how great your keyword and pricing strategy, how eye-catching your images, or how informative and enthralling your descriptions, if you don’t have great reviews, your product listing is likely to get thrown to the bottom.
You know what they say – there’s no such thing as bad publicity. In the case of your Amazon reviews, this is not strictly true, but bad reviews still have merit. If you find your products receiving more poor ratings than good, it’s prime information to analyze and use to optimize both your product, and how it is presented in your listing. Here are a few ways you can use reviews, even poor ones, to optimize the customer experience:
- Check for patterns – is there one single thing people dislike, which can be changed?
- Be proactive – ask for reviews, or use a survey to gather customer feedback. Use this information to adjust your product where necessary
- Find a good ratio – it’s okay to have a bad review here and there, as long as they’re outweighed by the positive. Try to get as many people reviewing as possible. One way to do this is by including an incentive to review, such as 5% off your product.
So there you have it! If you want to grow your business by boosting sales on Amazon, there are many things in your control that you can do to optimize your listing. If you are looking for direct listing insights and recommendations, you can integrate your product catalog with our new AI Listing Insights tool– the first visual optimization tool to measure the performance of your creative. Want more Amazon Seller tools? We’re here to help you develop your Amazon product listing– take a look at our top 15 Amazon Seller Apps to help grow your business.
.jpg)
