If you are reading this, chances are either you already have a product listed on amazon and you want to maximize it or you are thinking of getting into the game.
Well… either way, you’re at the right place. There are about 35 million products listed on Amazon and you know what?
About 95% of them are not right.
Meaning?
They go unnoticed by consumers and fail to yield the desired revenue.
You’re probably thinking what’s there to go wrong?
You open a seller central account, add your product, enter the title, write a few words describing your product, add a few attractive images and you are done! Then you just wait for people to notice and buy your product, right?
Wrong!
You are one amongst 35 million other products and if you want to sell, you got to stand out.
Thus, you need to optimize your listings so that buyers can find you.
Importance of Amazon Product Listing Optimization
Optimizing your Amazon product listing is important for two reasons:-
- Your products rank higher in the searches.
- Optimized titles and descriptions with images guarantee a higher conversion rate.
The important question here is HOW?
Most people tend to think that Amazon product listing optimization is all about including powerful keywords in your title and description. While keywords are important in optimizing your listings, there is more to the game.
Before we start talking about how to optimize Amazon listings, let us first understand the logic and science behind it.
If you want your listings to stand out and make money, your listing should answer the three basic questions:-
WHAT – What product are you selling
WHO – Who is it for? i.e the intended target audience
HOW – How is it going to benefit them.
This is a very basic principle of every listing. Your listing should make answers to these questions obvious.
Online visitors have an attention span of less than 30 seconds. This means you have just that much time to convince them to buy your product. Above all, apart from giving out all the important information that a person buying the product should know, your listing has to be really interesting.
Interesting enough to be able to grab the reader’s attention.
Face to Face with Amazon’s A9 Algorithm
We just talked about optimized product listings ranking higher in Amazon’s searches. A9 is what helps Amazon decide which listings should rank higher and in what order. When you search for a product on Amazon, Amazon makes a slew of recommendations. While these are in part affected by the searcher’s shopping preferences and past purchases, there are other factors as well.
It’s the other factors that you need to be concerned about as a seller:-
Relevancy- The product titles, description, other information included in the listing should match closely with the searcher’s query.
Inventory- If the product is out of stock, your listing will rank lower or disappear completely. It is important to keep track and plan accordingly.
Price- If your products are costlier than the competition, your competitors will overtake you in terms of rankings. Price your products carefully.
Performance – If your product is selling well and you making money, it means Amazon is making money off you! If you help amazon make money through optimized product listings, amazon will rank you higher and help you make more money. On the other hand, if over time your sales decrease, your rankings would slip too.
The Key Attributes of Amazon Product Listing Optimization
There are 6 essential attributes to every amazon product listing that you as a seller need to understand. In this section, we will talk about these attributes and best practices for each of these.
1. Product Title
Amazon allows you a real estate of 250 characters (about 50 words) for your titles. Some products may require shorter or longer titles but regardless you should make full use of it.
While writing product titles remember you are writing for humans. Amazon’s A9 is also based on what people are searching for. When people read your title, they should understand the product and should want to know more about it. Try and include a unique feature that sets your product apart from the competition. It could be any key attribute like eco-friendly or biodegradable etc.
Most importantly, last but not least, include powerful keywords, perform thorough keyword research and try to include the strongest keywords in the title.
2. Product Description
Amazon allows a limit of around 300 words for product descriptions. Needless to say, the description needs to be short, crisp and should make the reader believe that this is something they want.
The language should be simple and relatable yet interesting, something the readers can relate to. Use keywords but don’t stuff it or make it look deliberate. Make it interesting, maybe a storytelling approach so the audience would be interested and want to read all of it. On amazon product listing optimization, product description help to attract customers.
3. Product Images
Amazon allows you a total of 9 images including one lead image and well…you guessed it right! Use all of them. Visuals are what form the first impression and it’s no secret that first impressions are usually the last.
Therefore, invest in professional photography to have high-resolution images, click photos from every angle and make sure the background is clean (white) with no distractions like watermark, etc.
Furthermore, if possible include one or two lifestyle images that show the product in use. For instance, for running shoes, you could show an athlete running! Just make sure that the product is clearly visible.
4. Key Product Features
These are in the form of bullet points that you can use to highlight the main features of the product. The limit is 250 words. You can utilize it in 5 bullet points of 50 words each. Include information like any particular problem that the product aims to solve, any guarantee, warranty, product material, make, design, etc.
5. Product Rating
Remember the stars in amazon listing? These fuels your ranking. If you are getting 4-5 stars, you are good. If you are struggling with ratings you got some work to do. Hence, analyze if there is anything wrong with your listing that you can correct.
6. Reviews
Reviews are important as they are indicative of the trust and confidence that users have in your brand. They are social proof of your popularity as a seller. So it will play important role on amazon product listing optimization.
Conclusion
So you see, simply uploading your product on Amazon isn’t going to take you anywhere. You need perform amazon product listing optimization to improve your sales. Pay attention to all the attributes and the tips mentioned above to optimize each of the elements keeping the algorithm in mind.
While Amazon’s search algorithm is important, be careful not to compromise on the copy and the user journey in the process. After all, you are selling to real buyers who are humans just like us!
If you feel it is too much and rather have us take care of Amazon product listing optimization for you, do reach out to us. Our e-commerce virtual assistants are always hungry for new challenges!
