Amazon Listing Optimization: Sellers Guide 2021
You’ve already considered what sells best on Amazon FBA, now it’s time to make sure your product listings aren’t holding you back.
Amazon listing optimization is one of the main components to running a successful e-commerce business. Your listings are often a potential customer’s first impression of your products and brand. One of the many useful Amazon FBA tips is to make sure they’re clear and concise by providing hi-res photos and helpful information. This will help increase your conversion rate while also improving your reputation as an Amazon seller.
When optimizing your listings, it’s best to follow a uniform format to ensure all your Amazon trending products share the same type of details and imagery. This also allows you to build brand consistency and helps you create new Amazon product listings more efficiently. In addition to unique product SKUs, Amazon listings include:
- Product Titles
- Product Descriptions
- Product Images
- Customer Reviews
To ensure you maximize your efforts and make the process as efficient as possible, we’re sharing helpful ways to create, optimize, and track the success of your listings and increase your sales.
Product Titles
Amazon product listing optimization starts with strong product titles. The rule of thumb is to keep them succinct, preferably under 80 characters, although there’s room for 200 characters max. Product titles are meant to be informational rather than a sales pitch. Titles that are too lengthy may suppress your Amazon product listing and truncate the titles for mobile users.
Focus on putting your main keywords at the front of your Amazon product title to ensure it doesn’t get cut off and gives consumers a good idea of what they’re looking for instantaneously. While you want to be eye-catching with your product titles, refrain from adding too many adjectives. This takes up precious space without telling your audience what the product is.
Product Bullet Points and Description
As a person’s eyes move down the product page, bullet points will be visible before scrolling to the Amazon product description. Here is where you’ll want to include short, descriptive sentences that talk about your product’s special features and benefits.
Use language that appeals to your audience and allows your products to stand out when compared to similar products in the same category. Start with the best product feature first and work your way down to include other highlights throughout the different bullet points.
Further down the page, add a product description that includes other helpful information and specifications about your Amazon product. It’s another place to incorporate researched keywords to make your listing more visible in the search. It also provides you the opportunity to incorporate branding elements through custom imagery, how-to instructions, and unique details about your product and company to further entice shoppers to buy.
Product Images
Including hi-res, professional imagery to highlight your products is equally important as optimizing both your product title and bullet points. Amazon image requirements are 500x500 or 1,000x1,000 pixels. Ensure imagery isn’t pixelated, blurry, or set against unapproved backdrops.
When your product shows up on a listings page, consider which photos will draw a customer’s attention the most, especially when competing against pricing differentiations. Consumers are generally willing to pay higher prices for products deemed higher in quality. Include several views of your product with a mix of photography and graphics, as necessary, to showcase how it looks, functions, and fits into daily use. This will help guide the buying decision.
Customer Reviews
According to Qualtrics, a staggering 93 percent of customers read online reviews before buying a product. Adding favorable reviews to your Amazon product listing is a valuable way to promote your products and encourage a purchase, particularly for those who’ve directly landed on your product page.
Consumers seek validation of their product choices by reading others’ feedback of your product. Many often choose to filter by customer reviews, which can position your listing higher on the page if you have a high number of four- and five-star reviews. It’s yet another factor buyers consider when searching for and considering which products to purchase.
Use Competitive Pricing
Part of Amazon product listing optimization also includes showcasing competitive pricing. You can achieve this through the automated pricing tool. Competitive pricing is one of the main reasons why people shop on Amazon. If you do not have a wholly unique product, it’s one of the main ways you’ll stay competitive.
The automatic pricing tool allows you to set parameters to match the lowest pricing of similar products, set rates below the Buy Box feature, and offers other helpful options to make your listing appear more desirable. Setting up pricing parameters can be temporary. You can configure or remove pricing rules as there are changes in inventory or demand for your product.
What to Avoid When Optimizing Your Product Listings
There are also a few things to avoid when optimizing your product listings. These include running into product variation errors, as well as image and product ID non-compliance. Any problems with your product listings can negatively impact your product launch.
Properly categorizing your inventory by Amazon’s requirements is important, as is meeting the expectations of consumers searching for a specific product. For example, if your product(s) offer variations in color, pattern, or size, you may list this in the same product listing. However, errors may occur if it is a slightly different product, different brand, or similar product type.
Additionally, maintaining the correct sizing and fill area is important to receive approval of imagery. Products should fill 85 percent or more of the image frame. Maintaining consistency in product ID coding also helps promote a successful listing in the eyes of Amazon. Ensure you have these basics covered when creating and updating your inventory.
Amazon Listing Optimization FAQs
Implementing quality product titles, bullet points, descriptions, images, and product reviews are all essential to Amazon listing optimization. Maintaining the quality is an ongoing effort . Here are a few frequently asked questions that will help guide how often you should update your listings and other incentives that will help boost your rankings and visibility on Amazon.
How Often Should I Update My Listings?
The frequency of listing updates will be dictated by whether or not you need to fix a problem with your listing, implement a new keyword strategy, or want to update your inventory. Once a month, at least, allots enough time to assess the performance of your products. Any errors should be fixed right away, but constantly changing text or imagery isn’t necessary. However, keep in mind, you will want to manage your inventory by closing or deleting listings to maintain accuracy.
Does Optimizing My Listing Make Me Eligible for the Buy Box?
Yes. Part of what makes you eligible for the Buy Box on Amazon is how well buyers can find your product in a search. Making sure your title and product description include relevant keywords is crucial in driving visibility. There are other factors that are part of winning the Buy Box space, but maintaining optimized listings is one of the key requirements.
Can I Add Offers in My Listing?
No. Although, it seems beneficial to add a sales offering right within the title of your listing, this is not allowed per Amazon. Titles cannot contain promotional phrases of any kind, such as “free shipping” or “20% off.” It also doesn’t help you show up in the search results. Remember, you want your title and Amazon product description to include keywords people are searching for. They will search for specific items, such as “glass teapot” not sales language like “20% off.”
What Is A+ Content?
A+ Content (formerly referred to as Enhanced Content) is available for Amazon FBA sellers who have been approved through the Amazon Brand Registry process. Once approved, A+ Content gives you the opportunity to tell your brand’s unique story through enhanced, customized images, text placement, and videos. It’s an investment in optimization intended to enhance brand visibility and boost conversions.
Boosting Your Visibility with Amazon Listing Optimization
Every effort you take to polish your listings and make them relevant for your consumers will help boost your visibility and conversion rates on Amazon. Track all changes made and review data to measure improvement every time you optimize your listings.
Schedule time on a regular basis to review and optimize your existing listings. Start with the basics of reviewing product titles, descriptions, images, and online Amazon reviews. Address inventory and pricing for accuracy and competitiveness. Then, dive into elevating your brand and product offerings through A+ Content and promotional campaigns.
Even the smallest changes to your product descriptions can boost how often you appear in search queries, which lead to more sales. Make the most of your efforts online by adhering to Amazon’s requirements, making corrections as needed, and giving your customers the most relevant content and imagery available to help them with their buying decision. The more you nurture the quality of your product listings, the better they’ll perform.
Amazon listing optimization is a crucial part of becoming a successful Amazon seller and building a profitable business. If your long-term goal is to sell, creating a strong brand with products consumers consider core to their everyday life is valuable. At Forum, we look for brands with 70 percent or more of sales through Amazon FBA and have demonstrated financial success of at least $200K in net profit in the past year.
Knowing how to optimize your listings to achieve the best results is one of the main stepping stones to overall success.
Sources:
https://sell.amazon.com/beginners-guide.html
