When it comes to ecommerce, Amazon is the acclaimed king. The platform is the most visited online marketplace in the US with 2 billion monthly visits in the US alone. In addition, Amazon will account for nearly 40% of ecommerce sales in 2022 with the next 14 biggest retailers making up just 31% and the remaining 29.5% of the pie going to everybody else.
With nearly 225,000 Amazon sellers worldwide as of 2019, selling on Amazon can be a real challenge. In addition, there are 300 million potential shoppers worldwide that you can tap for your Amazon store. With such a competitive industry, you may wonder how to attract potential customers and grab your share of the ecommerce pie.
Wondering how you could break through the noise and increase website traffic and revenue for your online store? Maybe your visitors are not seeing your products enough or maybe it’s in the wrong place. It all boils down to optimizing your Amazon product listing. So read on and be guided on how to optimize your Amazon product listing.
Optimizing Amazon Product Listing
- Choose Relevant Keywords
- Select Accurate Categories
- Optimize Content
- Improve Product Title
- Use Professional Quality Images
- Make It Mobile Friendly
- Optimize Product Description
- Understand Amazon Algorithm
- Get Customer Reviews
Optimizing Amazon Product Listing
In a competitive marketplace like Amazon, optimizing your product listing will help improve its search visibility, click-through rate, conversion rate, and generate more sales. As an Amazon seller, this is one of the most important things you should do to be competitive. Here are the steps on optimizing your Amazon product listing.
1.Choose Relevant Keywords
Customers use keywords when searching for products on Amazon. For your product to appear on Amazon, it has to appear on the relevant keyword search. Using Amazon search, look for high-ranking keywords that will place your product listing in a good position relative to the competition. Amazon has its own keyword tool used by customers to search for products. It uses autocomplete to identify popular keywords and long tail searches.
Once you have finished searching for the right keywords, spread them out in strategic places such as in the product title, product description, bullet points, and others. You can also use keywords based on target audiences like men, women, and others. Amazon filters them in the search so make sure to add them. You can also use additional details such as type of material, color, size,quantity, and others.
Finally, add the keywords to your content seamlessly and in all fields whenever necessary. Target the keywords in your PPC campaign to capture organic and paid keyword traffic on your product pages. You can use the keywords on the Amazon search tool to identify relevant keywords and phrases for your listings.
2. Select Accurate Categories
After finding the right keywords for your product, you should choose the right category. Make sure to select the most accurate and narrowly defined category. When selecting pre-defined fields, choose wisely. Customers search for products based on certain categories. If your products are in the wrong category, customers will not find your store.
Choosing the right Amazon category is important because some categories are gated which means they need approval for you to sell in them. Also, some websites have higher referral fees which can make it hard for you to grow your business. You know your product, keywords, listing, and competition inside out but choosing an accurate category is important because shoppers search for a product from a specific category.
Products sold on the Amazon platform are organized into different categories and subcategories. Choosing the right category will help you maximize your profit as an Amazon seller. If your product falls in the wrong category, it won’t be listed in the right directory and your potential customers will also find difficulty finding your products.
3. Optimize Content
Optimizing your content can also increase the click-through rate in the search result and the conversion rate on the product page. Consequently, both will contribute to an increase in sales and a higher ranking. In optimizing product content, consider three important points:
- Product Information. This contains all necessary information for the buying decision. This includes information such as material, weight, or energy efficiency class. With the product information, you need to be as thorough as possible. It should be clearly displayed in a dedicated section on the product page to help improve the conversion rate.
- Product Text. In creating the product text, you need to highlight the benefits and unique selling proposition of your products. It needs to clearly state how the product will help potential buyers. In addition, it should be clear on the benefits that customers will get from using the product.
- Images. The main image should be relevant for the click-through rate and conversion rate. It should only represent the core product and must completely comply with Amazon’s minimum requirements. Additional images should highlight the distinguishing features of the product.
4. Improve Product Title
By just looking at the product title, your customer will already know what your product is. In most categories, Amazon allows a product title length of 250 characters. It is worth noting, however, that most sellers are staying below 200 characters. While Amazon allows up to 250 characters, there is still a suppression rule in place for titles that exceed 200 characters.
The product title should already give the buyer enough information if they want to push through with the purchase. Here are some best practices for an effective product title:
- Prioritize your main keywords at the front of your product title and address the main benefits and features in a concise manner.
- If there are multiple uses or customer niches for your product and they can be included in your product title, add them. This will increase the likelihood of your product appearing in customer search queries.
- Find relevant keywords for your product. Look for keywords based on the product you are selling. Look for keywords used by your competitors with a reverse ASIN lookup.
- Capitalize the first letter of each word. Don’t use all caps.
- Use “and” not the ampersands symbol (&).
- Include important product information such as quantity, sizing, color, and material.
- Include Who the product is for (e.g men, women, motorcycle riders).
- Do not use symbols.
- Use numeric values instead of spelling out numbers (7 instead of seven).
5. Use Professional Quality Images
When buying a product, the first thing customers look for is the image. High-quality images can have a direct impact on your click-through rate. Amazon will allow nine product images including a lead image but make sure that they are of high quality sized 1,000 pixels wide and 500 pixels high. For the main image, it is best to use a white background.
Highlight your product from different angles and show the product being used and the packaging. Amazon recommends that the product fills at least 85% of the image. It should at least give customers a glimpse of the actual size and scale of the product you are selling. If necessary, have a professional photographer take pictures of your product.
While Amazon will allow you to upload up to 9 images, it is best to use around 5 – 6 images. Make sure that your product is focused at the center. The image should be large enough to allow the zoom function to work. Make sure to use only the JPEG format. The main image should only include the main product and should not have accessories, boxes, and other items with it.
6. Make It Mobile Friendly
Making your product listing mobile-optimized is key to the visibility of your products on Amazon. On the Amazon mobile app, product descriptions are truncated and only the first 400 characters are shown before customers will have to click more. Just how important is being mobile-friendly to your product listing? Because the Amazon brand has the highest penetration among shoppers at 76 percent with the app alone collaring 45 percent of customers.
In addition, the Amazon mobile app was the most popular shopping app in terms of mobile users as of July 2018. During that period, there were 140 million mobile users of the Amazon app. This makes optimizing your product listing for mobile use very important. Always putting mobile optimization in mind will help you focus on the areas that matter most so that your product listing will be visible to shoppers on mobile.
The first 80 characters of your product title is crucial so place your primary search phrase and benefit-driven in that location. Keep in mind that you only have limited words to convince your shoppers to tap on your listing. The first 80 characters of your listing should be a complete sentence. Use the words your customers speak and keep the information short and easily digestible.
7. Optimize Product Description
The product description is the part where you demonstrate why your product is the best choice compared to the competition. It allows additional space for you to speak further about your products. Amazon allows a 2,000-character limit to show potential customers what your product is and what it does. When done right, product descriptions can help increase your sales and rank higher in search engines.
With your product description, you need to cover all the bases using associated search terms. Specify your product’s technical and physical qualities. Speak directly to your target audience by describing how they could benefit from your product. The product description will have a direct impact on your customers.
When creating the product description, use short sentences to make it easier for potential customers to read and highlight any key information. However, don’t over embellish as you do not want to mislead buyers or create expectations that your product can’t meet. Here are some tips on how to make an effective product description:
- Expand Your Bullets. If there is insufficient space in the key feature bullets, you can use the product description to fully explain available information about a product feature or benefit.
- Introduce Additional Features/Benefits. If your product has more than five features or benefits, include them in the product description.
- Highlight Uses. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, simply listing features and benefits will not help the customers fully understand the benefits of your product. By integrating real-life uses into the product description will go a long way in helping potential customers experience your product.
- Support Claims. When you say something exciting about your product, it is subjective. After all, no one will love your product like you do. However, when the claim comes from another company, it’s proof. Although you cannot include reviews on your product description, you can include celebrities wearing or using your product or reports indicating that your product is “the best.”
8. Understand Amazon’s Algorithm
Amazon’s ranking algorithm is called the A9 Algorithm. It decides on the best product recommendation for a customer’s search query. Amazon is not explicit about how the algorithm ranks product listing. However, as an Amazon retailer, it only makes sense to display the products the customer will most likely buy. As an online retailer, it is worth identifying the most vital Amazon ranking signals which are the following:
- Sales Performance refers to the number of product units you have successfully sold and your conversion rate. Your sales performance can be affected by factors like buyer complaints and product defects. The better your sales performance, the higher will be the rank of your product listing.
- Text Match Relevancy. Amazon’s ranking algorithm considers your product’s relevance to the customer search query by matching keywords found on your product details. However, product listing keyword performance is not a one-time deal. You need to consistently monitor your position regularly as keyword rankings change constantly.
- Price and Availability. Amazon prioritizes sellers that offer the lowest price in the market and assures customers that they will never be overcharged. They use ASINs to monitor prices and deliver product listings that are fairly priced. In addition, Amazon would suggest a product with adequate supply and FBA because inventory is stored with Amazon.
9. Get Customer Reviews
Once you have optimized your titles and images, your next focus is on getting positive customer reviews. Research shows that 84% of shoppers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations and 91% of shoppers occasionally or regularly read online reviews. They help create trust and add transparency to the purchasing experience to convince customers to buy.
Shoppers who read reviews were previously unfamiliar with a brand or a particular product. They also lacked confidence in making a purchase. Online reviews provide these shoppers with social proof they need to trust your online store. This is particularly true when it comes to high-end products, functional goods, and clothing items.
Product reviews are important to both customers and businesses. For the former, reviews can be the final nudge that either convert a customer or convince them to trust your brand. For the latter, reviews can directly affect your brand reputation or increase or decrease sales. A whopping 68% of customers already have an opinion about a product after reading between 1 and 6 online reviews. For this reason, you need to gather as many positive reviews as possible and respond to negative reviews on Amazon.
Becoming a successful online retailer on Amazon can be daunting. Optimizing your product listing is one of the most effective ways to stay competitive in the platform and generate some traffic for your website.
Why airisX Ecommerce Solutions Make Sense?
airisX has a complete range of individual and complete solutions for Amazon FBA and FBM sellers. Our expertise stems from the deep ecommerce experience of our founders. This founder experience has allowed airisX to develop a very wide variety of solutions designed specifically for Amazon sellers of varying revenue ranges.
Imagine your listing is your bakery storefront. Make sure it looks and smells good. If you’ve invested time and money into your product development and product launch, invest into your content as well. Even with the best product on the market and strong keyword positioning, brand longevity is hard to sustain without impressive, professional content. airisX staffs full time content writers specifically for Amazon listing copy writing – we perform in-depth product and category research to understand your target customer and key selling points, and craft content to make your listings convert to sales like never did before!