HOW TO OPTIMIZE AMAZON LISTING IN 3 SIMPLE STEPS

A customer shopping at a mall can see, touch and feel the product. They interact with the employees, see the store design and then decide whether they want to make the purchase.

Well, that’s not possible when shopping online. So as an Amazon seller, your product listing is your storefront.

Your product title and image work like a store window display to attract potential customers. While your product page with detailed product description, additional images, and customer reviews help them get a full impression of your product and brand.

A buyer makes a purchase decision based on your product listing. Hence, it is the key to selling on Amazon. As a seller, it is necessary that your product page is catchy and appealing.

So, here’s a guide on how to increase sales on Amazon through optimization of your product listing.

BEFORE YOU START WRITING

1. KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE 

Identify your target audience

Before you begin writing your Amazon Product Description copy (or any type of copy) you need to understand your audience. How can you build connection, develop trust and convert them into buyers, if you don’t know them?

As mentioned earlier, your product listing is your salesperson. Because you can’t interact live with your customers on Amazon, you have to make sure that your copy fills in that gap of a human being.

You need to gather information on your customer’s needs, wants, expectations, pain points, complaints, and concerns. These factors will help you understand your buyers and communicate with them effectively.

How do determine who your customers are and what they want? Consider the following:
• Customer Demographics- age, gender, income, interests, etc
• Customer reviews – wants, dislikes, concerns, etc
• Customer Experience- how they use the product.

You can use Facebook insights, forums, blogs, websites, YouTube, your competitor’s customer reviews to gather all this information. Incorporate this knowledge into your copy to hook your customers and get conversions.

2. DEFINE KEY FEATURES AND BENEFITS

One of the biggest mistakes most sellers make is only highlighting the key features of their product.

We understand you love your product and you want to provide buyers with all the details and feature of your product. But are your customers really interested in the features?
NO.

Customers are interested in the benefit of the product. They want to know the problem your product solves for them.

Features v/s Benefits

Features talk about the technical part of the product and advantage is what the feature does. But consumers are interested in the benefit, which is what the product does for them.

So, list down your product features and convert them into benefits. This will tell the customers how your product makes their life easy and answer the “WHY they need the product” question for them. 

3. KEYWORDS FOR AMAZON SEARCH OPTIMIZATION

The words you use in your product description are not only to attract your customers but are also very important for Amazon SEO. 

Using keywords for Amazon listings will increase Amazon sales rank, improve search engine rankings and enhance product visibility. It drivers buyers to your product. Search engines use the keywords in your description to determine whether you are relevant to the search result.

The trick is to look for the words buyers use while searching the products and include it in your descriptions. For example, if you’re selling a cooking pan you can use keywords like “nonstick”, “with a lid”, “stainless steel” etc. 

Search engines today can detect if the keywords are not relevant or are out-of-context. Hence the old practice of keyword stuffing doesn’t work anymore.

Be careful while using keywords to avoid getting a lower ranking –
• Use only relevant keywords in the Product title
• Distribute your keywords evenly.
• Use different variations of the keywords.

There are various Amazon Keyword Research tools that will provide you with keywords for Amazon listing. These tools provide you with the right keywords for your product based on what your buyers search, your competitors and best performing keywords in your space. This helps in Amazon search optimization and organically improves the performance of your product listing.

Some Amazon Keyword Research tools are Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, KWfinder among others.

WRITING THE PERFECT AMAZON COPY

1. TITLE

Your Product Title is what will attract buyers and get clicks from visitors. You need to ensure that its catchy but at the same time has the key phrases and benefits.

• Don’t stuff your keywords- Remember you are writing for humans, not bots. Therefore, keyword stuffing is not the way to go. Neither will it help you in SEO nor will it attract customers. It makes your title look messy and confusing. Rather use 1-2 top keywords or phrases.

Let’s look at these two product descriptions of earphones on Amazon.

Which one do you like better? The second one, right?

Though both the products are pretty much the same, chances are that people will click on the second one. Both of them have keywords in title but the second one looks clean, is easy to read and shorter.

• Title Length- To optimize your title, focus on length. The Amazon product title character limit 2019 is 250 characters or 50 words maximum. However, there are various exceptions and rules for various product categories. Buyer access amazon from various devices. So, ensure that the title length is catchy at all lengths whether the buyer is using a phone or computer.

2. PRODUCT FEATURES

With too many products and choices, buyers are not going to read your entire listing. They’re going to skim through to look for important and relevant information to make a purchase decision.

Every product on Amazon has five bullet points right at the top. Bullets points make information scan-able and clear. So you want to make full use of these bullet points to entice your buyers.

Ensure that your bullet points highlight the best key feature of your product in the first point. This will instantly grab the buyers attention. If the first point isn’t appealing or is generic, the buyer may not be interested or move on to another product.

Let’s take the below product description for example.

The first point of the bullet points talks about the warranty. Do you think that a buyer will be interested in reading further? 

The answer is NO! 

The buyer is not looking for an electric grill for a great warranty. He is looking for an electric grill for easy grilling of his food. So you need to focus on that first.

Always focus on quality over quantity. You want to give in maximum details of your product but don’t want to bore the customer at the same time. Keep your bullet points short and sweet yet descriptive.

See the example below – 

Notice, that all the bullet points have clear headings and are to the point. They all highlight the benefits that the buyer will get from it. 

This will instantly get the buyer hooked and convinces them to consider the product for buying. 

When people are shopping in brick-motor stores, all their five sense can be used and satisfied. Say, if they are buying a piece of clothing they can see and feel it or if they are buying say some aroma oil, they can smell it. But when shopping online this is not possible.

So, your descriptions need to appeal to as many senses as possible. Make use of words and adjectives that evoke the different sensory experience. 

Here are a few other tips to optimize your bullet points:

• Use all caps to write the keywords of the product feature.
• Keep the sentences simple and easy to read.
• Use active voice.
• Always include the keywords.
• Use all five bullet points.
• Stick to Amazon rules but use limited HTML formatting to enhance the readability of your listing. This will help you include symbols in the bullet points.

3. PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

The title or Headline is the introduction that attracts your buyer.

The bullet points are like get-to-us which highlight the key feature.

Your product description is what will tell the buyer everything they need to know about the product and get them to click the “BUY NOW” button.

The product description is the place to give detailed information about your product. Use creative language and elaborate on your bullet points. Do not duplicate them, only elaborate.

Answer the 5 W’s and How in your product description.
• What? – What is your product? Focus on features.  
• Who? – Who can use the product? Define your target audience.
• Why? – Why should they choose your product? Talk about the benefits, your USP or differentiating point.
• When? – When can they use the product? Is it a seasonal product, can be used during travels, etc.
• Where? – Where can your product be used? Indoors, outdoors, in the park. etc.
• How? – How to use the product? Talk about the steps and guidelines to use your product.

The whole idea behind the product description is to gain the buyer’s trust and confidence and to get conversions. Never fluff your product descriptions. Make no false claims and do not provide false information. It might get you sales in the short term but in the long term will only earn your bad reviews and losses.

Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) AMAZON DESCRIPTION 

As the name suggests, it is a feature to enhance your product listing. It lets you modify your product description to make it visually appealing. You can add visually rich content like high-quality and enticing images and text placements.

The feature is only available for products under the Amazon Brand Registry. The brand registered sellers can see this option in their Seller Central Account.

Benefits of EBC – 
• Makes information scan-able.
• Enhances the visual appeal with images and text placements.
• Breaks the text with headlines, bullet points, italics, etc.

The feature provides you with 5 templates to choose from.
A detailed guide on EBC

Ensure that you feed in all information at the Amazon’s back-end at Seller Central. This will not appear in your listing but provide keywords for the search engines and improve your ranking and visibility.

You can create a new copy for your EBC or re-purpose the same content according to your chosen template. Remember that EBC content is checked by Amazon before you can publish, so make sure you follow all the rules and guidelines.

If writing your Amazon listing seems like a challenge, you can go for Amazon Listing Services or Amazon Product Description writers to help you write an optimized product listing. 

4. IMAGE

The first thing the buyer looks at is the image of the product. People are visual and good product photos help attract the buyer. Amazon allows you to upload 5-9 images for a product. Try and use all of them.

The main image needs to be a picture of the product on white background only. It cannot have any watermarks, info-graphic, text or accessories.

Once the buyer is on your product page they can see the additional or secondary images. Include as many images as possible.

Here are the type of images you should use – 

• Product from all angles
• Accessories with the product
• Product packaging and label
• Lifestyle images of the product in use
• Informational images with text, charts, infographics, etc.
• Photos demonstrating the size and scale of the product.

All the images should be of high-quality, bright and clear. Ensure that they are at least 1000px in width and 500px in height. Amazon recommends having minimum 1280px on the longest side, so that picture is clear even when zoomed in.

Here is a basic guideline for images at a glance. Check the Amazon official website for updated details.

Image Requirements for Amazon 

5. SEARCH TERMS

When writing an Amazon listing you do include keywords to match query of your potential customer. However, you might not be able to include all keywords since they don’t directly match your product or due to the word limit. This where “SEARCH TERMS” come into play.

Search terms are Amazon’s back-end keywords that are hidden but help boost the visibility of your product. They are not visible to the buyer but do help them find your product on entering a query.

For example, you are selling a hand lotion. You can enter “hand moisturizer” or “hand cream” in search terms to increase your visibility.

Certain guidelines to follow for search term optimization

• Separate keywords with spaces and no punctuation.
• Do not repeat the keywords
• Stay within the limit of 250 characters
• Do not include brand names or other product identifiers
• Never include untrue or false claims and avoid abusive language.

Here’s a detailed guide for SEARCH TERM OPTIMIZATION.

Does this all seem very technical? You can always opt for Amazon SEO Services provided by professional and experts to help you increase Amazon sales rank.

AFTER LAUNCH

If you think your work is done once you launch your listing, you’re wrong. You need to monitor your product pages after the launch.

Below are things you need to focus on post-launch to further improve your listing.

1.REVIEWS FOR AMAZON

Customer reviews are extremely important for a product listing. Buyers trust the experiences and opinions of other customers. If you have positive reviews it will improve your ratings and convinces the potential buyers to make the purchase.

How to get reviews on Amazon?

• Excellent Customer Service – Providing the buyer with amazing customer service at every stage is a great way to increase a buyer’s willingness to review your product. Provide customer assistance at every stage of the buying process, send emails on their order status, asking if the order has arrived, etc. Also, respond to all queries and reviews in a positive manner.
• Prompt the customer– You can send customer follow-up-email or use parcel inserts to persuade the buyer to review your product. It’s one of the easiest ways to get more reviews and increase Amazon sales rank for your product.
• Advertise on product testing platform– You can use various product review sites like Snagshout or Vipon, to increase your reviews. However, make sure you remain with the Amazon guidelines. You can also use Amazon’s own fee-based review generator called Amazon vines and Early Reviewer Program.

2.QUESTION AND ANSWERS

This is probably one of the most underutilized sections for marketing. Customers ask questions about specific use or feature of the product that they can’t find on the page. Sellers, vendors, and customers- anyone can answer these questions.

Make sure that you answer these questions correctly and solve all customer queries. This will improve page content and customer experience.

The reviews and questions will provide you with information gaps in your listing and drawbacks of your products. Monitoring them will help you improve the product, add information to the product page and hence increase Amazon sales rank.

OVER TO YOU

We’ve laid the groundwork on how to increase sales on Amazon through a great product listing. It’s a simple 3 step process – doing your research before writing the listing, implementing the research while drafting the Amazon listing and the process thereafter. 

This is the secret sauce to get success on Amazon or any other e-commerce platform for that matter. 

A good performing amazon-listing is part science and part art. Amazon search optimization has its own set of challenges. If you are looking for Amazon Listing Services or Amazon SEO services to help you improve your listing contact us today! We draft keywords optimized descriptions that bring your products in your potential customer’s radar.

We wish you success with your Amazon account!