Amazon is a search engine first and foremost. Customers will inevitably find any product you list by using search queries, so optimizing Amazon product listings is vitally important to your success as a seller. That means knowing not only which keywords to use, but also where they carry the most SEO weight.
For example, your listing’s title has the biggest SEO impact, followed by the bullet points, description, and back-end keyword fields. Because it functions like a search engine, Amazon indexes all of these fields for its SEO purposes.
You should prioritize Amazon’s keyword best practices to find the most relevant keywords and give each listing the greatest exposure.
How to Optimize an Amazon Listing
Having a comprehensive SEO-based keyword strategy is important, but optimizing Amazon product listings is about more than just choosing keywords. For instance, there are also Amazon title best practices to consider. We strongly recommend writing a title that begins with about five words followed by a colon. This establishes an ideal canonical URL to help with external SEO efforts (such as Google listings).
Additionally, your listing’s click-through rate, conversation rate, and other audience engagement metrics have a definite impact on organic SEO ranking. To help maximize that impact, follow these tips when optimizing your Amazon product listings:
1. Start with a keyword tool.
Choosing the best keywords to optimize your Amazon listing takes research. Fortunately, you can make keyword research and analysis much easier with help from a comprehensive keyword research tool.
Our unique tool offers historical keyword data alongside current data, showing the full scope of the keyword landscape. You can get insights into Amazon-specific search queries with highly precise breakdowns of keywords relevant to your product.
2. Infuse relevant language in your keywords.
It’s critical to describe your product and form your keywords using the exact language that customers use in their search queries. For example, plenty of people will discover the stereo headphones you sell by using the term “headphones,” but thousands of others might also search for earbuds, headsets, and other variations of the same keyword. Make sure you adjust your listing not only for the main keyword, but also for other relevant terms your audience might be using.
3. Make sure to categorize your listing correctly.
The descriptions and keywords you use will go a long way in defining your product. But you still have to assign categories and subcategories that will determine its placement on Amazon’s website. If you’re not sure which categories or subcategories to choose, search for your product in Seller Central and see which categories similar listings fall under.
4. Use plenty of high-quality photos.
According to a 2018 e-commerce survey, 73% of U.S. consumers who shop online say they won’t consider a product that has fewer than three images. To stand out, then, use multiple high-quality images of your product.
A mix of studio and lifestyle shots that feature your product in the most attractive light can help consumers envision themselves using it. Photography resources can help you learn how to capture the perfect product photos to catch potential customers’ attention.
5. Optimize pricing to fit the market.
No matter how keyword-rich and image-heavy your listing is, you won’t get much engagement or many sales if your prices are too high for your market. For most new sellers (and even most veterans), it’s difficult to sell any product at a premium price point. Fewer conversions also mean a less favorable keyword ranking. Instead, try slowly increasing your prices as your listings perform better.
6. Keep everything you do within Amazon’s terms of service.
No matter what you try to optimize, do so while staying within the bounds of Amazon’s terms of service. Its terms place strict rules that can have a direct impact on SEO rankings, particularly regarding customer feedback and reviews. For example, sellers are prohibited from compensating users for favorable reviews and ratings.
To be a successful Amazon Seller, you have to approach optimizing your Amazon product listings as you would with any other search engine. Take the time to research which keywords best support your product and use them to create an attractive, informative, and optimized listing.
For more information about how to optimize your Amazon listings, speak with one of our experts today!