As an Amazon seller, you need great Amazon product listings that are informative and persuasive. It doesn’t matter if they are for a private label product, a new retail arbitrage product, or a unique bundle. Winning Amazon product listings will help boost your sales and product ranking.
The competition on Amazon has increased 8% overall from last year. With that, you can bet other sellers are using whatever strategies they can get their hands on to make their Amazon product listings rank and perform better. This means that you need to apply winning strategies to stay ahead of the pack.
In this post, we’ll go over some of the best ways that you can optimize your Amazon product listings in 2021 to rank better on Amazon.
But first, let’s go over the basics that form the foundation of winning Amazon product listings.
The Basics of Amazon’s A9 SEO Algorithm
The competition on Amazon gets fiercer as the marketplace continues to grow. This means that your products need to stand out. You need a higher placement on Amazon’s search engine results pages (SERPs) to get people to buy them. This is because only 30% of shoppers go past the first page. To do that, you need great Amazon product listings with descriptions that the A9 algorithm will rank.
A9 represents a set of rules that Amazon uses to rank products based on customer searches. This product search algorithm is an efficient and iterative AI search methodology that reads, scans, and analyzes all the data on the Amazon marketplace.
Here is what we know about how A9 works so you can boost conversions and sales:
Text Match Relevancy
The top A9 ranking principle is relevancy because Amazon strives to show the best product search results for its customers. Sellers therefore need to optimize their listings not only with keywords but user intent. This means writing Amazon product listings that are relevant to what customers are looking for.
A9 learns from previous search patterns and automatically combines different relevance features to present the best results to its customers. If your product title, description, features, etc. match customer search patterns, your Amazon product listing will rank high on the SERPs.
Sales Velocity
Your sales velocity is next on the list of vital A9 algorithm factors. Sales velocity is the dollar amount and number transactions that you collected during a given month. Amazon compares your sales velocity with your competitors using the exact same customer search terms. The seller with the highest sales velocity wins the higher placement.
Click to sales rate (CTS)
This is the number of customers who click on your Amazon product listing in the search results and then continue on to buy your product. This influences your SERP rank because Amazon looks at your sales velocity. The competition doesn’t matter as long as you got more sales in the last month.
Sales Page Content
This is where you need good keyword research and listing copywriting. The way you put your keywords in the product title, bullets, product description, and Amazon’s special keywords section tells A9 what products you’re selling so that they can show up for the right customers. When A9 has the right keywords to do a better job of matching your product to customer searches, you make more sales and rank higher.
Stock Availability
You must make sure to keep your items in stock if you want to get and keep top placements. Amazon wants to make sure that customers get what they want, so you need to have items in stock if you want your listing to show up. Amazon also want to make sure that they keep getting sales, so you have to be the seller who can deliver.
Price
A9 always checks to see if your product is properly priced. This is a combination of the best price on the Amazon marketplace and how well the listing is represented.
Additional, Indirect A9 Ranking Factors
The FBA program is a valuable resource that makes things a lot easier for sellers. It also helps sellers rank higher because Amazon considers its own fulfillment to be superior to outside fulfillment options. A9 factors in the products that you have stocked in any Amazon warehouse, and this helps you get featured merchant status. It also gets you access to Amazon Prime customers and increases your chances of winning the Buy Box. This indirectly boosts ranking when you enjoy greater sales velocity and conversions.
Advertising your products on Amazon also helps to increase your sales velocity. Indirectly, as above, this boosts your ranking.
How to Get Positive Customer Reviews
The A9 algorithm picks up on that and sees it as a sign that customers are engaging positively with your products. You need to encourage this by creating an incredible customer experience. Always be available to them when they ask questions in the Q&A section of your product listing and through Messages.
Provide high quality images of your products for customers to look at. They can’t hold the product when they shop online, so they need good shots from all angles to see what the product is like. Take bright, clear, shots so customers can use Amazon’s zoom feature to see product details. Keep customers on your listings longer to increase your chances of converting and ranking.
Use the A+ Content feature to get a 5% boost in sales. Amazon A+ Content gives customers a better view of the product, which often results in lower returns and higher customer satisfaction.
Promotions are another great way to boost sales velocity and increase conversions. Remember, through, that giving discounts is not a long-term strategy for improving rankings. It only gives you a quick bump in sales. You can use it to get out of a slump, but you need to employ more important and sustainable A9 strategies to get and keep high rankings.
Write Winning Amazon Product Listings in 2021
Amazon product listings have six basic elements: Titles, Images, Features, Description, Keywords, and Customer Reviews. The key is to use these sections to lead customer through a process that helps them decide if your product is right for them or not.
Here’s how to optimize each element in your Amazon product listings in 2020.
Product Title
Amazon allows you to write product titles that are 250 characters long for most categories. Use all of this space as much as possible because the title is the most important element for product ranking. But don’t just write anything to use up the 250 characters. You need to give customers the information that they need in this short space to decide if they want to continue looking at the product.
Amazon has specific requirements and optimization tips that you need to follow to write winning listings. This means that you need to Include the most important information like your brand, the item’s model number, size, quantity, and colors. Keywords are another very important part of product titles because this is what will bring the listings up in searches.
Be aware that your titles have to be fully optimized for your listing to come up in searches. Amazon announced in mid-June of 2019 that listing titles that don’t comply with their rules will simply not appear on the SERPs.
Here are some of the specific Amazon guidelines for product titles:
- Capitalizing the first letter of every word except ‘and’
- Write ‘and,’ not ‘&’ unless it is part of the product’s brand name
- Write numbers as numerals, not words
- Spell out units of measurement, not abbreviated
- Do not include prices, promotions, symbols, seller information, or subjective commentary
- Include information like color and size only if it’s directly relevant to distinguish options
- If the product is a pack, include how many items are in the pack
- Do not include special characters
Always write your product titles for customers, not A9. You want to get your main keywords and brand name in the title, but it should first and foremost help customers to understand the product.
Product Images
Amazon provides space for a lead product image and 8 supporting images. Make sure they are all high quality and that you follow the guidelines:
- Sized 1,000 pixels wide and 500 pixels high
- The product should cover at least 85 percent of the image.
- Use a pure white background
- Show the entire product
- Show only what is included in the product listing
- Do not include promotional text
- Include text on supporting images that helps the customer understand the product better
- Do not use borders, watermarks, decorations, drawings, sketches, or placeholder images
- Include the Amazon ASIN in the image filename
Generally, you should always think about images in terms of what helps the customer make a buying decision. Do not choose your images based on what you think is good.
For example, you should show your product from different angles so that customers can get a good all-around view of it. Show the product in use as well and include a photo of the product packaging. Use your photos to demonstrate the size and scale of the product so that customers can get a better idea of it. This will reduce returns and negative feedback.
Product Features
You have 1,000 characters to use to describe your key product features. Use it to show potential customers that your product is better than what the competition is selling. Explain its uses, focusing on the benefits. Help customers to visualise what a great experience it is to use your product.
Take advantage of the bullet points in the features section to highlight the benefits that your key product features give to customers. Don’t make the bullets too long so that they stay easy to read. Don’t use too many bullet points, either — around 5 is a good number to kee[p customers interested. Always put the most important benefits and features first.
Here are a few other tips:
- Begin each bullet point with a capital letter
- Be specific with product features and attributes
- Do not including pricing, shipping, or company information
- Use a consistent tone.
Product Description
If customers have made it to your product description, then that means they are ready for more information. This is your opportunity to show them why your product is better than what the competition has on offer. The product description is also where you can add details about your company.
You have 2,000 characters to continue describing what your product is and does for customers. Use this space to elaborate on the benefits and features that you mentioned in the bullets. Use more keywords here to improve rankings and sales. Keep your sentences short and easy to read, and don’t just paste in a huge block of text. Divide it up into short paragraphs and use old text to highlight key information. You should also:
- Use light HTML to break up paragraphs and highlight key information
- Include keywords that are not yet in the title or backend keyword section
- Do not include your seller name or website URL
- Do not use promotional language
- Keep your descriptions short and to the point
- Touch on the results of using your product
- Make your content readable by placing keywords naturally
Write your product descriptions from the point of view of the customer. This will give you product descriptions that focus on what customers can relate to. You need to sell people what they want to make them buy.
If you list all of the things that make your product great, you will not appeal to customers’ desires. They are more interested in what the product can do for them. This means showing customers what benefits they get out of using your product, like what problems your product solves for them. Then customers will get excited about your product and will be more likely to buy it.
You only have a few seconds to get your customers’ attention. Make your descriptions scannable so they don’t miss anything important. Subtly reference an up-sell is you can to show customers other products that go well with the one on that listing.
Keyword Research
Quality is always better than quantity. Keyword stuffing, or sticking in as many keywords as you can into your listings, will often do more harm than good. If you’re not sure which keywords will work best, you need to run tests. The best place to start is to put yourself in the shoes of the customer. Do searches on Amazon for the products you’re selling. Look at which items pop up first. Compare them to your products and choose the keywords that match.
Then you should think about what your customers are interested in. A9 looks at all of the searches that people make on Amazon. This means it knows what topics are trending and what’s more important to customers. Use that to make your products relevant.
Look through the best selling items in the categories on the Amazon home page. These are the types of products that customers are looking for and need most. Now you can target them more specifically so that they’re more willing to buy your products when they see them.
Copy the top 10 to 20 trending items in relevant categories — the categories you sell in. Look at the “most gifted” and “most wished for” lists in each category. Click through some products and study their titles and descriptions. These make great keyword ideas to experiment with. You can then research different variations of long-tail keywords. This range of keywords increases your chances of showing up in search results. Watch the results you get and update your list at least every month. This gets you the most relevant keywords in your listings all the time.
Product Reviews
These are very important because they show Amazon what customers like. They are also the social proof that customers need to prove that your product is high quality. Amazon likes that because they want to keep their customers happy.
Getting product reviews isn’t easy, though. New sellers and new products need special attention to collect enough positive reviews to make a difference.
You need to encourage customer product reviews as much as possible through Messages and by requesting feedback. Always focus on giving customers the best shopping experience and you will attract positive reviews to adorn your product listings.
This starts with offering only quality products. If you have great products and great listings but still get neutral and negative reviews and feedback, take the time to check that they are within Amazon’s guidelines. If a customer leaves negative seller feedback as a product review, you can ask Amazon to remove it. Similarly, if they leave negative product reviews as seller feedback, you can also ask Amazon to remove it.
You want to reach at least 500 good reviews for your listing to be considered successful. This will help you to generate a good amount of sales every day. When you have at least 400 reviews, your target should be at least 4.3 stars overall.
If you have this, your Amazon product listings will sell better than products with 4.8 average ratings if they have only a handful of reviews.
In the case you are getting a lot of negative reviews, look for patterns. If there’s a common complaint among customers, do what you can to solve that problem. This is the best way to get better customer reviews on your listings.
Final Thoughts
Now you know how to make use of the six main elements of an Amazon product listing. When you understand the Amazon A9 algorithm and apply these concepts, you can create winning Amazon product listings. Then you can appear in customer searches and create great relationships with customers that will have them coming back for more and recommending your products.
