Welcome to Basilio Inc. Build. Grow. Exit Big: The Professional’s Guide To Selling On Amazon. If you’re thinking about starting up your own business as an Amazon seller, stick around, because you’ve come to the right place.
Amazon is the world’s largest ecommerce site. As of 2018, Amazon had $233 billion in revenue, and more than 5 million third-party sellers currently operate across Amazon’s 12 worldwide marketplaces. So selling on Amazon represents a huge opportunity—if you know where to start and what to keep in mind as you build your Amazon seller business. In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn everything you need to know about selling on Amazon. Here’s what to expect as you make your way through it!
In this chapter, we will explore the concept of product detail page optimization. When we talk about optimization, we refer to the process of maximizing the number of visitors to your product pages (traffic or sessions) and increasing the percentage of those visitors who make a purchase (conversion rate).
To achieve these goals, it is important to understand that higher visibility and frequency in search results lead to more visitors. Providing detailed and high-quality content for your products enhances their chances of generating more purchases and improving the conversion rate. Optimization involves both internal tasks, such as editing the product listing information, and external tasks, including advertising and linking strategies to drive traffic to your product detail pages.
Throughout this chapter, we will delve into how the Amazon search engine operates, what customers typically search for, the importance of utilizing relevant search terms or keywords, and best practices for maximizing your product’s conversion rate. We will begin by focusing on the internal tasks of Conversion Rate Optimization and Keyword Optimization. Subsequently, we will briefly discuss some external techniques that can help increase traffic to your product detail pages. Finally, we will review real product detail pages as examples.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
When it comes to optimizing your conversion rate on Amazon, it’s essential to understand the basic requirements set by the platform. Amazon expects product listings to provide comprehensive details that enable customers to evaluate and make informed purchasing decisions. These details include a clear product title, informative product description, brand name, bullet points, and high-quality images. Listings that fulfill these core elements are given higher rankings by Amazon’s algorithm.
However, meeting the minimum requirements is just the beginning. As a seller, you are asking customers to invest their hard-earned money in the product you offer. Even well-known brands have seen significant improvements in performance when their listing information is optimized with quality images and compelling, descriptive text that highlights the benefits and features of the products. If you sell private label products that are new to Amazon, it becomes even more crucial to convince customers of the high quality and value of your offerings.
In our Additional Resources section titled “Conversion Factors,” we provide a concise summary of the main points related to conversion optimization. This covers the various factors that can either facilitate or inhibit conversions during the buying process. While you may not have control over certain aspects such as the layout of the product page or checkout process steps on Amazon, you still have the ability to influence conversion more than you might realize. We will focus on the parts of the product offering where you can provide unique and high-quality data to enhance the conversion rate.
Titles
When it comes to creating effective product titles on Amazon, it’s important to incorporate certain attributes that provide key information to customers. Let’s take a look at Amazon’s suggestions for product titles using a branded Compression Pants item as an example:
Brand and description: Include the brand name and a brief description of the product. For instance, “CW-X Women’s Stabilyx Joint Support Compression Tight”.
Product line: If applicable, mention the specific product line. For example, “Women’s Stabilyx”.
Material or key ingredient: Specify the material or key ingredient of the product. In this case, “70% Polyester 30% Spandex – Material Type is Blend”.
Color: Include the color of the product. For instance on the product listing has variations as an example, “Black”, “Black/Gradient Rainbow” “Forest Night” “Sky Blue” “True Navy” “Black/White” .
Size: Mention the size of the product. For example, “X-Small” “Small” “Medium” “Large” “X-large” “XX-Large”.
Quantity: If the product is sold in a set or bundle, indicate the quantity. In this case, “Set of 2”.
Here are examples of different versions of a product title, ranging from poor to good, based on Amazon’s guidelines:
Poor title: “Black Compression Tights”
Okay title: “Black Compression Tights for Muscle Support Mixed Blend”
Good title: “CW-X Women’s Endurance Generator Joint and Muscle Support Compression Tight (Black Set of 2)”
As you can see, the “good” title provides more detailed information about the product in an organized manner. While it may appear long, each point offers a distinct detail that is relevant to potential customers.
If you are selling your own private labeled product, you can consider adding descriptive adjectives to enhance the title. For example: “CW-X Women’s Endurance Generator Joint and Muscle Support Compression Tight (Black Set of 2)”.
By following these guidelines and creating informative and well-structured product titles, you can improve the visibility and appeal of your products on Amazon, leading to higher conversion rates and increased sales.
Optimizing Title Length for Amazon Product Listings
Finding the right balance for title length is crucial when optimizing your Amazon product listings. While it’s important to convey your unique value proposition and relevant information, excessively long titles can violate Amazon’s terms of service and make it difficult for customers to read and comprehend.
Title Length
Follow Amazon’s suggestions: Amazon provides guidelines on what to include in your product titles. Adhere to these suggestions and ensure that your titles contain the necessary information, such as brand, product description, key features, and relevant attributes.
Add impactful adjectives: When appropriate, include descriptive adjectives like “premium,” “handcrafted,” “100% natural,” or “Made in the USA” to enhance your unique selling proposition. However, avoid excessive use of adjectives that can make the title lengthy and convoluted.
Maintain consistency: It’s important to maintain a consistent format across your product titles. This helps establish a cohesive branding and presentation strategy for your products.
Avoid keyword stuffing: While it’s essential to include relevant keywords in your title, avoid keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing not only looks unprofessional but can also be off-putting to customers. Keep your title clear, concise, and focused on providing valuable information.
Capture attention quickly: Remember that customers have a short attention span. Your title should capture their interest within a few seconds, encouraging them to explore your product further. Focus on crafting compelling and concise titles that entice customers to read your bullet points and view other images.
By striking the right balance between providing essential information and keeping your titles concise and engaging, you can optimize your Amazon product listings to attract more customers and increase your conversion rates.
Images
When it comes to optimizing your product images on Amazon, there are some key takeaways to consider:
- High Resolution: Providing high-resolution images is crucial for clarity and detail. This enables customers to utilize the zoom feature effectively. Amazon suggests using a 1:1 square image with dimensions of 2000 x 2000 pixels or a 5:1 aspect ratio. To enable zoom functionality, ensure that the image is at least 1000 pixels on the longest side and 500 pixels on the shortest side.
- File Format and Size: Preferred file formats include JPEG, TIFF, or GIF. However, JPEG is the most recommended format for Amazon images. The maximum file size for each image should be under 10 MB.
- Crop and Minimize White Space: Amazon advises cropping photos to remove unnecessary elements and minimize excess white space. This helps maintain focus on the product’s size and key features.
- Image Compression: Regardless of whether you compress the image before submitting it, Amazon will compress it further during the upload process.
Main image guidelines
- Should showcase: The product alone, against a completely white (RGB 255,255,255) background. This creates a professional and consistent look across Amazon listings.
- Image Content: Secondary marketing images offer an opportunity to showcase additional aspects of your product. They can feature complementary items, demonstrations of use or scale, close-ups, backgrounds, environments, and even text or graphics to enhance visual presentation. However, drawings or illustrations of the product are not allowed, and the image should not contain irrelevant or confusing objects
- Image Quality: It’s important that the image is in focus, professionally lit and photographed or scanned, with realistic colors and smooth edges. This ensures a high-quality representation of the product.
- Specific Requirements for Books, Music, and Video/DVD: For these categories, the image should be the front cover art, filling 100% of the image frame. Jewel cases, promotional stickers, and cellophane are not allowed.
- Product Placement and Background: The main product should fill 85% or more of the image frame, and the entire product must be in the frame.
- Text, Graphics, and Offensive Material: Secondary marketing images should not contain additional text, graphics, or inset images. Pornographic or offensive materials are strictly prohibited.
- Additionally, Amazon allows “Additional Other View Images” that can be used to provide supplementary information to potential buyers. These images can further enhance your listing and provide valuable details.
Implementing these image optimizations has consistently shown a significant increase in conversion rates for product pages. For more detailed information on Amazon’s image requirements, refer to the Seller Central’s Help documents.
Bullet Points
When it comes to your Amazon product listings, bullet points play a crucial role in communicating your unique value proposition to customers. Here are some key considerations for optimizing your bullet points:
Features and benefits: Bullet points are designed to highlight the key features and benefits of your product. Be clear and concise in conveying this information to potential customers. Avoid overwhelming them with excessive details or long paragraphs, as it can intimidate and discourage engagement.
Stand out from competitors: If you are selling a private label product that is similar to what others offer, it’s important to find ways to differentiate yourself. While it’s essential to mention common features like battery life and speed, also emphasize something unique about your product. For instance, if you’re selling a remote control car, highlight a distinctive feature like frequency channel selection, which enables multiple kids to drive their cars simultaneously without interference.
Highlight additional points of differentiation: Use bullet points to showcase other advantages of your product. This can include superior warranty information or any additional perks that set your product apart from competitors. By highlighting these unique selling points, you can capture the attention of potential customers and encourage them to choose your product over others.
Warranty information placement: If your product has no or a limited warranty that may not be considered a strong selling point, it’s best to place that information in the product description, ensuring it remains visible but below the fold. This way, customers can still access the information if they are interested, without it overshadowing the main selling points in the bullet points.
Bundle or multipack promotion: If you offer a bundle or multipack of your product, emphasize the cost savings or explain how your bundle provides superior value compared to purchasing individual items. Highlighting these benefits can entice customers to choose your bundled option and increase their perceived value.
Price
The pricing of your offer plays a crucial role in determining its conversion rate. Consider the following key points:
Competitive Advantage: If your price on Amazon is lower than that on other websites and retail stores, customers are more likely to choose your listing for purchase. Offering a competitive price can attract buyers and increase conversion rates.
Capturing the Buy Box: It’s important to ensure that your price is competitive compared to other sellers on Amazon. If your price is not competitive enough, you may struggle to capture a share of the buy box. In such cases, despite investing efforts to optimize your product’s conversion rate, other sellers may dominate sales.
Category Comparison: It’s crucial to set a competitive price for your product within its category. If your item is priced at $59.99 while competing products average around $19.99, even exceptional titles, bullet points, and images may not generate substantial sales. Before proceeding with manufacturing or launching a product, it’s important to ensure that your pricing aligns with the market value of similar products
Product Feedback & Reviews
Product feedback and reviews are critical factors in influencing the conversion rate of your product. Here are key considerations to keep in mind:
Quantity and Quality: The number of reviews your product receives, particularly those from verified purchases and recent interactions, contributes to building buyer confidence in its quality. Moreover, a higher average review rating adds to the credibility and trustworthiness of your product.
Influence on Conversion Rate: The trust factor established through peer-induced reviews significantly impacts the likelihood of conversion. Positive reviews serve as social proof, motivating potential customers to make a purchase. Actively encouraging feedback from your customers and consistently monitoring both seller and product reviews will help you address any concerns and enhance your product’s reputation, ultimately leading to improved conversion rates.
Customer Satisfaction: Prioritize customer satisfaction by providing top-quality products, exceptional customer service, and timely resolution of any issues raised in reviews. Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews and engage with those who have provided feedback, demonstrating your commitment to their happiness.
Product Variations
Product variations offer a powerful advantage in maximizing your conversion rate on Amazon. By grouping your related products into parent-child variations, you can consolidate product reviews and present all variations together on a single page. This eliminates the need for customers to navigate through multiple pages to view different colors of the same product, each with its own set of reviews. Instead, they can conveniently access all the color options on a single page, where each variation benefits from the combined total of reviews.
The presence of additional positive reviews contributes significantly to instilling buyer confidence. When alternate sizes and colors are presented on the same page, customers are more likely to stay engaged and remain within your conversion funnel. This approach eliminates the frustration of customers having to leave the product detail page to search for an item in a different color or size, which often leads to their departure from the purchase process altogether.
FBA
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a clear-cut way to increase your conversion rate on the platform. FBA offers have a proven track record of converting at a higher rate than merchant fulfilled offers. The buy box algorithm on Amazon favors FBA listings, giving them an advantage over merchant-filled offers. With over 40 million Amazon Prime customers actively seeking Prime-eligible offers, leveraging FBA automatically qualifies your products for Prime eligibility, attracting a larger audience and driving higher attention. By utilizing FBA, you can benefit from higher conversion rates, increased visibility through the buy box, and access to Amazon’s extensive Prime customer base, ultimately maximizing your success on the platform.
Description
Description plays a crucial role in conveying essential product details to customers on Amazon. For Amazon Retail vendor partners, the opportunity to create A+ Detail Pages for the product description section offers a powerful means of communication. Through enhanced HTML-based product descriptions, vendors can utilize custom images, text, paragraph headers, and unique layouts to provide comprehensive information. These visually appealing and informative sections can greatly enhance the customer’s understanding of the product.
However, it’s important to note that the product description section is typically located below the fold on a regular page and even on an A+ detail page. As a result, its direct impact on the customer’s buying decision is often limited. While A+ content may have a more significant influence due to its enhanced presentation, the product description section itself may not play a substantial role in the customer’s purchasing process.
For third-party sellers who do not have access to A+ content, it is still essential to include additional details in the product description section. This is especially relevant for information that is better suited for a paragraph format or that couldn’t be accommodated within the bullet points. By providing supplementary details in this section, sellers can ensure that customers have access to the necessary information to make informed purchasing decisions.
Answered Questions
On the product detail page, next to the link displaying the total number of customer reviews for your product, you’ll find another link for “answered questions.” Having previous customers’ questions about the product answered adds credibility to the seller and can potentially increase the conversion rate.
Putting It All Together
Let’s review all these factors on an optimized product detail page:
Title: The title contains relevant keywords for search terms and provides detailed information, highlighting the brand, MPN, and impressive features of the speaker.
Bullet Points: Although they are slightly lengthy, for this item in this category, they offer the necessary level of detail to differentiate it from competitors.
Images
- The main image is high resolution and features a perfectly white background.
- The product is shown from an attractive angle, highlighting its best view.
- There is a secondary image demonstrating the product’s size relative to a person or identifiable object. This image serves as a lifestyle representation of the product in use.
- All images are high resolution, allowing customers to zoom in for a closer look.
- Additional product angle shots, images of the product packaging, and accessories are included.
- Graphical elements, icons, and text are used to effectively communicate product features, aiding customers in understanding them more quickly than reading through bullet points or the product description.
Price: The product is competitively priced within its category compared to similar items.
Product Feedback/Reviews: There are numerous positive reviews and answered customer questions, instilling buyer confidence.
Product Variations: The unit is listed as a variation, allowing the reviews to be combined, and providing instant access to alternative colors of the product.
FBA: The product is fulfilled by Amazon.
Description: The product description provides useful information about the product.
Answered Questions: There are over one hundred answered questions.
What are the results of this type of optimization for this item?
Currently, the item is ranked #1 for all computer speakers, has garnered over 2,000 positive reviews, and is among the top 300 best-selling units in the electronics category. While optimizing this listing required significant effort, the hard work has paid off with high traffic and impressive sales.
How Do Higher Conversion Rates Impact Your Search Ranking for Keywords?
Achieving higher conversion rates can positively impact your search ranking for keywords on Amazon. The search algorithm of Amazon takes into account the traffic directed to your product through different keyword searches. Your product is assigned a score based on factors such as clicks to your product detail page, total purchases, and conversion rate.
To illustrate, let’s say you sell a significant number of supplements to customers who search for “pet supplements for dogs” This increased sales activity and conversion rate can result in your product ranking higher in the search results when someone searches for “Pet Supplements for Dogs.”
While optimizing your listings for improved sales conversion should be your primary focus, it’s important to note that higher conversion rates also have an impact on your internal keyword optimization strategy.
Keyword Optimization: Enhancing Relevance for Amazon’s Search Engine
Understanding the significance of being optimized for Amazon’s search engine is crucial. Recent research by Forrester reveals that in the third quarter of 2014, 39% of online shoppers in the United States initiated their product research on Amazon, surpassing the 11% who started on traditional search engines like Google. This shift in consumer behavior highlights Amazon’s position as a prominent search competitor.
In fact, it is estimated that a staggering 70% of all purchases on Amazon originate from the search toolbar. This statistic emphasizes the immense potential for capturing traffic already present on the Amazon platform by optimizing your listings to appear in search results.
Keyword optimization plays a vital role in this process, focusing on making your products appear more relevant to Amazon’s search engine while maintaining the conversion optimization efforts you have implemented.
To determine a product’s relevance to a search, Amazon analyzes several fields, which we have listed below in order of their demonstrated importance through various testing:
Product Title: The title carries substantial weight in conveying relevance. Including relevant keywords in the title can significantly improve your product’s visibility in search results.
Key Product Features/Bullet Points: Utilize bullet points effectively by incorporating relevant keywords and highlighting key product features and benefits. This helps both customers and Amazon’s search engine understand the essence of your product.
Product Description: While the product description may not directly impact conversion rates, it provides an opportunity to include additional relevant keywords and elaborate on product details.
Backend Keywords: These are hidden keywords that are not visible to customers but play a role in Amazon’s search algorithm. Use relevant keywords in this section to further enhance your product’s search relevance.
By strategically optimizing these fields with appropriate keywords, you can improve your product’s visibility and increase the likelihood of appearing in relevant search results. Remember, the goal is to strike a balance between relevance for Amazon’s search engine and the conversion optimization changes you have made to attract and convert potential customers effectively.
Optimizing the Title: A Key Step for Searchability
The title of a product holds significant importance when it comes to including relevant keywords. Each word in the product title is searchable on its own, making it crucial to incorporate specific attributes suggested by Amazon. Let’s refer to another example of a Pet Supplement Company:
Brand and description: Petlab Co. Joint Care Chews – High Levels of Glucosamine for Dogs, Green Lipped Mussels, Omega 3 and Turmeric – Dog Hip and Joint Supplement to Actively Support Mobility (Value 2 Pack)
Product line: Joint Care Chews
Key ingredient: Omega 3 and Turmeric, Green Lipped Mussels
Flavor: Pork Flavor
Size: 30 Soft Chews – 4.23oz (120g)
Quantity: Value 2 Pack
Previously, our focus was on providing clear information about the product. Now, we need to ensure that the title includes keywords that customers are actively searching for on Amazon’s search toolbar.
Apart from the brand name, product name, and other attributes, it is beneficial to include appropriate keywords in the title. This not only helps users better understand the product, but also enables indexing by Amazon’s search engine, ultimately boosting search rankings for those specific terms. Let’s consider an optimized listing example:
Amazon Product Listing: Anker® Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker with 20 Hour Battery Life and Full, High-Def Sound for iPhone, iPad, Samsung, Nexus, HTC, Nokia and More (Black)
Manufacturer’s Website Product Title: Anker A7908 Portable Bluetooth 4.0 Speaker with Super-Sized 4W Driver
Observe how the generic keywords “wireless,” “20 hour battery life,” and “high-def sound” are included, along with branded keywords for compatibility with various devices. Consequently, if a customer searches for “wireless speaker,” this product appears on the first page of the search results.
By strategically incorporating relevant keywords into your product title, you increase the visibility of your listing and improve your chances of appearing in relevant search results. Remember to strike a balance between providing useful information and optimizing for search rankings, ensuring that your title effectively captures the attention of potential customers.
Bullet Points and Description: Hidden Potential for Search Optimization
Contrary to what is stated in the Help file within Seller Central regarding the indexing of bullet points and product description, our own testing has revealed a different outcome. We have found that the contents of bullet points and product descriptions do have an impact on search results, despite the initial claims made by Amazon.
When new keywords are strategically placed in the bullet points, we have observed that the corresponding listings start appearing in search results for those specific keywords. This demonstrates that the content within bullet points holds more significance than previously described.
Similarly, our client testing has shown that the first 250 characters of the product description also play a role in search indexing. By incorporating new keywords in this section, we have witnessed an immediate effect, with the optimized listings appearing in search results for the newly added keywords. For instance, during optimization of our clients’ high-end water products, keywords such as “purified drinking water” and “spring alkaline water” were strategically placed either in the bullet point section or the product description. Within a mere 24 hours, our clients’ products began to show up in search results for these targeted keywords.
These findings indicate that the bullet points and product description sections provide an untapped potential for search optimization. By strategically incorporating relevant keywords within these sections, sellers can significantly improve the visibility and discoverability of their products in Amazon’s search results. It is important to consider this aspect when optimizing your listings and utilize the bullet points and product description effectively to maximize search performance and attract potential customers.
Search Terms: Maximizing Relevance and Visibility
To effectively optimize your search terms on Amazon, it is essential to familiarize yourself with the guidelines outlined in the “Search and Browse” help page in Seller Central.
- Utilize the five search term fields, with each field accepting up to 50 characters.
- Avoid redundant use of words already present in your product name or elsewhere. Repeating words in the search terms won’t improve your placement in search results.
- Use quotation marks when you want to target customers who search for an exact phrase.
- Focus on including only relevant search terms, avoiding keyword stuffing or irrelevant terms that may frustrate customers searching for different products.
- Incorporate legitimate alternate spellings and synonyms that customers may use (e.g., racquet vs racket, aeroplane vs airplane, pants vs slacks, wireless vs cellular).
- Arrange multiple words in the search term fields in the most logical order. For example, “extra virgin olive oil” is more logical than “olive oil extra virgin.”
- Punctuation is unnecessary in the search terms field, as Amazon ignores commas.
- Avoid including multiple variations of the same word, as Amazon’s search engine performs basic stemming. For instance, a search for “gloves” will yield the same results as a search for “glove.”
- Common misspellings are also unnecessary to include, as Amazon’s search engine compensates for them and provides corrective suggestions.
Here’s an example of a well-crafted search term section for a bottle of extra virgin olive oil, adhering to Amazon’s guidelines:
- Search Term 1: Greek Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Search Term 2: Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Search Term 3: Olive oil
- Search Term 4: Greek Olive Oil
- Search Term 5: Virgin Olive Oil
In this example, no words are repeated, and there are minimal variations of the same word. The available character limit has been maximized.
It’s important to note that you can include brand names, specific product names, slogans, etc., from your competitors in the search terms section. This can be an effective way to target your competitors’ keywords. It is advisable to avoid placing competitor-related terms in your bullet points, description, or title, as this could confuse your customers or inadvertently drive sales to your competitors’ items.
By carefully selecting and optimizing your search terms within Amazon’s guidelines, you can increase the relevance and visibility of your products in search results, ultimately driving more traffic and potential customers to your listings.
Price: As we’ve discussed earlier, price directly impacts your conversion rate. However, it’s equally important to consider how your product’s price compares to similar items in the same category. If your price is significantly higher than competitors, Amazon may predict a lower conversion rate and subsequently affect the ranking of your new product.
Brand: The brand field appears below your product title on the product detail page. Including the appropriate brand name is not only essential for search ranking but also aligns with customer search behavior. Many Amazon shoppers include brand names when conducting product searches, so ensure your brand name is accurately represented.
Filter Fields: Filter fields allow users to refine their search results based on specific attributes such as color, size, or other relevant characteristics. For your top keywords, it is crucial to fill out the values for each category of filter fields. By doing so, you ensure your product remains visible when users filter their search results, increasing your chances of being seen by potential customers.
MPN (Manufacturer Part Number): For resellers, it’s vital to verify that you have the correct MPN for your product listings. Some products generate significant search volume based on their MPN. Double-check with your supplier to ensure accurate and up-to-date MPN information is included in your listings.
Size: In certain product categories like clothing and shoes, including size information is crucial. Buyers often search for products based on their specific size requirements. In limited tests, products with size information generally appeared higher in search results, making it beneficial to include accurate size details.
Material Type: Similarly, specifying the material type of your product enables buyers to find items that align with their preferences. Limited tests have shown that products with material type information tend to rank higher in search results. Therefore, including this attribute can enhance the visibility of your products to potential customers.
To optimize your product offers by strategically placing relevant keywords in various sections, it’s essential to conduct thorough keyword research. Several well-known tools can assist you in this process:
Google Trends: Google Trends provides insights into the search frequency of specific terms on Google. It generates a rating from 0 to 100, indicating the search volume and popularity of a term. However, the correlation between Google Trends data and Amazon search volume is questionable.
Keyword Research
Google’s Keyword Planner: The Keyword Planner displays monthly search volumes for specific keywords and related terms on Google. There is a decent correlation between the findings here and the search behavior on Amazon. To get started with the Keyword Planner, we’ve included an instructional sheet to guide you.
Ahrefs is the ultimate all-in-one SEO toolset designed to drive search traffic and optimize websites. With its advanced web crawling technology and intuitive user interface, Ahrefs empowers users to access and leverage vast amounts of data. Updating its index with the latest backlinks every 15 minutes, Ahrefs ensures the freshest and most comprehensive data available. Its crawler processes an impressive 8 billion pages per day, making it the 5th most active crawler on the web.
Helium 10 Cerebro & Magnet: Helium 10 is an essential tool for listing optimization and conversion rate optimization. Cerebro is a powerful tool for Amazon sellers. It helps you quickly and easily determine the most effective keywords for your product listings, enabling you to outperform competitors and boost sales. Magnet is an Amazon Keyword Planner that uncovers high-volume, highly-relevant keywords for both Amazon and Walmart. By leveraging Magent, you can drive traffic to your listings and increase sales by collecting the most relevant keywords for your product.
Merchant Words: Is a third-party tool that claims to display estimated search volume for every keyword or phrase entered into Amazon’s toolbar. However, it’s important to be cautious about the traffic volume reported by Merchant Words. Their numbers are not directly measured from Amazon but are derived from search volume reported in Adwords, leading to potentially inaccurate results. Despite this, Merchant Words can still provide valuable keyword ideas as it pulls its data from Amazon’s suggestion box, which filters out queries without purchasing intent.
Amazon Auto-fill: Many sellers utilize Amazon’s auto-fill technology to generate additional keyword variations related to their products. By entering a term in the Amazon search toolbar, you can see dynamically generated keywords. Pressing the space button produces a new set of keywords based on the change. Since these auto-fill suggestions are based on customer search volumes, leveraging them is an intelligent strategy. However, it can be time-consuming to conduct thorough research using this method.
Sponsored Product Ads: Creating a Sponsored Ads Manual Campaign on Amazon automatically generates various keywords that are deemed popular enough to bid on. While this method is quicker than manually using auto-fill, it can also result in many generic and less applicable keywords.
External Tasks
Cross Merchandising: Savvy merchants on Amazon have discovered the benefits of submitting their listings to the cross merchandising team and requesting placement in additional categories. This strategic move is particularly effective for products that can thrive in multiple categories, as it expands their exposure and generates more search volume by appearing in a wider range of search results.
Standard Promotional Methods: Do you have your own eCommerce site, social media account, blog, email list, influencerss, micro influencers or other resources? Leveraging these platforms to drive external traffic to your Amazon listings can significantly impact your search result score by increasing your product’s sales history. Not only does this contribute to a higher conversion rate, but it also fosters brand awareness and branded search, ultimately leading to improved sales rank and higher visibility within Amazon’s search rankings.
Sponsored Product Ads: Experienced sellers harness the power of Amazon’s sponsored ads to drive more sessions to their listings and, when executed effectively, boost sales as well. Since the search ranking algorithm takes sales history into account, this method can yield substantial results for most products. It can create an upward spiral for lesser-known items, gradually improving their visibility and sales performance.
It’s worth mentioning that winning the buy box is crucial for the display of your sponsored ads. If you don’t have the buy box, your ads won’t be shown, and other sellers who choose not to use sponsored ads may inadvertently drive down your sales rank and search result placement when they win the buy box.
Product Detail Page Review
Now that we have covered how to optimize your product detail pages, let’s analyze some on-screen examples and discuss what we like and don’t like about each listing:
Example of a Poor Listing:
- Other than being competitively priced and fulfilled by Amazon, there are few enticing factors for this product:
- The title is too long, making it unclear what the brand and product are.
- Uncertainty about whether it includes a shake or if it’s just a shaker bottle.
- Lackluster bullet points that fail to communicate unique features.
- In a crowded market like shaker bottles, it’s crucial to highlight what sets your product apart.
- No product variations, suggesting only one color option.
- Lack of reviews and ratings, leaving customers unsure about the product’s quality and popularity.
- Low-resolution main image.
- Insufficient additional product angle shots and only one poor-quality lifestyle image.
- No graphical elements or icons to effectively communicate product features within the images.
Assessment of an Okay Listing:
- The price is competitive, and it’s fulfilled by Amazon.
- The title may be slightly too short, leaving out important details.
- Confusion regarding the difference between a shaker “cup” and a shaker “bottle.”
- The bullet points mention a few distinctions about the product, such as storage compartments, but there is room for more enticing information.
- Good to see product variations, allowing easy selection of preferred color.
- Ability to choose different sizes using the size dropdown.
- Impressive number of over 400 reviews with a positive star rating.
- High-resolution images, but lacking graphical elements and icons to effectively communicate product features within the images.
- Excessive number of product angle shots.
Assessment of a Good Listing:
- The price is competitive for this product category, and it’s fulfilled and sold by Amazon.
- The title is clean and concise, providing clear information.
- Well-crafted bullet points that mention various features and highlight the product’s patent.
- Multiple variations available by size and color.
- Impressive number of over 7,000 reviews, indicating popularity and customer satisfaction.
- High-resolution images, but lacking graphical elements and icons to communicate product features within the images.
- Could benefit from additional marketing images to enhance the listing further.
FAQ
Should companies edit each and every product?
It is recommended to provide the most complete and compelling content for as many products as possible. However, the feasibility of editing every product depends on the size of your catalog and available resources. Many large sellers utilize additional software layers to streamline the listing process and make it more efficient.
Does product detail page optimization only apply to manufacturers selling on Amazon, or does it apply to any type of merchant, such as resellers?
Product detail page optimization applies to both manufacturers selling their own brands and resellers. However, the benefits may vary depending on factors like winning the buy box and competition. Even if you don’t increase your buy box share, optimizing your listings can still lead to a percentage increase in total unit sales, benefiting both manufacturers and resellers.
How will a merchant competing against several competitors gain an advantage on an item sold by those other sellers? Will adding every bullet point, search term, description, and attribute give my listing precedence over other merchants?
Not necessarily. If your content authority score is lower than other sellers, your information may not be prioritized. One way to increase your content authority score is by obtaining Brand Registry. Having Brand Registry can enhance the benefits of meticulous and hard work on optimizing your listings, helping you stand out among competitors.
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