How to Optimize an Amazon Product Listing: Ultimate Guide

Optimizing your Amazon listing is key to driving sales and increasing visibility on the e-commerce platform. This guide covers everything from keyword research to utilizing A+ Content, ensuring your product stands out and converts customers. 

But first – what is Amazon listing optimization?

Amazon listing optimization is the process that involves improving different parts of your product listing to improve its: 

• Visibility 
• Searchability 
• Attractiveness  
• Conversion rate  

on the Amazon marketplace.  

This means doing your research ahead of time and understanding your target customers and what they’re looking for. Once you have that in place you can do a deep dive on the keywords to use throughout your listing copy and what to focus on in your visual creatives like images, infographics and A+ content.

The goal is to make your product easy to find and appealing to shoppers, ultimately driving more sales and increasing your ranking on Amazon’s search results. Choose relevant keywords to rank your product and bring in traffic.

1. Perform In-Depth Keyword Research

Once you know the product, the market and the customers, you can begin putting together and building a list of relevant keywords.  

Keywords are specific words or phrases that shoppers type into Amazon’s search bar when looking for products. They’re crucial because they directly influence which products appear in search results. 

By strategically incorporating relevant keywords into your product title, bullet points, description, and backend search terms, you improve your chances of being discovered by potential customers.  

Keywords help Amazon’s algorithm understand what your product is about and match it with shopper queries, increasing your visibility and driving more traffic to your listing.  

Simply put, the right keywords make it easier for customers to find and buy your products. 

How to find keywords for your Amazon listing

First, think about what a customer might type in to find your product. Those are definitely keywords you want to note down. 

You can get keyword ideas by doing tests in the Amazon search box and seeing what comes up:  

Amazon SEO (search engine optimization) tools come in very handy for finding relevant keywords as well: 

• Helium 10 – this is the tool that we use for keyword research, listing copywriting and advertising too 

• Jungle Scout – a competitor to Helium 10

• Sellerise – a great low cost alternative that we use for tracking client financials

Incorporate a mix of main, short-tail keywords (broad but relevant high-traffic terms) and long-tail keywords (specific phrases related to your product with less competition but higher conversion rates) in your listing. This combination helps you capture a wide audience while targeting more specific customer needs. 

Related reading: How to use keywords naturally

2. Design Images that Sell

Images are incredibly important to optimize an amazon listing.  

The main image does most of the heavy lifting as it’s the one that customers see on the search results page and will get them to click through to learn more about your product. It’s critical that your main image both stands out in search and clearly communicates your value props & differentiation to the customer (so they can easily see why they would want it). 

Once the customer has clicked through to your product page, one of the first things they’ll do is swipe through the images/graphics. These images should give buyers a feel for the product, how to use it, what its features and benefits are, and help them decide that your product will solve their problem. 

To optimize your listing, make sure you take advantage of all the spots available (9 plus a video) to you. Also think about which images to feature in the top 7 spots as those are the ones that appear as thumbnails below the image on desktop. 

For more guidance on how to choose images, check out our post that details every image you need on Amazon. 

If you’re looking for what kind of photos you need, you can also have a look through our guide on Amazon product photography. 

3. Create Video that Showcases Your Product

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Think of how much video can help! 

With the boom in video popularity, especially short-form content like TikToks, Shorts & Reels, it’s more important than ever to include video in your Amazon listing to optimize your listings.  

Videos allow potential buyers to see your product in action, understand its features, and visualize its benefits in real-life scenarios, significantly enhancing customer engagement and conversion rates. 

Types of videos you can include: 

• Product demos – show how to use the product 

• Unboxing videos – highlight what customers receive and set expectations for packaging 

• Customer testimonials – include real customers sharing their experiences (this offers a form of social proof similar to what they look for in reviews) 

• How-to guides – tutorials or tips on how to get the most out of your product 

You don’t even need expensive equipment these days to create quality product videos. Many videos shot with phones are acceptable and make your brand seem more “real” and approachable.  

And don’t forget that uploading a video unlocks the video review section for influencer videos to show up on your listing. 

4. Write SEO Optimized & Informative Copy

Copy – a fancy word for text – is what will get your product to rank on Amazon and also helps you relay important information about what you’re selling.  

Copy within an Amazon listing includes: 

• Product title 
• Bullet points 
• Product description 
• Search terms 
• A+ content 

Product title

Your product title plays a crucial role in Amazon’s search algorithm. It’s also the first bit of text a customer will see about your product from the search results.  

When it comes to keywords and SEO, Amazon places a lot of weight on keywords that appear in the title. Crafting an informative and keyword-rich title can improve visibility and attract more clicks. (Just make sure not to stuff too many keywords into the title – this is called keyword stuffing).  

💡Some things to think about: 

• Keyword placement: include most important keywords and relevant information closer to beginning 

• Key information: add essential details like brand, model, size, color and main features 

• Readability: avoid keyword stuffing and make it easily scannable 

Can you craft a canonical URL?

A canonical URL is another technique you can use to increase your product’s visibility and ranking on Amazon.  

Amazon generates canonical URLs (usually using the first 5 words of your product title separated by hyphens) to help search engines easily locate your product. Since a lot of traffic to product listings on Amazon comes from search engines, it’s a great idea to optimize your product title to include the most relevant keywords or terms in the first 5 words.  

Dive deeper: How to optimize the perfect Amazon product title 

Bullet points

Bullet points provide a quick overview of your product’s key benefits and features. Well-crafted bullet points can help convince potential buyers to make a purchase. They’re also another area of your listings where you should include relevant keywords to help you rank your product. 

Things to keep in mind: 

• One bullet point per benefit 
• Connect benefits to features 
• Keep them clear and concise 

How long should bullet points be?

Amazon has now made it possible to add up to 10 bullet points at 700 characters each 

If you are first listing a product, you can take advantage of all of these characters to include more keywords. As you gain traction and index for the right terms, you can begin cutting back to optimize more for conversion and readability.  

For more read our article on How to write Amazon Bullet Points.  

Optimize your product listing description on Amazon

Once you’ve optimized your bullet points, you can move on to the description.  

With 2,000 characters at your disposal, you can go further into the details of your product. What should you include? You can expand on your bullet points, answer questions and most importantly include relevant keywords to help your listing rank. 

This is also the only section of the copy (besides A+ content), where you can include light html formatting. You’re allowed to use: 

• Bold and italic lettering 
• Line and paragraph breaks (help take up more space) 

We like to use AMZ data studio’s tool to format and count the characters in our html descriptions. 

For more details on writing a good product description, check out our article on how to optimize your Amazon product description. 

Search terms

Search terms are another way to help your product rank on Amazon.  

Though they only appear in the back end, this is a place where you can include extra keywords and phrases that wouldn’t make sense in the front end listing. 

Search terms are also sometimes found as generic keywords in the backend of Seller Central. 

What you can include in search terms: 

• Common misspellings of a keyword (for example protien as protein spelled incorrectly) 
• Spelling variations (aluminum and aluminium) 
• Keywords in other languages (Spanish is widely spoken in the US) 
• Keywords you weren’t able to fit into the listing 

Amazon prohibits the use of brand names – so forget about using your competitor’s name in there as this could cause your listing to be taken down. 

5. Show Your Quality with Beautiful A+ Content

A+ Content is a type of enhanced brand content available to brand-registered sellers. It allows you to create visually rich and engaging content for your product listings. 

A+ content usually appears below the main images and bullet points, is made up of a variety of modules, and is presented in a vertical format that shows all the modules. This is perfect for both desktop users (as it looks like a magazine) and mobile users who are used to the vertical format. 

A+ Content lets you expand on the points made in your image reel and the unique layout means there are countless layouts to grab a customer’s attention and build trust and credibility. The more information you can provide a customer about your product, the better. 

Take the chance to include high-quality images, comparison charts (which are now shoppable) and videos (with premium A+ content). 

A+ content can also improve search rankings, as it gives you more opportunities to include keywords and highlight the unique features of your product. 

6. Brand Story to Build Trust

Amazon’s newest addition to the A+ family – the Brand Story – lets you share the unique journey and values behind your brand. This helps you form a deeper connection with your customer and can set you apart from your competitors. 

Show shoppers who you are and what you stand for to make your brand more relatable and memorable.  

An added bonus to the brand story is being able to direct shoppers straight to your Amazon store! 

We have a complete guide on building your brand story in this article.

7. Get Your First Reviews

Reviews are one of the driving forces behind convincing a customer to even click through to your listing from the search results page. 

Based on a survey of 2,000+ shoppers 2021 Amazon consumer behavior report, 41% of consumers always read product reviews before making a purchase on Amazon. And it makes sense – as a customer, would you rather click on a product that has 3 good reviews or 300? 

The more positive reviews a product has, the more social proof. People trust other people. Amazon also rewards positive reviews and purchases with more clout in the search results. If your product consistently receives positive reviews and makes customers happy, it’s great for Amazon, the customer and the seller. 

Read more about this kind of virtuous cycle in this guide on the Amazon Sales Flywheel:

Jumpstart reviews with Vine

It can be hard to start out when you’re selling on Amazon, so a good way to get reviews if your budget allows it is to enroll in the Vine Program to jumpstart your reviews. 

How can you make sure the reviews you get are positive? Make sure your product meets customer needs. And most importantly – never overpromise and underdeliver. There’s nothing worse than getting a customer’s hopes up only to shatter them once they receive their package. Setting expectations is important to keeping your customers happy. 

Pro tip: Take the “honeymoon period” seriously 

Not many sellers talk about this, but when you launch a new product on Amazon, you enter what’s often called the “honeymoon period.” This is a brief window, usually around the first 30 days, where Amazon gives your listing a bit of extra love.  

Think of it as a chance to shine in the spotlight – Amazon’s algorithm gives your new product a visibility boost to help gather sales and reviews quickly. It’s the perfect time to optimize your listing, ramp up advertising, and make a strong first impression. Take advantage of this period to build momentum and set the stage for long-term success. 

The best thing you can do is make sure you have absolutely everything optimized before you go live. That way, you hit the market with an advantage. 

A/B Testing, Optimizations Never Stops

Listing optimization on Amazon truly is a never-ending journey. There’s always room for tweaks and improvements to keep your product relevant and competitive.  

Regularly update your keywords to match current search trends, refine your product title for clarity and impact, and keep your bullet points concise yet informative. You can even update images or copy to reflect a season promotion like Tony’s Chocolonely did here for the summer: 

High-quality images and videos can make a big difference, so consider refreshing them periodically. Don’t forget to monitor and respond to customer reviews, as addressing feedback can enhance your product’s appeal. Continually optimizing your listing ensures that it stays fresh and attractive to potential buyers. 

Related reading:

Key takeaways

Optimizing an Amazon listing isn’t hard when you have a checklist of what to include and a clear process on how to execute everything. 

You can download our listing optimization checklist here. 

To make sure your listing gets love from both Amazon and your customers, you must: 

• Research and select relevant keywords using Amazon SEO tools 
• Optimize images and videos to showcase your product’s benefits 
• Write informative and engaging titles, bullet points, and descriptions Use A+ Content and regularly update your listings 
• Encourage customer reviews and utilize A/B testing for continuous improvement