Amazon is the largest eCommerce store selling over 12 million products from a wide range of retailers.
Amazon is not just an eCommerce store but a search engine with its own algorithm. The platform has also overtaken Google on product searches, that means more people search for products on Amazon than they do Google.
So, with this in mind when you are adding your products to Amazon you need to think about optimising for this search engine.
If you are looking to sell a pair of trainers on Amazon you need to think about the type of customers that will be looking for these particular trainers and what they might be searching. As you can see from the screenshot below Amazon helps the user by trying to suggest further details about the product in order to return the best result.
If I just type in trainers there are over 80,000 results which could take some time to find what I am looking for! However, if I narrow this down to ‘running trainers women size 6’ there are 10,000 results. This shows you need to think of the keywords in this search so your customers can find you.
As you can see from the amount of results in this example Amazon is a highly competitive environment and just highlights the need to optimise your products so you have the chance to stand out in a busy crowd.
Remember - The more relevant keywords you use the easier it will be for users to find you. Don’t just use broad terms look at specific keywords for your audience as well.
When you’re adding keywords to your product listing you need to think carefully about the type of keywords, where you use them and how often. You do not want to be accused of keyword stuffing this is what’s known as a ‘black hat’ tactic and can result in your product been listed further down the results or removed completely. Search engines are clever.
You also want to make sure the keywords are relevant for your users. If the keywords are not right this will result in an increased bounce rate which Amazon will pick up on and note your product isn’t right for that keyword so, take action.
When you are thinking of optimising your listings first look at the product title. Here you want to include the brand name, description of the item (women’s trainers for example) and then the product colour and/or size.
If a user misspells your product or there are different ways of describing the product you can add additional keywords in the sellers centre. Go into the admin area and edit the product, go to the keywords tab and enter your keywords here.
This keyword section should have no more than 250 characters. The box will allow you to enter more but the additional characters won’t be indexed and you may be punished by Amazon for going over. This could result in all of your keywords being rejected making the exercise pointless.
You want to be making the most of your product listing description. This is the area that will convince people to buy your product. Do your research into the description – how are other people describing this product? What problem will it solve for the user? What are the benefits? Do you need technical description or how to use guide?
Amazon gives you the ability to add key product features. These are adding as bullet point lists and should be no more than 500 characters per point. Amazon advises to add 5 points however does give you the ability to add more if required. This list sits at the top of the page so the user can quickly glance to see if the product is relevant and worth scrolling down to the description.
Once you’ve fully optimised the content of your product listing don’t forget the images. You may appear high on the Amazon search list and have a great description however if the image is poor and the user can’t see what they are buying this may put them off. Try to keep your images of high quality, bright and clear. Also think about adding multiple images of the product demonstrating it in different states that would be relevant for the user.
This should give you some guidance on optimising your products, standing out in a busy marketplace and increasing your sale. For any help on this task or if you have any questions on selling via Amazon please get in touch.
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