If you are listing a new item on Amazon, you want to create a product listing that:
- Lands your product high in the search results
- Converts the people who click on your listing
To do so, you need to optimise your Amazon product listing for both the algorithm and customers. So, let’s dive into the theory of creating an Amazon product listing.
Amazon Product Description Guidelines
While Amazon is a marketplace where a lot of sellers list their products, it is a brand, first and foremost. As a brand, it seeks to standardise as much as possible of the customer experience so that it has a strong brand identity. To do that, it has a number of strict seller guidelines.
Now, the annoying (but effective) thing about Amazon is that each product category has its own list of product description requirements. This is great because books and automobile parts, for example, are very different products, and buyers would search in very different ways. But, as a seller, it means that if your products span different categories, you need to be aware of the different requirements.
We will talk about general requirements, but we encourage you to visit this page and follow the links to learn about your category. Let’s take a look at the general product description guidelines. Remember, breaking these general guidelines could see your product listing penalised or taken down completely.
Product Title
Amazon has strict requirements for the product title to ensure a uniform look of search results and to ensure buyers can easily determine if the product suits their needs. The title must:
- Have 200 characters or less (might be smaller for certain product categories)
- Be capitalised as per standard practice for titles (All words capitalised except for conjunctions and prepositions)
- Use numbers instead of writing a number (pack of 10, not pack of ten)
- State the number of pieces if it is a bundle or a pack of multiple
Basically, the idea is to make it as easy as possible for a buyer to determine if your product is suitable. The product title must not:
- Use special characters like ~ ! * $ ? _ ~ { } # < > | * ; ^ ¬ ¦
- Have information about the brand, manufacturer, or your business (brand name is okay, but not extra info)
- Add subjective information or reviews
- Include promotional information (set up a sale correctly instead)
- Be all caps or all lowercase
- Include pricing information
If your product title includes any of the above, you may be penalised by Amazon.
Product Images
The first thing a buyer will see in the search results is your product title and product image. Amazon gives strict guidelines for product images, especially the cover image.
The cover image must:
- Be on a white background (RGB: 255, 255, 255)
- Allow for zooming (minimum 1,000 pixels)
- Be of high quality (72 dpi resolution and RGB colour model)
- Show the product clearly; it must take up 85% or more of the image
- Show the product unboxed
- Be free of text
- Be a JPG image (GIF, PNG, TIFF also accepted, but JPG is preferred)
In the additional images, you can add text to an image to highlight product features if you wish. We recommend showing the product from different angles and in use where possible. However, your images must still:
- Be on a white background
- Be of high quality (see above)
- Allow customers to zoom in (see above)
- Show the product clearly (taking up 80% or more of the image)
- Be free of promotional text like “sale” or “free accessory”
- Be free of accessories or items that are not included
You cannot use drawings, lifestyle pictures, or coloured backgrounds at all. You also cannot use watermarks or borders on the image at all. We do not recommend adding a product to amazon if you do not have a product image, but if you do, then Amazon will add a placeholder image for you; do not add your own.
Brand and Manufacturer Names
Your product listing may be penalised if you do not list the brand and manufacturer of your products. Only add your business name to the brand name if you are selling private label products. Only add your business name to the manufacturer name if you have created the products yourself.
Key Features
These are a shortlist of bullet points (usually five) that appear in the first section of the product listing. It is designed to give potential buyers a quick glance into vital information like product dimensions and warranty information.
The key features must:
- Be specific
- Be a list of 5 or less (some product categories are different, but most are a maximum of 5)
- Spell out the measurements, e.g. “inch” instead of “ or “centimetre” instead of “cm”
- Be free from punctuation (it should be a fragment rather than a sentence)
- Have numerals instead of writing the number (e.g. 2 year warranty instead of two year warranty)
You cannot use this section to include information about your company or promotional information. All the information in the key features list should be about the product.
Tip: If you have a keyword in one of your key features bullet points, make sure it is the first bullet point. The Amazon algorithm does index the key features list, but only to a certain number of characters, so if you do use a keyword in one of the bullet points, put it at the top of the list.
Product Description
The guidelines for the product description will vary significantly depending on the product category and whether you are using a standard product description or an enhanced content product description.
We will talk about enhanced content more later, but it is worth noting that enhanced content is not indexed by the Amazon algorithm. So while you do not have to focus so much on keywords for your Amazon enhanced content, you do still need to follow Amazon’s product description guidelines:
- The product description is only for information about the product
- Sellers must use correct grammar and spelling (Grammarly has a free checker you can use)
Your product description could be penalised if you include your name, email address, or website address. You also can’t use promotional language or mention other products you sell.
Everything You Need to Know About the Amazon Algorithm
In general, the Amazon algorithm is made up of 2 parts:
- Relevance to the search query
- Product performance
The goal of Amazon is to get buyers to buy from Amazon rather than clicking to another store. These two aspects of the algorithm are how Amazon determines purchase likelihood.
Relevance to the search query is all about keywords and user intent. The algorithm will analyse the product keywords and determine if it matches the search query. If it does, the product will score high in this section.
Product performance is all about how many clicks your product gets from the search results and how many people have purchased your products. Again, Amazon’s ultimate goal is to get buyers to buy, so if people have bought the product in the past, it is deemed as likely that people will buy again.
In short, just like SEO for any other search engine, you are writing for the buyer as much as you are writing for the algorithm.
Let’s look at this in more detail.
Relevance to the Search Query
This comes down to keywords. You want the keywords you use to match what your buyers will be typing into Amazon’s search bar. The Amazon algorithm looks for the closest match possible, so you should prioritise longtail keywords. So, if you are selling a pink electric toothbrush, you should call it a “pink electric toothbrush” in the product title. Calling it an electric toothbrush and mentioning elsewhere that it is pink would not be enough for your product to rank if a customer searched for a pink electric toothbrush.
The product title is one of the best places to put your longtail keywords, but you also need to keep it readable rather than keyword stuffing. For example, if you are selling a pink electric toothbrush, you could have a title like:
Sonic Electric Toothbrush, Pink – Smart Timer, USB Charging, 2 Heads Included – 3 Modes, Including Teeth Whitening – Adult Electric Toothbrush
You can separate information in your Amazon product title with dashes (-) and commas (,) to make it easier for humans to read. Many sellers use lines (|), but they are considered special characters by Amazon, so avoid those.
So what information should you include in your Amazon product title? Details like:
- Colour
- Brand name (especially for big brands, make sure it’s accurate, though)
- Features
- Materials
How to Pick Your Keywords
There are two main ways to pick keywords for your Amazon listing:
- Type your product name into the Amazon search bar and see what suggestions come up
- Use a keyword research tool
Option 1 allows you to see the most popular searches for your product, while option 2 will give you suggested similar keywords and their search volumes.
Product Performance
Amazon will look at 2 main aspects of performance CTR and CR. CTR is the Click Through Rate, or how many people click on your product listing from the search results. CR is conversion rate or how many people who look at your product listing buy your products. The algorithm will take into account other things like reviews, perfect order rate, etc., but CTR and CR are the highest rated metrics.
So how do you increase your product performance? It can seem like a bit of a no-win situation if you need to rank high in search results to get sales, but you can’t do that without making sales. So, when you first list a product on Amazon, you need to create sales. There are two main ways you can do this:
- PPC (Pay per click advertising) – You can pay to have Amazon list your product at the top of the page in the “Sponsored” section.
- External traffic – You could advertise on social media, pay influencers, or list on Amazon to direct traffic to your Amazon listing.
What About Customer Reviews?
It is important to remember that while the Amazon algorithm may not give that much extra weight to reviews, buyers do. Have a strategy for getting reviews from your customers to add more legitimacy to your product listing. You can do this by including a card in your product packaging, sending a post-sale email, or by finding product testers. If you are using product testers, ensure you check Amazon guidelines to ensure you are not breaking any rules.
Enhanced Product Descriptions
So we’ve already said that enhanced product descriptions are not indexed by the Amazon algorithm. You may be asking yourself why anyone would use enhanced product descriptions. Well, in short, they look pretty.
Enhanced Product Descriptions or Amazon A+ Content allows you to create beautiful visuals to demonstrate the features and benefits of your product. You can include pictures, a lot more text than a normal product description, and you can even mention your brand, which Amazon usually frowns upon.
Enhanced product descriptions are not available to all sellers, only those who have registered their brand with Amazon. However, if you meet the eligibility requirements, you should use an enhanced product description. While it may reduce the number of keywords in your listings, it will increase your product performance.
So How Do I Write an Amazon Product Description?
Now that we have explained the Amazon requirements and a little about the algorithm, it is time to put your knowledge together and write your product listing. Just think of the 4 R’s.
- Review Amazon’s general requirements
- Review the requirements for your product category
- Research keywords
- Remember the golden rule
What is the golden rule? “Confused customers will not buy.” And what we mean by this is you could have the best looking product description packed with keywords and buzz words, but if your customers do not know what your product does and how it will help them, they will not buy. Buyers today are sceptical as hell. If there is any doubt that your business is not legitimate or if they are left with any questions, they simply won’t buy your product.
So, use clear, easy to read language and address questions your customer may have. So much SEO information focuses on the algorithm and forgets about the human element. At the end of the day, the algorithm exists to ensure the human searcher is happy, so the more you focus on the human element, the better your search engine ranking will be.
Benefits and USPs
This is copywriting and general sales advice that you have probably already heard a million times before, but it is true. You need to use benefits and USPs (unique selling points) to explain to potential buyers why they need your product.
Features lists are still important, especially in an Amazon product listing, but your product description should focus on the result that feature gives. So instead of just saying that your electric toothbrush comes in many different colours, you could say, “brighten up your morning routine with an electric toothbrush in a colour of your choice.” Instead of just saying that your electric toothbrush has a smart timer, you could say, “not only does an electric toothbrush take the manual labour out of teeth brushing, the smart timer takes away the guesswork too. Get fresher breath and a whiter smile with less effort than a regular toothbrush.”
Take the time to think about how to express the benefits. Even as a professional copywriter, the above sentences took a few passes to get right. You might even find there is a better way to express the above benefits. The important thing is that you don’t rush this process.
Make Sure It Feels Right For Your Brand
The way you write your product descriptions and the sort of language you use should match your brand. If you are a youthful, creative brand, then use language that fits with that – use more slang, add some fun to your product description, be relatable. If you are a professional brand, then your tone should be formal – you can use some jargon and business terms if applicable.
Plan Before You Write
Planning things out before you write can help you stay on target. Before you write your Amazon product description:
- Sit down and list the features and benefits you want to talk about
- Jot down some ideas of how to communicate the benefits (you can pick the best when writing)
- List some words that sum up the mood you want to convey with your product description
- Write down keywords you want to use or buzz words that you think will appeal to your ideal customer
- Decide where you want certain pieces of information to go if you are using enhanced content
Doing this preparation beforehand means you are less likely to get stuck when writing. All you have to do is put the pieces together and refer back to your plan when you feel like you are getting off track. You are less likely to miss out important information because it is all there in the plan.
It is really important to know which benefits are your primary benefits and which are your secondary benefits. A primary benefit is something that will heavily influence the buying decision of your ideal customer. A secondary benefit is something that is nice to have, but they’re not going to buy another product if yours doesn’t have it. You want to focus on the primary benefits and list the secondary benefits as extra features. While you’re listing the features and benefits, sort them out into primary and secondary.
Catch It In the Editing
One of the best tips we can give you is to write as much as possible and tidy things up when editing. Writing as much as possible during a first draft means editing is simply a matter of tidying things up instead of having to do more writing. It doesn’t matter if you address the same feature or benefit 3 times in your first draft; you can pick the best one when editing.
If you need to write in a stream of consciousness, then do it. It is perfectly acceptable to write, “Make your teeth gleam – is it weird that it rhymes with clean in the above line? Should I make the whole product description a poem? Decide on that later.” No one is going to read your first draft except for you, so write notes to yourself and do whatever you need to if it means you have a fantastic product description at the end.
Tip: If you are someone who is great at speaking on the fly but terrible at writing down your thoughts, then use your dictation feature. Just like some people are visual learners, some people are better at speaking than writing. It’s okay, whatever gets the words on the page.