How to Write an SEO Amazon Product Listing with High Conversion in 4 steps
- William Ferrer
- Mar 4, 2019
- 8 min read
Updated: Mar 6, 2019
GUIDE OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
If you've ever wondered how product listings become best sellers or if you want to know why you're not making any sales and have a low conversion rate, this video was meant for you.
Writing an Amazon product listing is both an art and a science.
The art is persuasive sales copy while the science is Search Engine Optimization.
We'll cover both sides in this video.
STEP #1: KEYWORD RESEARCH
The first step is to perform keyword planning and research, otherwise known as SEO.
To get sales, your listing first needs to be seen and found. Keywords are what enable your product to be seen and found by customers.
An important thing you need to know is that Amazon's search engine operates a lot differently than other search engines such as Google's.
Amazon's search engine is primarily based on conversion and sales.
Traditional SEO strategies such as keyword density and keyword stuffing don't apply to Amazon's search engine.
With this in mind, some best practices I recommend you follow:
Don't Use irrelevant or loosely based keywords because they will have a negative effect on your conversion rate which will drop your search rank.
Don't Overstuff your copy with keywords, your content should first and foremost appeal to customers.
Always prioritize the customer experience first before anything else, including keywords.
With keyword research, your goal is to find the best keywords for your product.
The best keywords are:
Highly relevant to your product
Have high search volume
The more relevant keywords you use, the better, as you're creating a bigger target for Amazon's search engine to index your listing.
You can perform keyword research using keyword tools such as google AdWords keyword planner or Merchantwords.
AdWords is a free tool to use but I would recommend using Merchantwords because AdWords searches keywords for the entire web while Merchantwords searches keywords specifically for the Amazon market.
You will need to conduct your keyword research according to the amazon market you wish to sell in.
Let's take searching for a portable charger as an example.
Once you've started your search, you need to sort through the results by average monthly search volume.
Then, the best keywords you find will be the terms you will include in the front end of your product listing which are the title, 5 bullet points, and product description section.
Once you've filled up your front end with the best relevant keywords, you can further improve your search rank by including more relevant keywords with high search volume in the backend section of your listing.
In the backend section, you're given 5 fields to write down your keywords.
The backend has a total character limit of 249 bytes limit total as of October 2018.
When you're working with a bytes limit, the last thing you want is to waste any bytes.
You can avoid this by only using a single space to separate each keyword
and not using punctuation which includes commas or periods, not using repeated words, not writing singular or plural words because Amazon can index variations of words.
Ranking as high as possible is extremely important as only 30% of users click past the first page of search results according to a market research study done by Millward Brown Digital. If you rank in the second page or lower, you're listing is missed by 70% of customers.
What you need to know:
When customers search, they don't want to spend a large amount of time looking through search results, they're more likely to just click on the listings they see, if customers can't see your product, you're not going to get any sales.
What you need to know:
keywords are a major factor of your search rank, but they aren't the only factor. The other major factors of search rank are # of competitors, # of sales, and # of positive reviews.
STEP #2: ATTENTION-GRABBING TITLE
A good title is one that grabs the attention of Amazon's search engine and grabs the attention of customers.
Important note: A common mistake sellers have made is they would overstuff their title with a lot of non-relevant keywords in an attempt to rank higher.
Remember: you have to write for both the search engine and PEOPLE. It's a balancing act.
An attention-grabbing title is a title that:
clearly describes your product,
has high search volume keywords
unique Selling Proposition (USP) or benefits
This is the general template I like to use when I write attention-grabbing titles:
[Name of the Product] by [brand name] – [1 to 3 High Search Volume Keywords] – [USP or benefits] – [style/size/quantity/material if applicable]
The name of the product should clearly identify exactly what you‘re selling. If suitable, the name can be a keyword term.
Capitalize the first letter of each word.
To make it easier to read, I use dash lines to create space and separate each section of the title.
It's important to include your brand name in the title to label your product and build brand recognition.
You'll include 1 to 3 high volume search keywords to index your listing and rank higher in search results.
A unique selling proposition or benefits to catch the interest of customers.
Include style, size, quantity, and material if useful to technically describe the product.
I recommend you keep your title to around 150-200 characters in length, it's the perfect length that's not too long and not too short.
Feel free to mix up this title template to better suit your product.
STEP #3: FOCUS ON THE BENEFITS
The third step is to focus on the benefits of your product in the bullet point section of your listing.
A common mistake sellers make is they simply just write down the features of their product, that's it, nothing else.
While features are definitely an essential part of your product description, it's not enough, you need to add more. I'll explain why.
When customers buy products, they'll have a variety of questions in mind such as:
How does this product fix my problem?
What are the advantages of having this product?
How is this product better than a similar product sold by a competitor?
Why do I need this product?
You need to anticipate these questions and address them in your listing.
The answer to these types of questions is what I like to call "benefits."
A common question people ask me is what's the difference between features and benefits?
Well, features are technical specifications or attributes of a product
while
benefits are the explanations of HOW the feature is USEFUL AND BENEFICIAL to the customer.
Let's take a look at the features and benefits of a fictitious power bank as an example.
Feature: 10,000 mAh capacity battery
Benefit: with a 10,000 mAh battery, you can fully charge your iPhone X 3.5x times which allows you to use your phone 3.5x longer when you're away from home.
Feature: 16mm thickness
Benefit: 16 mm ultra-thin design takes up very little space and can easily slide into your pocket.
As you can see in this example, benefits provide a better explanation of your product while at the same time answering questions customers may have.
The lesson: customers aren't persuaded by features, they're persuaded by benefits!
I have to note that the benefits of your product don't have to be overly complicated to persuade customers to buy, they can be simple.
An example of a simple benefit is being easy to use or a compact design, that it!
STEP #4: EASY-TO-READ BULLET POINTS AND PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Before we begin this section, an important lesson you need to know about effective sales writing is that customers better engage with ads that are written in a personal and conversational tone because it makes them feel as if they're getting advice from a friend instead of talking to a pesky salesman.
the best and simplest way to achieve this is to use the word "You" as much as possible in your sales writing.
For the 5 bullet points section of your listing, you need to present the 5 best benefits of your product in a concise manner.
Concise: Giving a lot of information clearly and in a few words; brief but comprehensive.
I define concise as short and quick to the point.
So why is it important to be short and quick to the point?
Because a lot of online shoppers don't like to thoroughly read, instead, they like to quickly scan and skim for information.
Your bullet points should make it easy for online shoppers to quickly find the bits of information (benefits) they're looking for.
For example, this product listing has excellent bullet points because the benefits are clearly stated at the beginning of the bullet along with a brief explanation, it's quick and easy to read, precisely what customers want.
When you're writing in bullets, you don't have to be grammatically correct or use proper sentences, your goal is to simply write in a short and clear fashion.
You should try to keep each bullet point to around 250 characters in length.
For the product description section, this is where you'll provide a further explanation of your product and present more features and benefits if any.
We will be maintaining the principle of being concise with our writing.
The difference between the bullet point and product description section is that in the product description section, you'll be writing in proper sentences, paragraphs, and using proper grammar.
Appeal to customers by making your description as easy to read as possible, you can do this by writing in short sentences and writing in short paragraphs.
Your goal is to further explain the benefits of your product and how these benefits will improve your customer's lives.
I recommend creating a super short story that highlights the benefits of your product.
The purpose of your story is to provide an example of when and where your product can be useful and beneficial.
Let's take a look at the benefits of a power bank again as an example.
Story:
When you're on vacation, you'll be taking a lot of pictures and videos which can quickly drain your phone's battery.
A power bank is a must-have travel companion as it allows you to recharge your phone when you're out sightseeing to capture more memories.
Important Lesson: Do not write in long paragraphs.
Writing long paragraphs will turn off customers because it takes too much time and effort to read through it all. Also, the information (benefits) they're looking for is buried amongst a big block of text which makes it hard to find.
If you take this description as an example, I'm getting tired just looking at this big block of text.
What you need to do is break up your writing into short paragraphs according to benefit.
You can do so with enhanced brand content otherwise known as EBC or you can use HTML coding.
Enhanced Brand Content is a feature which allows you to add additional product images with infographics to create a more attractive product listing.
Below is an example of EBC. As you can see, the seller has used images and infographics to highlight the product description.
On Amazon, you‘ll be given templates to place and organize your EBC content.
I do have to note that EBC is a feature you need to apply and get approved for.
EBC does require a bit more work and investment as you'll need photography and graphic design services to produce the visually attractive images required for EBC.
If you're good with a camera and know how to use photoshop, you can always do this yourself.
A more simple method to create an appealing product description is to format your writing with HTML.
Essentially, HTML is a coding language used to format text and define the structure and layout of a webpage. Sound's like fun stuff huh!
Well, don't worry. In regards to your Amazon listing, you only need to know a simple version of HTML to format your text.
I have to note that HTML can be used in the description but not in the bullet points or title section.
Another thing I have to note is that officially, Amazon does not allow the use of HTML.
But Amazon has a relaxed enforcement of this policy and I‘ve found that many sellers do use HTML in their product description without encountering any problems.
Now that we've got that out of that disclaimer out of the way, let's get started on the practical aspects of HTML.
You'll be using the following codes to format your description.
<b> to start bold text
</b> to end bold text
<p> to start paragraph break
</p> to end paragraph break
If you don't format your description, it will end up displaying as one big block of text to customers.
As of 2018, you're allowed to write up to 2,000 characters in the product description section. I recommend using as many characters as possible to present the features and benefits of your product.
This concludes our short and simple Amazon listing optimization guide.
WORK WITH ME, CLICK THE LINK: https://www.fiverr.com/share/ER7DY
To learn more, read my other guide “How to Optimize Your Amazon Listing in 11 Simple Steps to Increase Your Sales.” <-- CLICK THE LINK.
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