Effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key to improving your product searchability on Amazon to help customers find them more easily. Amazon uses a proprietary algorithm called A9, which considers many different factors to determine the rank of a listing.

The ultimate goal for any seller on Amazon is to have top-ranking products. These listings come up as the top results in a search, have high conversion rates, and bring in the most revenue compared to lower-ranked competitors of a similar product.

To understand why optimizing your listing for SEO is essential, it is useful to have a basic understanding of how A9 determines rank. Overall, two main groups influence a ranking on Amazon; these are broken down as:

Explicit (or Direct) Factors

• Text Match Relevance - This includes title, features, and description
• Sales Velocity - The more products you sell, the higher you will rank
• Stock Supply - Current availability and in-stock history
• Price

In explicit (or Indirect) Factors

1. Fulfillment method (FBA has an advantage)
2. Content quality
3. Reviews - including number and score
4. Promotions
5. Advertising
6. Product images

In this series, we will discuss how to optimize each section of your listing best so that it performs well in the Text Match Relevance A9 ranking factor. Text Match Relevance refers to how relevant the content on your listing is (titles, features, description, etc.) compared to the search terms/keywords that customers are using to search for products. A listing will rank better when relevant keywords are included throughout the listing, so it is essential to do your research and strategically place these keywords in your title, features, descriptions, and in the backend.

The most crucial element for a listing’s text match relevance is the title. It is the first thing that consumers see on the results page and is a critical factor in click-through-rates (CTR). Consumers prefer ease, so your title should be descriptive enough to grab their attention from the start so that they purchase your product over other competitors. Here are some general tips for best optimizing your title:

1.) Key Elements to Include

• Brand
• Product
• Material
• Color
• Size
• Quantity

The order of these elements can vary depending on what works best for your listing but should follow the general flow of having the most critical details listed first.

Numbers should be written as numerals (i.e - 1 NOT ‘one’) and it should mention if it is a multi-pack (i.e- 2-pack, set of 2; not just ‘2’)

2.) Inserting Keywords

In addition to these essential elements, it is imperative to strategically include relevant keywords in your title to better improve rank.

For example, if you are selling face cream, you could include keyword phrases like “For dry to normal skin” or “for everyday use” at the end of the general product information. Or you can add descriptive keywords like “creamy” or “rejuvenating” within the other elements.

Avoid over saturating your title with keywords; it may help with text match relevancy, but it is not appealing. If people do not click on your product because the title is overwhelming, then its rank will suffer regardless of how many keywords you include.

3.) Length Of Your Title

According to Amazon’s Quick Start Style Guide- a title should be kept to under 200 characters. However, this varies for each category, where some (like beauty) only allows a maximum of 50 characters for the title.

On the results page, Amazon will occasionally truncate a listing’s full title, which is another reason to emphasize putting the most critical elements at the beginning of the title.

4.) What to Avoid

• Do not capitalize every word in the title. Capitalized titles draw attention, but is rejected by Amazon and will not help your listing.
• Do not include specific details such as “free shipping.”
• Do not add subjective adjectives such as “Great,” “Awesome,” “The best”, etc. - they are discouraged from Amazon, ignored by A9, and take up extra character count.
• Don’t use special characters or HTML tags.
• Don’t use too much information - as stated above, it is unappealing to the consumer.

It is important to note that Amazon’s guidelines are always changing and updating. It will take some trial and error adjustments to find the perfect title for your listing.

A listing’s title is not only essential to help it’s ranking through text match relevance, but it is a crucial factor in it’s CTR on the results page. It is imperative you dedicate time to crafting the perfect title for each of your listings. Get creative, use relevant keywords, and keep it to the point to draw in the consumer.