April 2022

Every Amazon business owner should be eager to implement new opportunities for discovery and engagement among their potential customers. Optimizing your Amazon listings is a simple way to drive traffic to your product pages and give customers the branded store experiences they’re looking for. 1. Apply for Amazon Brand Registry As we mentioned, although Amazon’s Brand Registry isn’t a new offering, it’s still not leveraged by a high volume of ecommerce companies. Applying for the registry not only validates your company in a big way, but you can register multiple brands under one umbrella, as well.  The primary function of Brand Registry is to let sellers gain detail page control, and to report any intellectual property or counterfeit infringements. By enrolling in Amazon Brand Registry, you’ll unlock a suite of tools to help build and protect your brand, and ultimately, give your customers the navigation they deserve. 2. Track Existing Amazon Listings A crucial part of being a successful Amazon seller is managing your inventory. To begin, create a spreadsheet to track your existing product listings, by typing in any variations of your brand name, product name, or model number in the search bar. For each product, take note of the ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number), as well as the 10-digit alphanumeric number.  Because Amazon ties every UPC to a single ASIN, you’ll also need to determine whether any of your primary barcodes are already in use. You can manually check on this by going to Inventory – Add a Product, and entering the UPC. If a listing pops up, that will be the primary ASIN for your listing. The products you find will typically fall into one of three categories: (1) a legitimate listing using your manufacturer UPC, (2) a duplicate listing using your product title, photos, etc, or (3) a knockoff listing partially using your brand name, photos, and so on 3. Keep Track Of Existing Sellers Once you’ve categorized your current listings, you’ll want to inventory the Amazon sellers related to those listings. For each detail page, select the option to view all available listings by other sellers; when you click on a seller’s name, you’ll automatically be taken to their storefront. In a new tab on your spreadsheet, copy both the seller’s display name and their seller ID. Then, add any ASINs they’re listing next to that seller ID.  Note, the reason it’s so important to include their ID along with their display name, is that a seller can change their name at any time. Their ID, on the other hand, will always remain the same, and allow you to track said seller even if their display name looks different later on. 4. Create Optimized Amazon Listings Using a Flat File Template (that is, Amazon’s Excel-based templates for adding new products), you can develop optimized product listings for all inventory items. Regardless if these products already exist or will be new listings, you’ll still want to meet the following optimization criteria. a) Conduct SEO Keyword Research for Amazon Amazon SEO keyword research is the foundation for any profitable listing, so you’re wise to analyze which search terms customers are using to find products similar to yours. With this knowledge, you can be proactive to include those keywords in your listing, and make sure your products have as many eyes on them as possible. b) Optimize Your Amazon Listing Titles While you’ll need to abide by the style guides Amazon provides for your specific category, you can optimize your product titles by including your brand name, followed by the most relevant, highest-searched keywords. Your title should be specific, but brief, and grab the attention of your customer within a limited character allowance.  c) Highlight Product Features For each of your bullet points, you’ll want to include quality product features, plus benefits customers can expect from using the product. Don’t simply tell customers what your product does — share how it can improve some aspect of their everyday lives. Using all caps can be a great way to highlight a particular feature (or benefit) of what you’re selling. d) Create Easy-to-Read Product Descriptions The goal of each description is to help the customer imagine what it’s like to use your product. While Amazon has placed certain restrictions on HTML use in their style guides, you can use the bold (<b>) and break (<br>) code to split up the product description and make it easier to read. And don’t forget to add in a handful of keywords here, too. e) Use Clear Product Images Product images on Amazon need to be at least 1000 pixels on the longest side, and 500 pixels on the shortest side. The main image on your listing should showcase the product on its own, positioned on a pure white background. Any additional images should be shot from different angles, and show practical ways to use your product on a daily basis. f) Search Terms While Amazon search terms only exist within the back end of your product, they’re still incredibly helpful in driving traffic toward your listings. Right there in the first search term field, you’ll want to include any terms you were unable to fit in the product title (thanks to the confines of the 200-character limit). 5. Manage Your Amazon Listings Regularly After you’ve optimized your listings within a template, you’ll finally be ready to upload them. For products assigned a UPC barcode, you’ll want to use that code as the product ID. Then, when you upload your template, Amazon will scour current listings to check if that UPC already exists and is assigned to an ASIN. (If it does exist, you’ll receive an error that some of your information does not match what’s listed on Amazon.) Save a copy of the template, add -ASIN in the title for reference, and paste the ASIN in the product ID over the UPC. In the product ID type field, manually enter the ASIN (since it isn’t available as a dropdown option).  Next, change the update delete field to