Do’s and Don’ts

Here is a list of Amazon particulars from their Quick Start Style Guide in regards to Product Titles:

• Capitalize the first letter of each word.
• Do not capitalize conjunctions (and, or, for), articles (the, a, an), or prepositions with fewer than five letters (in, on, over, with).
• Use numerals (2 instead of two).
• State the number of items in a bundled product (pack of 10).
• Keep it under 200 characters, but make sure to include critical information.
• Use only standard text, since special characters or symbols like © will not display in the title.
• Do not include price and quantity.
• Do not use ALL CAPS.
• Do not include information about yourself or your company. If you own a brand, put your brand information in the brand field.
• Do not include promotional messages, such as “sale” or “free shipping.”
• Use your seller name as the Brand or Manufacturer only if your product is Private label.
• Do not include subjective commentary, such as “Hot Item,” or “Best Seller.”

Use Your Characters!

Using as many of the 200 characters as you can while still being concise and clear does seem to make a difference with how products rank. In the example below, you’ll notice that the products with keyword-rich titles are outranking those that are more simplistic.

Do’s and Don’ts

• Highlight five features you want customers to consider, such as dimensions, age appropriateness, country of origin, warranty information, etc.
• Begin each bullet point with a capital letter.
• Write each bullet point in fragments and do not include ending punctuation.
• Write all numbers as numerals.
• Separate phrases in one bullet with semicolons.
• Spell out measurements, such as quart, inch, or feet.
• Do not use hyphens, symbols, periods, or exclamation points.
• Do not write vague statements; be as specific as possible with features and attributes.
• Do not enter company-specific information; this section is for product features only.
• Do not include promotional and pricing information.
• Do not include shipping or company information – this is prohibited.

Punctuation and proper grammar use up precious characters. Here are a few examples of how to properly create the features section for optimal results:

Good Example

Why It’s Good – The seller is able to pack in more thoughts, uses, and important information by breaking up features with commas. They also are utilizing a feature/benefit model of writing. Stating the feature, then listing the benefit to the consumer.

Now let’s take a look at a bad example:

Bad Example

Why It’s Bad – While this description is simple, the seller is missing out on valuable real estate that could be used with keyword-rich features to help increase search relevancy. There is no feature-benefit explanation here, which doesn’t help convert prospects into customers.

What if my Product Lacks Features?

If you have a product like a ketchup packet or something that is comparably simplistic, it can be difficult to think of enough features to create five bullet points.

In situations like these, try to use all five bullet points, even if each bullet is only a word or two. Also, make sure that the bullets utilize keyword-rich text as this features section is weighted more heavily by Amazon’s search engine.

Branding Opportunity

Since the title and features sections require fragmented text, this description section is the place to really “speak” to your customer. Make sure to use this opportunity to share your brand’s voice, tone, and personality through the text.

Similar to a traditional landing page, think of this as being your hero text. It should be well written with easy-to-read headers and clear and concise language.

If this is something you struggle doing or don’t have the time to do, we can absolutely help you, as this is our specialty.

Do’s and Don’ts

• Describe the major product features, such as size, style, and what the product can be used for.
• Include accurate dimensions, care instructions, and warranty information.
• Use correct grammar, punctuation, and complete sentences.
• Do not include seller name, e-mail address, website URL, company-specific information, details about another product you sell or promotional language such as “SALE” or “free shipping.”

Here is an example of a simple, well-done description:

Component – Keywords

Thankfully, Amazon does not have any specifics that would make keyword research any different than how you would research keywords for Google.

We have a great write-up on keyword research that you can check out, but basically, it’s all about understanding what other search terms your customers might type in aside from the main product name.

There are several tools to help you research keywords, such as SEMrush (you can save 20% on this with BKA) or the Google Adwords Keyword Planner, to name a few. Another simple tactic is to conduct Amazon searches for similar products in your space and see what keywords your competitors are using.

Once you have a solid list of keywords for your products, you can then make sure that they find a place in the Features and Description sections to ensure optimization.

Hidden Keywords

Amazon’s marketplace does give you the ability to add hidden keywords for a product.

What are hidden keywords? –  Basically, these are additional meta tags that you can add to your listing with relateable words that would help a user find your listing. The trick here is not to include keywords or terms that you have already put in the title or benefits sections.

Specifications:

• Amazon gives you 5 form boxes to input these terms
• Amazon allows up to 250 characters total for all 5 form boxes combined

These fields are not required when posting your listing, but can be used to help give you an edge.

Amazon has provided the following guidance if you decide to use this feature:

• Don’t include product identifiers such as brand names, product names, compatible product names, ASINs, UPC codes, etc.
• Don’t provide inaccurate, misleading, or irrelevant information such as the wrong product category, the wrong gender, out-of-context words, etc.
• Don’t provide excessively long content. Respect the limits that are set for different fields.
• When entering several words as a search term, put them in the most logical order. A customer is more likely to search for stuffed teddy bears than for teddy stuffed bears.
• Use a single space to separate keywords. No commas, semicolons, or carets are required.
• Don’t include statements that are only temporarily true, e.g., “new,” “on sale,” “available now.”
• Don’t include subjective claims such as “amazing,” “good quality,” etc., as most customers don’t use subjective terms in their queries.
• Don’t include common misspellings of the product name. Amazon’s search engine compensates for common customer misspellings and also offers corrective suggestions.
• Don’t provide variants of spacing, punctuation, capitalization, and pluralization (“80GB” and “80 GB,” “computer” and “computers,” etc.). The search engine automatically includes different case forms, word forms, and spelling variants for searching.
• Don’t include terms that are abusive or offensive in nature.
• Abbreviations, alternate names, topic (for books, etc.), and key character (for books, movies, etc.) could be included as keywords.

Here are some examples of bad keywords:

Here are some examples of good keywords:

Conclusion

As you can see, ranking on Amazon is different from ranking on Google as far as how to structure and format your content.

Having Amazon Product Descriptions that utilize these optimization techniques is critical when it comes to helping your products sell and rank on Amazon’s marketplace.

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