What is Amazon SEO and why it does matter?

Product listings are optimized for Amazon search engine optimization (SEO) in order to appear higher in product searches on Amazon.com. A few easy measures can increase sales, enhance product search listings, and make it easier for customers to find your brand.

You can use SEO strategies as an Amazon merchant to:

  • Drive more traffic to product listings
  • Increase product and brand visibility
  • Boost conversion rates and sales growth 

Learn the lingo: conversion rate
A conversion is the result of a buyer taking action. The conversion rate is the percentage of potential buyers that complete a purchase out of the total number of visitors.

As more visitors buy products, conversion rate grows. Use conversion rate as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for measuring the impact of your SEO efforts.

How Amazon SEO works


1. Amazon search box
Shoppers can search for items by typing a term or phrase into the search box located at the top of the Amazon.com homepage. Online shoppers can use the Amazon search box to find products quickly with a drop-down menu of departments. Shoppers also have the option to type in general keywords. Amazon retrieves relevant results for the word or phrase, and the customer may refine the search to narrow down their search results.

2. Search filters
While searching for products, customers can use various filters to list search results in a specific order, including:

  • Department
  • Best Sellers (the most popular products based on sales)
  • New arrivals or new releases
  • Featured items
  • Customer reviews
  • Movers and Shakers (biggest gainers in sales rank over 24 hours)
  • High or low price
  • Digital content and devices
  • Programs and features (such as Subscribe & Save, Small & Medium Businesses, and more)


3. Search results page
Factors that can help determine search results include:

  • Product titles
  • Product descriptions
  • Optimized images
  • Product features
  • Competitive pricing
  • You can use SEO to improve each of these elements to boost your ranking in Amazon search results. Explore the rest of this article for details.

4. Sponsored Products
Sponsored Products are cost-per-click (CPC) ads sellers can use to promote individual product listings in Amazon stores and are available to sellers with a Professional seller account enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry. Ads appear within shopping results pages and on product detail pages.
Amazon will automatically generate and match ads to shopping queries. Sponsored Products can help you reach high-intent shoppers who are actively looking for products similar to ones you’ve listed.

Optimize your Amazon listings in 7 steps


Consider SEO as a continuous activity that will assist you in connecting with the 300 million Amazon customers.

Make optimization a constant component of your e-commerce business plan to start. Seven components of a product listing are where you can concentrate your efforts:

  • Keywords
  • Product images
  • Product titles
  • Product pricing
  • Product descriptions
  • Key features (bullet points)
  • Backend search keywords

Let’s dive into the details of how to improve each of these elements of a product listing from an SEO standpoint.

Step 1: Conduct keyword research
Compile a comprehensive list of keywords Keywords are the words and phrases people look for when searching for something online. Think about the products you offer and put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What words or phrases will they type into the Amazon search box to find the products they want?

You'll start to notice patterns if you view sales from this angle. How can shoppers locate goods similar to yours? Try these suggestions to determine what keywords to include in your SEO strategy:

  • Type a variety of words and phrases in the Amazon search box. Then, take a look at the drop-down suggestions, and start compiling a list of relevant keywords for similar listings.
  • Use competitor results as a starting point for your own listings. Experiment with similar searches on Amazon.com to see what’s already out there. Then compare product search terms.
  • Explore the Amazon suggested and related item categories for additional ideas.
  • While compiling your list, think in terms of long-tail and short-tail keywords.

    Long-tail keywords are relatively specific. They typically have low search volume, low competition, and may have a higher conversion rate because the customer typically knows exactly what they are looking for.
    Short-tail keywords are broader searches that typically have high search volume and high competition. They may have lower conversion because the customer is browsing for different options.
    The auto-complete feature on the Amazon search box is a great way to find popular long-tail keywords related to your product.


Step 2: Optimize the product title
You only have a split second to grab a customer's interest. One of the key pieces of information that search engines like Amazon and Amazon use to determine how relevant a detail page is to a customer search is the product title (also known as the product name). You can take a few actions to raise the likelihood that a consumer will click on a title:

  • Your product title should match what would be on the physical packaging of your product.
  • Pay attention to title length. We recommend approximately 60 characters long and fewer than 80 characters. Longer titles are also harder to read than shorter titles, so the longer your title is, the more you risk losing a customer’s attention.
  • Pay attention to the different title lengths along with preferred title styles for listings in each product category.
  • Do not use all caps. Capitalize the first letter of each word except for prepositions (in, on, over, with), conjunctions (and, or, for), or articles (the, a, an).
  • Begin a title with the product’s brand name in addition to ensuring the brand name field is populated.
  • Use numerals: “2" instead of “two.”
  • Don’t use non-language ASCII characters such as Æ, ©, or ®.
  • Titles should contain the minimal information needed to identify the item and nothing more.
  • Don’t use subjective commentary, such as “Hot Item” or “Best Seller”.
  • Titles can include necessary punctuation, like hyphens (-), forward slashes (/), commas (,), ampersands (&), and periods (.).
  • Titles can abbreviate measurements, such as “cm”, “oz”, “in”, and “kg”.
  • In general, review product title requirements and be sure to follow the criteria to show up in relevant searches and avoid search suppression