A How-To Guide on Optimizing Your Product Listing for Supplement Brands on Amazon

According to a recent report by the Global Wellness Institute, the health and wellness industry is worth an astounding $595 trillion U.S. dollars. The personal care, beauty and anti-aging sector is worth $1,083 billion, and the healthy eating, nutrition and weight loss sector worth $702 billion. These are just two pieces of an enormous pie that accounts for the health and wellness industry as a whole. Supplements fit within these two sectors and are becoming one of the industry’s top-selling products. Now, more than ever, it is a great time to be an eCommerce business selling supplements. This blog will deliver invaluable information on bringing your eCommerce supplement business to the next level through product listing optimization. 

What Is Listing Optimization on Amazon, and Why Should I Care?

Let’s start by first defining what it means to optimize your Amazon listing. Optimization on Amazon is the process of upgrading your product page to increase visibility, sales and the click-through rate (CTR) of your listing. In this article, you will learn five key steps to optimize your product listing. The work done to optimize your product will reflect on the product detail page. 

Now that you understand listing optimization on Amazon, let’s define what it means to use keywords. Before a potential customer can make a purchase, they must be able to find your product. “Optimize your product discoverability,” an article written by Amazon Advertising, notes that keywords “are matched against information such as title and description that you provide for a product. By providing relevant and complete information for your product, you can increase your product’s visibility and sales.” In other words, keywords will help make your product discoverable. 

Keywords are what shoppers type into the Amazon search bar when seeking a specific product. Let’s say I am looking for a round pair of women’s blue-light-blocking glasses. If you type in the Amazon search bar “glasses,” there will be a list of suggestions that generate (as seen in the screenshot below); this broad search does not yield the product I want. Keyword relevancy becomes essential when thinking of the context of searches that may find your products. By searching “round blue light glasses for women,” I am presented with the specific product in mind. If you do not include these keywords in your title, the product would not be present in search, and potential customers would never find your product detail page. 

A summary of Amazon keyword best practices:

• Add main keywords early in your content.
• Keep keywords specific. Using words that are too broad will keep your target audience from finding your listing.
• Everything relevant should be included within reason. Don’t keyword stuff!
• Include high volume, highly relevant keywords in the title, and bullet points using natural language.

When it comes to keywords, it is crucial to know your audience. Spend time understanding consumers’ ideas, needs and wants, and articulate these into words and phrases that will connect your audience to your product. This process is called creating a buyer persona and will allow you to get to know your customer and how they may think about a product when searching for it on Amazon. 

Where To Begin? 

A simple yet overlooked step in the optimization process is grabbing baseline data, which provides historical reference and tracks growth. Your baseline data should consist of the last 30-60 days of sales, page views, units ordered, sessions and unit session percentage (conversion rate). Having baseline data will allow you to measure the account growth rate based on the listing changes. You will be able to track changes that occur and pinpoint what parts of your optimization are successful so that you can mimic the tactics on your next product listing or optimization. 

Retail readiness is crucial to the success of your listing optimization. Be sure that you are confident in your listing and you have clear goals defined, whether that be to increase clicks, sessions or sales. Setting goals will help you define success based on the steps you’ve taken to improve the quality of your listing and brand experience on Amazon.

5-Step Amazon Listing Optimization Methodology

1. Curating the Perfect Title

As the familiar saying goes, “you only have one chance to make a good first impression.” This expression can be directly applied to optimizing your title. The title must be a combination of branding, keywords and description while still being simple enough for the reader to digest. When it comes to supplements, there are a few things to keep in mind. Your title should include the benefits of the product: this will immediately draw in the target customer. Each word in the title of the listing is searchable in itself.  For example, the product image below shows a title that reads Banana. This title tells you nothing about the product and may deter customers because it is misleading. After optimization, the title may read  “Nutritionally Complete Keto Banana Shake Meal Replacement.” This new title provides keywords, relevant details, highlights the flavor profile and reveals benefits. A rule of thumb is this: Your title should reflect what is on the product’s packaging. 

2. Images That Reflect Your Brand

A picture is worth a thousand words. The images you choose for your listing will be the images that demonstrate use, show product size, color and texture and imprint your branding on the consumer. Your images should be professionally curated to reflect the branding of the product at hand. The main image should always be a single shot of the product on a white background. If it is fitting, take advantage of including video in the product listing. A video will add value to the customer shopping experience. 

A good image will:

• Answer frequently asked questions (FAQs) and even include some text within the image
• Serve more than one purpose
• Show the product in use
• Reveal size and dimension
• Display lifestyle images: who the ideal customer is
• Display recommended use
• Describe taste and smell

What to steer clear of:

• Images that do not have a flushed white background match the rest of Amazons’ detailed page format – it is essential to be sure that the white background of an image matches the white on Amazon. This way, the image looks organic and natural on the platform.
• Images that are too crowded or create noise

Below is the product listing for a KitchenAid pan. The listing shows the size, dimension, scale, recommended use, includes a video and the first image is just the product on a white background. This KitchenAid product listing checks all the boxes for what images should consist of. 

The Liteaid listing below is an example of poor product listing images. The listing only provides one image, missing out on the opportunity to provide valuable content. The images do not display size, dimension recommended use, or reveal any product details.

3. Laser-Focused Bullet Points

Bullet points are your opportunity to differentiate between your supplement listing and that of your competitors. Amazon refers to bullet points as “key product features,” which can make or break your listing. To ensure that you maximize the opportunity that bullet points provide, there are five tips to focus on when creating bullets for your listing. 

• Call out key ingredients. Show off the ingredients that consumers in your target audience are looking for. This can be highlighting specific components such as ginger or taro root, vegan ingredients, gluten-free, non-GMO, or 100 percent USD-certified organic ingredients. These features also provide the chance to use keywords and phrases that align with your product. See the fourth and fifth bullet below.

• Focus on credibility. There is an overwhelming amount of products that hold unsubstantiated claims, which will get your listings suppressed eventually. In the context of supplements, these are any claims made that are not backed by science, doctors or medical professionals. Be sure to dedicate a bullet (or two) to establishing credibility for your consumers. This trust will go a long way when setting your products apart from the market competition. It may be helpful to check out what Amazon considers prohibited claims.
• Highlight the benefits. Supplements are niche products, and they offer unique benefits depending on the product. Be sure that the benefits are listed so that if a customer is browsing Amazon for a product that you offer, they will choose yours. This is another excellent opportunity to include relevant and specific key phrases related to the product that highlight the benefits and features.
• Take advantage of all available features. Remember that it is always best to use all five bullet points.
• Guarantees. When it comes to supplements, people are skeptical about the effectiveness of the product. Having a satisfaction-guaranteed promise in your bullet points will build first-time customer confidence.

Here is an example of excellent product bullet points from the brand Viva Naturals. The bullet points focus on ingredients, dietary needs, taste, U.S.A. manufacturing and even a satisfaction guarantee to build customer trust. The bullets are short and to the point. 

Below is an example of product bullet points that need some improvement. As you can see, the bullets contain no descriptions, just key terms and phrases. If  Wellmo followed the steps above on optimizing your listings bullet points, the brand would have the opportunity to sell the product to customers better. The brand should include ingredients, benefits, dietary factors, taste and a satisfaction guarantee. 

4. Descriptions With a Purpose

The last step to your supplement product optimization is the description. Here are five tips to help you create a description that will separate you from your competitors:

• Focus on selling your product’s benefits not mentioned in your bullets instead of selling the features.
• Focus on selling what ingredients mean instead of just listing them. For example, if all your products are vegan, highlight the fact that it is a vegan product. Being a vegan product is a selling point for some customers. If all your ingredients are gluten-free, organic, or made in the U.S.A., make sure to highlight these truths.
• Formatting is important. When writing a description, it must follow HTML formatting.
• Focus on keeping things short and to the point. Being precise will make the description digestible and memorable. Too much information creates noise for the reader.
• Implement HTML tags in the product description. Using HTML will enhance the product description and allow potential buyers to read product details and make your product stand out easily. Including an HTML tag also breaks up the description to avoid having cluttered text.

Below is a product listing description in need of optimization. It is too short, leaving out valuable information. The description does not take advantage of the opportunity to sell the product’s benefits and points of differentiation. 

Below is an image of a product description by the brand Nature’s Nutrition. They include the motive for creating the product, what makes the product so beneficial and its purpose. They establish credibility and trust by telling consumers the testing and development process that holds the product to a high standard. The listed ingredients create transparency and can be points that attract a target customer in search of these specific ingredients. 

5. Understanding A+ Content

A+ Content is a form of visual communication. A picture is worth a thousand words, and A+ Content is worth two thousand. A+ content is found about halfway down the product detail page. The “enhanced content” found here allows Amazon vendors to implement the use of logos, images and text to showcase the product’s features and points of differentiation. A+ Content is a feature only available to professional sellers approved as brand owners through the Amazon Brand Registry process. Once approved, there is no fee for creating this extended content. You will have the ability to access Comparison Charts, Single Image and Sidebar, Four Image Highlights, Single Image and Specs Detail, Single Image and Highlights and Image and Light Text Overlay. Another great thing about A+ content is that you can answer customer questions. 

Below is an image of exemplary A+ Content. This brand took full advantage of the opportunity to sell the product to customers in A+ Content form. BioSchwartz includes ingredients details, product safety and manufacturing, and even goes as far as to list what makes the product unique compared to similar products on the market. BioSchwartz does a great job of providing recommended use and expected benefits of use, strengthening the customer experience with the brand. The extended content provided here gives the brand a headstart in the race to sell products.

 

Now It’s Your Turn 

Successful optimization will trigger dramatic and sudden changes to Amazon keyword ranking. As your organic rank increases, product visibility is boosted, and this will offer an opportunity for sessions, page views and sales. Now you are equipped with five basic steps to successful product optimization of your Amazon listing. The supplement category is booming. Amazon is a platform that allows for customization and creativity – use it! Your products should reflect your brand’s voice and image to help you stand out among the thousands of competing listings. Above all, remember to use optimization as a way to build credibility and highlight points of differentiation.