Amazon Is Suppressing Titles (And Other Information You Need to Know)

By Karon Thackston

Almost a year ago, I wrote a blog post entitled Amazon Cleans Up Confusing Title Policies: Changes Underway. One of the bits of information I included was from an email Amazon sent out to sellers warning that they were implementing a title suppression policy for any titles over 200 characters. Supposedly, as of July 15, 2015, this went into effect.

So … we waited with no visible indication that the hippo-sized titles that had taken over numerous categories in Amazon were going away. After many months, sellers began to believe that (once again) what Amazon said and what they did were two different things. But then it happened…

With an algorithm update that allegedly took place a couple of months ago, sellers began to rant that their listings were simply disappearing from the search results pages. At first I thought this might have been due to people getting seriously carried away with the new5,000-character search term change. (That could still be part of it.) However, I recently had two conversations with two different Seller Support reps (in two different departments) and both mentioned the “Suppression Rule.” Apparently, this long-forgotten policy change had finally been implemented.

What Amazon’s Suppression Rule States

According to Amazon (in the email from July of last year and Seller Support messages from recently), any title in any category that is over 200 characters will be suppressed from the search results. Please note: It doesn’t say “removed” from the search results — it says “suppressed” (stifled, censored, buried).

As you can see from the Seller Support message above, Amazon still has a lot of conflicting information in their system. Currently, you’ll see many categories where the Add-A-Product section states you can have a maximum of 250 characters for your title. I’ve found some that say you can have 500 characters, which I know is WAY wrong. However, titles over 200 characters are definitely being suppressed. And Amazon needs to clean up its act.

Spot Checking

To see whether Amazon had really (finally) put this rule into place, I did a little spot checking through several categories. This was by no means a comprehensive review, but just a quick look to see how many titles that exceeded 200 characters I could find on page one of the search results.

I started with the categories that had been badly abused, such as Kitchen and Personal Care. Out of approximately 50 listings that I checked, two had titles that were slightly longer than 200 characters. (One was 205 and one was 210.) Even in the Supplement subcategory, 99% of the excessively long titles for products such as Garcinia Cambogia had been shortened to under 200 characters.

If Your Listing Has Disappeared…

The first thing I would look at is whether your current title is over 200 characters. Regardless of what the Style Guide, Add-A-Product, or the flat files say, do not use titles that are over 200 characters. (Some categories have shorter title requirements, such as Beauty, which is (for the moment) at 80 characters.)

Other Title Changes

It would appear that Amazon is having issues in other categories as well. Electronics-oriented categories (including cell phones, cell phone accessories, laptop backpacks, etc.) now show this. The total amount of space is for 2,000 characters. (Add the characters already typed into the box to the 999 it shows are left and you get 2,000.) Not much of a “short” title, is it?

I’m thinking this is a typo. Beauty had this glitch a while back — it was indicating that sellers could have 500-character titles instead of 50 (what it used to be).

If you see these … ignore them. Anything over 200 characters will almost certainly get your listing suppressed.

Will You Do Me A Favor?

Help a gal out, won’t you? I have been working with Amazon for over a year to try to get all the information in all the various places to match. Having more sellers bring this to their attention would be extremely helpful!

If you see that Add-A-Product states you can have 250 characters in the title, write to Seller Central and ask them to have this changed because Amazon’s Suppression Rule indicates all titles over 200 characters are not showing in the search results.

(SOURCE)

- Have you noticed any changes on your listings on Amazon? Share with us any experience you've had with this below!

An entirely different and easier way to sell on Amazon – the millions of “Golden Gaps”

By Jim Cockrum

Instead of always looking for products to sell, what if you could look on Amazon and find "gaps" where no other seller is anywhere to be found, but the customers are eager to buy even name brand products at high margins? Sound ludicrous? I can prove it’s true and I’ll show you how it’s happening right now.

Millions of these "golden gaps" or "empty rooms" exist. I’ll illustrate.

A visual example works well here. Imagine Amazon is a huge shopping mansion – it’s far too big to be a "mall." We need a planet-sized mansion!

Inside our Amazon shopping mansion visualize a sign on the door of each room. The sign on the door is NOT what you’d expect though! The sign is NOT the name of the product contained in the room, but instead the sign on each room in our mansion is an EXACT MATCH of the search phrase used by a shopper.

When a shopper uses a never before used search phrase, a new room is magically and instantly created! In other words, there are billions of rooms! This is a VERY significant distinction that perfectly represents how Amazon search really works for shoppers. Reread this part if necessary before going forward.

Now we can imagine that the list of search results that a customers sees on Amazon is actually a list of the most relevant "rooms" in our mansion that most closely match their search. The most popular rooms of course are filled typically with MANY sellers competing on price alone selling the exact same product. There’s little opportunity there for smart sellers like us. Still with me?

Shocking fact alert: Right now on Amazon (all sites globally) the vast majority of the "rooms" on Amazon are sitting entirely empty but still getting thousands of people daily TRYING to peek into the empty room but Amazon won’t let them in! You see, our mansion host Amazon doesn’t ever like to show empty rooms to the shopping guests, so instead Amazon guesses what the shopper meant and then gives the shoppers a sorted list of rooms containing "most likely what you want" all the way down the list to "possibly what you want" based on a pure computer generated guess.

Another shocking fact: Nearly half of all shoppers (in our estimation) are attempting to look into an empty room before getting shown other rooms.

OPPORTUNITY ALERT: If you can name your rooms properly (your listing title), you can suddenly have a wave of clients over night without competition (think high margin simple bundle). You see, when a perfect match happens, Amazon’s job is easy! Amazon eagerly flings the shopping guest right into the "perfect match" room and shows them NOTHING else in many cases.

For the smartest most experienced readers in my audience, you’ve just had a massive "ah ha" moment and you are seeing dollar bills right now. Pick yourself up off the floor – it gets better.

You see, hidden in that example are millions of "gaps" or "empty rooms" that are all just BEGGING for someone like you or me to come along, put products inside (yes even name brand products) and start showing up on TOP of Amazon pulling down big margins on even the most competitive products – and Amazon will love you for it (you are filling empty rooms for them and helping shoppers find EXACT matches for their search!). Competitors won’t even know you are there! Amazon won’t ever compete with you! No "race to the bottom" with prices! It’s beautiful.

If you are doubting that there are actually millions of these "golden gaps" or "empty rooms" on Amazon you should know that my friend Brett finds dozens of them weekly. He’s found 500 profitable ones in the past couple years and is doing 8 figures on Amazon because he "gets it." He sees Amazon differently than you do.

View the video here

If you are brand new to all of this please know this. No one teaches this strategy except us.

We see online opportunity differently, and we have the massive audience of success stories to prove it. All of our most successful students have one thing in common – they were all newbies at one point. Many of them (including Brett from our story above) started out with the ProvenAmazonCourse.com (PAC) course and $400 in his pocket.

Right now you can get a great deal on the PAC plus the course I built with Brett that shows you how to find "golden gaps" – get the courses here:

http://ProvenPerformanceInventory.com

If you already know how to sell and bundle on Amazon, just grab the PPI course from that same link above- it’s all you’ll need to use this strategy.

To discuss this course with our Facebook community, use this link http://jimc.biz/1lyOwCJ

(SOURCE)

- Now those are some crazy good tips! What did you think of this article?

Private Label Product Research For Amazon FBA Sellers - FBA ALLSTARS

-Great video with so much great info! Tell us how you chose your product to sell on Amazon FBA!

14 Ways to Spice Up Your Amazon/Ecomm Product Descriptions

By Karon Thackston

Welcome Marcia Yudkin to the Marketing Words Blog! 

Thanks for sharing your inspiring creativity to help ecomm and Amazon sellers boost the power of their product descriptions this holidays season. Take it away, Marcia…
“Nicknamed ‘America’s Bechamel,’ Cream of Mushroom Soup is…”

This surprising comparison caught my eye on an old Thanksgiving-themed Trader Joe circular I found, prompting me to skim the rest of the text-heavy flyer. Béchamel is French for the white sauce that is a foundational element in traditional upscale cuisine. Cream of mushroom soup is a decidedly downscale item, used in casseroles by cooks who prefer easy to elegant. Putting the two together in one sentence is bold and makes the reader rethink the use of an extremely ordinary item.

The Trader Joe’s flyer turned out to be full of scrumptious descriptions, using a wide range of techniques for adding sizzle to everyday products. Whether you sell office supplies or pet accessories, flooring or lingerie, you can borrow the angles their writers used to invigorate product blurbs and headlines on your own site or on Amazon with fascination and flavor.

For example:

#1 Historical Reminder [Fried onion pieces] “These crunchy savories came into the limelight with the 1960s debut of the green bean casserole.”

Let’s consider how this approach – used factually or fancifully – could spice up other kinds of products.

Wine aerators: “Since 1680, wine connoisseurs have understood the importance of exposing wine to air before drinking it.”

Laptop computers: “Who would have thought this 1981 fad would overtake desktop sales?”

Handkerchiefs: “Someone told us that Napoleon had one like this in his pocket to wipe his tears when he got defeated at Waterloo.”

As you read through the rest of the list, be thinking of how you might add some of these twists to turn boring copy into writing that makes your catalog mouthwateringly enticing.

#2 Little-Known Fact [Fresh cranberries] “One of only three fruits native to America…”

#3 Saving the Day [Frozen mashed potatoes] “This frozen side is a chef’s back-pocket wonder.”

#4 Startling Comparison [Brussels sprouts stalks] “With an appearance similar to Christmas trees, these herald the start of the season.”

#5 Elaborate on Simplicity [Whole kernel corn] “Non-genetically-modified, Midwest-grown, supersweet corn – it’s as tried and true as it sounds.”

#6 Who is the Product Especially Good for? [Gravy] “For the ‘from scratch’ crowd, our Turkey Broth and a pan of drippings can be whisked into delicious gravy rather easily.”

#7 Who are the Product’s Devotes? [Whole cranberry sauce] “We know more than a few people who stock up on this seasonal sauce and freeze it to enjoy all year long.”

#8 Indulgent Word Play [Cranberry, walnut and gorgonzola dressing] “Some of our favorite festive flavors fortuitously flow forth in this simultaneously versatile and vivacious vinaigrette.”

#9 Company History [Breaded Turkey-less Stuffed Roast with Gravy] “Elevating the experience for those who prefer a non-traditional turkey entrée has always been part of our holiday agenda.”

#10 Quote [French truffle chevre] “’There are two types of people who eat truffles: those who think truffles are good because they are dear and those who know they are dear because they are good.’ – Jean-Louis Vaudoyer”

#11 Drumroll [Truffle salami] “Ready the crackers, slice the cheese, and prepare your palates. Trader Joe’s Truffle Salami is making its premier appearance now.”

#12 The Item’s Popularity [English toffee] “This is a big 20 ounce canister of Toffee that has become an iconic item at Trader Joe’s for a limited time.”

#13 Scene-Setting Monologue [Iced cranberry orange scone cookies] “You’ve loosened the belt, you’ve taken a few deep breaths… there is just enough room for a nibble of something sweet.”

#14 Psychology of the Season [Gingerbread pancake mix] “Hustle and bustle can be stressful. Ginger, according to many, is calming, relaxing and rejuvenating. So when the hurry-up has you feeling down…”

Are you hungry yet? Excited about applying some of these ideas in your own promotional writing? Just remember not to get carried away. It’s great fun to let your creativity go, and as long as you don’t over-spice your concoction, you’ll end up with a captivating description that amuses, interests and absorbs the reader, paragraph after paragraph, as it sells.

(SOURCE)

- We're excited to try out these great ideas for copy on our products! What about you?