February 03, 2026 Guest opinion piece
Amazon listing optimisation has changed. For years, optimisation was treated as a copy heavy, SEO led exercise. Find the right keywords, pack them into the title, repeat them in the bullet points, expand the copy to cover every possible question and trust that rankings would do the rest.
That approach made sense when customers read listings. But they don’t anymore.
Today, listing optimisation is no longer driven by long form copy and keyword density. It is driven by design, visuals and how quickly a customer can understand the product while scrolling.
That does not mean SEO no longer matters. It absolutely does. Amazon still needs structured content to understand what your product is and when to show it. But SEO has become the baseline, increasingly standardised and often supported by AI. What separates strong listings from average ones now is how effectively they convert attention into action.
In this article, we look at how Amazon listing optimisation has shifted from being primarily SEO and copy led to being conversion and design led, and how brands can strike the right balance between visibility and sales.
SEO and conversion are not the same thing
Listing optimisation has always been about both SEO and conversion. That part has not changed. What has changed is how shoppers behave and how Amazon presents products. SEO helps Amazon understand your product. It lives in your titles, bullet points and back end keywords. It is logical, data driven and increasingly influenced by AI and compliance rules.
Conversion helps the customer decide to buy. That decision is visual, emotional and fast. The mistake many brands still make is assuming that if they do SEO properly, conversion will automatically follow. In reality, you can rank well and still convert poorly if your listing is hard to scan, visually weak or overloaded with text.
SEO gets you seen. Conversion gets you sales.
How people actually shop on Amazon now
Shopping behaviour has changed dramatically. Most customers are shopping on mobile. Attention spans are shorter. Social media has trained us to scan rather than read.
People no longer analyse listings in detail before making decisions.
Instead, they:
- Glance at the title
- Focus heavily on the images
- Skim the bullet points
- Make a decision quickly
Ask yourself honestly: when you shop on Amazon, how much time do you spend reading long bullet points versus looking at images?
That shift in behaviour is exactly why imagery has become the most important conversion tool on a listing.
Why imagery now drives conversion
Your images are doing far more than just showing the product.
They are:
- Answering questions
- Reducing uncertainty
- Replacing long blocks of text
- Communicating value instantly
Customers want to see:
- How big the product is
- What is included
- How it is used
- Why it is better
- Whether it solves their problem
They do not want to hunt for this information in paragraph heavy bullet points.
High performing listings use images to do the heavy lifting.
Clear infographics, simple callouts, visual demonstrations and information presented in a way that can be absorbed in seconds.
This is especially important on mobile, where images dominate the screen and text is often truncated.
If your imagery does not tell the story clearly, your listing is working harder than it needs to.
Where SEO still matters
This is not an argument against SEO. It is still essential. Amazon needs structured data to understand your product and index it correctly. Titles, bullet points and back end keywords still matter, and they always will.
This layer of optimisation has become far more standardised. AI tools can generate compliant titles and bullet points. Amazon’s systems actively enforce content guidelines. Most brands are now operating within very similar SEO frameworks. Which means SEO alone is no longer a differentiator. It is the entry point, not the advantage.
It also relies on accurate, consistent product data anchored by unique identifiers such as the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). Strong foundations here help retail systems understand and surface your products consistently.
Conversion is now the competitive advantage
Where brands now win or lose is conversion.
Conversion is driven by:
- Strong visual storytelling
- Clear USP communication
- High quality image design
- Design led A+ Content
A+ Content, in particular, should support the buying decision, not overwhelm it. Unless a product is highly technical, walls of text add very little value.
Clean layouts, short explanations and visual clarity consistently outperform dense copy. You still include the right keywords and provide the necessary information, but you present it in a way that matches how people actually consume content today.
Advertising has changed the stakes
Another critical factor is advertising. A significant portion of page one is now sponsored. In many categories, organic listings are pushed well below the fold. That means brands are often paying for traffic regardless of how strong their organic rankings are. When you are paying for traffic, conversion matters more than ever.
Better conversion leads to:
- Lower advertising cost of sales (ACoS)
- Better ad efficiency
- Higher profitability
- More sustainable growth
The new way to think about listing optimisation
Modern Amazon listing optimisation is not about choosing between SEO and conversion.
It’s about understanding their roles, SEO gets your product found and conversion turns interest into sales.
The best-performing listings treat SEO as the foundation and design as the differentiator.
In today’s Amazon landscape, the listings that win aren’t the ones that say the most, they’re the ones that show it best.
Need help optimising your Amazon listings?
If you are looking for support with optimising your Amazon listings globally, from SEO foundations through to high converting imagery and A+ Content, get in touch with the team at eCommerce Nurse.
We help brands move beyond keyword stuffing and build listings that convert, scale and perform in today’s Amazon landscape. Whether you are launching new products or refreshing existing listings, we will help you strike the right balance between visibility and sales.
