Amazon SEO in Australia and How to Rank Higher on Amazon.com.au

You list a product on Amazon.com.au, it looks fine, and it sits on page four where nobody scrolls. Meanwhile a competitor with a similar product and a worse photo takes the sales. Most of the time the difference is not the product. It is how well the listing tells Amazon what the product is, who it is for and why a shopper should pick it. This guide explains how Amazon search decides what to show, then works through each part of a listing you can improve, with a checklist at the end.

What Amazon SEO is

Amazon SEO is the work of making your product listings easy for Amazon’s search to understand and easy for shoppers to choose. It covers the words in your title, bullet points, description and hidden search terms, as well as your images, reviews, price and stock. Amazon’s own seller guide says SEO helps sellers “organically move up in search results”, and warns that stuffing a listing with keywords can hurt your rankings (Amazon).

It is a different job from Google SEO. Google is trying to answer a question. Amazon is trying to sell a product, so it cares about whether people who see your listing go on to buy it.

How Amazon decides what to show

Amazon does not publish its ranking formula, but its guidance and the way search behaves point to two broad things.

Relevance: does this listing match the search?

Amazon reads your title, bullets, description, backend search terms and product details to work out which searches your product belongs in. If a shopper types “linen throw blanket” and none of those words appear anywhere in your listing, you are unlikely to show up for that search at all.

Performance: do shoppers choose it?

Among relevant products, Amazon favours the ones shoppers click and buy. Clear images, a strong title, good reviews, a competitive price and reliable stock all help. Amazon’s guide notes that keeping your price competitive “can improve your product ranking”, and that listing quality and account health can contribute to rankings too (Amazon).

This is why keyword stuffing backfires. A title crammed with search terms may be relevant to more searches, but fewer people click it, and that drags it down.

Start with keyword research for Australian shoppers

Before you change a word, find out what Australians actually type. Spelling and wording differ from the US, and copying a US listing often misses local terms.

What to do	Why it helps
Use Amazon’s own search bar	Type your main product word on Amazon.com.au and note the suggestions that appear. These come from real searches.
Check Australian spelling and words	“Colour” or “color”, “doona” or “duvet”, “thongs” or “flip flops”. Use the word your buyers use in visible copy, and put the alternative in your backend terms.
Look at your Sponsored Products search term report	If you run ads, this shows the exact searches that led to clicks and sales. It is often the best keyword source you have.
Read competitor listings and reviews	Reviews show the words customers use to describe the product and the problems it solves.
Use Brand Analytics if you are brand registered	It shows popular search terms in your category. It is one of the Brand Registry benefits Amazon lists (Amazon Australia).

Group the terms into one main phrase for the title, a handful of supporting phrases for the bullets, and synonyms and alternative spellings for the backend.

Write a title that works for search and for shoppers

Amazon’s title limit is 200 characters for most categories, but Amazon itself recommends keeping titles to about 60 (Amazon). Since January 2025, Amazon’s title rules also ban decorative special characters such as ! and $, and stop the same word appearing more than twice (Search Engine Land).

A good title usually follows this order: brand, product type, the key feature or material, then size, colour or quantity. Put your main search phrase near the start, where it is visible on a phone.

Title	Example
Weak	Premium Luxury Soft Throw Blanket Throw for Couch Bed Sofa Best Gift Blanket
Better	Brand Name Linen Throw Blanket, 130 x 170 cm, Natural

Bullet points that answer the questions buyers ask

Bullets are where shoppers decide. Amazon suggests starting each bullet with a one or two word label, followed by a short explanation (Amazon). Use them to answer the questions that would stop someone buying:

1. What is it made of, and how does it feel or perform?
2. What size is it, and will it fit what I have?
3. How do I care for it, use it or install it?
4. What is in the box?
5. Why this one rather than the cheaper one next to it?

Work your supporting keywords into these answers naturally. If a sentence reads badly with the keyword in it, leave the keyword for the backend.

Backend search terms: the hidden keywords

Every listing has a search terms field that shoppers never see but Amazon reads. Amazon’s guide says to use it for words that do not fit elsewhere, such as synonyms and abbreviations, written in lowercase and separated by spaces, without articles or prepositions (Amazon).

• Do not repeat words already in your title or bullets. It wastes the space.
• Add alternative spellings and Australian or US variations.
• Leave out competitor brand names. Amazon does not allow them in search terms.
• Keep within the field’s length limit. Terms over the limit may not be indexed at all.

Images, A+ Content and your brand store

Images do most of the selling, especially on mobile. Amazon recommends a plain white background for the main image, with the product filling 85% or more of the frame, plus clear photos from several angles (Amazon). Add lifestyle images, a size guide and an image that shows what is in the box.

If you own a registered or pending trade mark, you can enrol in Amazon Brand Registry, which gives you A+ Content, a Brand Store, Sponsored Brands ads and Brand Analytics (Amazon Australia). A+ Content replaces the plain description with images, comparison charts and brand story modules. Amazon says, based on its internal data, that basic A+ Content can increase sales by up to 8% and well-implemented Premium A+ by up to 20% (Amazon).

Reviews, done the right way

Reviews affect whether shoppers click and buy, which in turn affects ranking. In Australia, they also come with legal rules. The ACCC says it is against the law to create fake reviews or arrange for others to, that any reward for a review must be clearly disclosed and not depend on the review being positive, and that businesses must not remove genuine negative reviews (ACCC). Amazon’s own rules are stricter still.

The legitimate options:

Option	How it works
Request a Review button	Found in Seller Central. Sends Amazon’s standard review request to the buyer.
Amazon Vine	Available in Australia for brand registered sellers. Gives products with few reviews to trusted reviewers in exchange for an honest review (Amazon Australia).
Fix the cause of bad reviews	Whether it is a misleading photo, a sizing problem or packaging that breaks in transit.

Price, stock and delivery

A strong listing still struggles if it often runs out of stock or is priced well above similar products. Keep stock steady, especially before busy periods, and watch your price against close competitors. Faster delivery options also matter, because shoppers can filter results by delivery date.

AI shopping assistants and your listing

Amazon has launched an AI shopping assistant, first called Rufus, that answers shoppers’ questions about products (Amazon). It is live in the US and several other countries, but at the time of writing it has not been confirmed for Amazon Australia. When it does arrive, it will draw on the same content: your title, bullets, description, A+ Content and reviews. Listings that clearly answer buyers’ questions are ready for it either way.

A hypothetical example

This is a hypothetical, not a client. Take a Melbourne homewares brand selling a linen throw on Amazon.com.au. Its title reads “Premium Luxury Soft Throw Blanket for Couch Bed Sofa Gift”, the bullets repeat the same phrases, the backend field is empty, and the main image is a styled lounge room where the throw is hard to see.

The fixes, in order:

1. Keyword research shows Australians search “linen throw” and “linen throw blanket”, and some search “flax”.
2. The title becomes brand, “Linen Throw Blanket”, size and colour, under 80 characters.
3. The bullets answer fabric, size, care, what is in the box, and what makes it different.
4. “Flax”, “bed throw”, “couch blanket” and US spellings go into the backend terms.
5. A white background main image replaces the lounge room shot, which moves to the second image.
6. Once its trade mark application is filed, the brand applies for Brand Registry, adds A+ Content and enrols the product in Vine.

None of these changes guarantees a ranking. Together, they make the listing easier for Amazon to place and easier for shoppers to choose.

Common Amazon SEO mistakes

• Copying a US listing without checking Australian words and spelling.
• Stuffing the title with keywords until it no longer reads like a product name.
• Leaving the backend search terms empty, or filling them with words already in the title.
• Using a lifestyle photo as the main image.
• Chasing reviews in ways that break Amazon’s rules or Australian Consumer Law.
• Running out of stock during peak periods.
• Changing everything at once, so you cannot tell what worked.

If you would rather hand it over, High10 provides Amazon SEO for Australian sellers and full Amazon marketplace management. We quote each job in writing after a short scoping call.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• WooCommerce or Shopify? How an Australian Business Should Choose
• How Manufacturers Can Start Selling Online
• Should You Build or Buy an eCommerce Website?