Guide · Updated weekly
Every move that moves rank under the post-May-2026 A10 weights. Title, bullets, keywords, PPC, reviews, images, fees, tools. The data is from our 17,932-listing panel. Free, no signup, CC-BY-4.0.
§ 01
Amazon's A10 ranking model shifted significantly in May 2026. Conversion velocity (CVR-14) is now the dominant weight, up from third place. Title-keyword relevance fell. Every optimization downstream of this section is downstream of these weight changes.
Amazon shipped a quiet A10 update sometime in early May. We measured the damage (and the openings) across 17,932 listings, and the story isn't what most consultants are telling you.
Read the dispatch →§ 02
After the May 2026 rewrite, the optimal title length is 140-165 characters in most categories — not 200. The first 80 characters carry roughly 60% of indexing weight. Lead with your highest-converting keyword. Cut superlatives and bracketed clusters.
The 200-character ceiling is no longer the optimal target. We measured CTR, CVR, and rank for 9,184 listings across three length buckets. Here's where the sweet spot actually lives.
Read the dispatch →§ 03
We A/B-tested 540 bullet swaps. Outcome-led bullets (lead with the buyer's lived experience) beat feature-led bullets (lead with specs) by 2.1× on CVR. The lift compounds into rank via CVR-14, the dominant A10 weight.
Bullet copy is the most-rewritten and least-measured part of an Amazon listing. We ran 540 controlled bullet swaps across nine subcategories. The patterns that won, the patterns that lost, and a template you can steal.
Read the dispatch →§ 04
In the post-May A10 weighting, a keyword in your title that earns impressions but doesn't convert actively hurts your rank. Sort keywords by click-to-cart conversion rate, not search volume. Drop anything below 40% of category median.
§ 05
PPC doesn't have a direct A10 weight, but its second-order effect on CVR-14 means it moves organic rank meaningfully — only when the listing already converts. A 40%+ PPC spend increase lifts rank by 4.2 positions for high-CVR listings and drops rank by 3.1 for low-CVR ones.
Amazon says no. Most sellers act like yes. We ran the experiment that settles it. The short answer: PPC works for organic, but only if your listing is already converting.
Read the dispatch →§ 06
Review velocity is the third-largest A10 weight. Steady arrival beats burst arrival — spread Vine campaigns over 60-90 days, not the first week. Spread-Vine launches outperform concentrated-Vine by 4.3 rank positions at day 120.
Review velocity is the third-largest weight in the post-May A10 model and the one most sellers think they understand but don't. We analyzed 14,200 Vine campaigns and a control group of organic-only launches. The timing pattern is counterintuitive.
Read the dispatch →§ 07
Image quality has a small direct A10 weight (~0.06). The leverage is in CTR and CVR. Three image moves matter: scale the product to fill 70%+ of the main image, add an infographic that answers the top return reason, add a lifestyle shot with human scale.
Image optimization gets more consultant ink than almost any other listing topic. The actual A10 weight is small. We measured 11 image variables across 6,800 listings; here's where image investment pays back and where it doesn't.
Read the dispatch →§ 08
Amazon FBA fees: fulfillment ($3.27-$7.04 standard tier), monthly storage ($0.87/cu ft Jan-Sep), referral (8-20% by category), inbound placement ($0.27-$2.18). Total Amazon fees typically run 25-35% of selling price for most consumer products.
§ 09
Helium 10 for keyword research depth, Jungle Scout for product research polish, Sellerboard for daily P&L. Most serious sellers run Helium 10 + Sellerboard. New launches with budget pick Jungle Scout for the smoother onboarding.
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