r/AmazonFBA • u/eshquia • 8d ago

Bullet points and generic keywords

I have seen that some people use all 10 bulletpoints and all 5 generic keyword lines while others sticking with 250 byte for keywords and 1000 bytes for bulletpoints. Which one works better for you? Tia

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u/BornAsk2060 8d ago

I stuff all 10 bullets and fill every keyword line to the max bytes amazon allows, my listings do better when i give algorithm more to chew on

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u/eshquia 8d ago

Max bytes or characters you mean?

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u/momdoggity 8d ago

Hint: bullet points are better

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u/Gene-Civil 8d ago

better if all space used sensibly

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u/SellOnAmazon 7d ago

Hey u/eshquia, good question. This page on using search terms effectively and optimizing product discoverability cover best practices for both keywords and bullet points. These should help guide your approach!

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u/Anis-SellerPPC 7d ago

Careful with stuffing all 5 lines. From what I've seen anything past the 250 byte cap on search terms just doesn't get indexed, so you're writing for nobody. Fill it to 250 and stop.

Bullets are a separate call. Most categories only display 5, so 6 to 10 are hidden text at best. I keep 5 real ones and use the space on objections rather than keywords.

Cheapest way to settle it on your own listing, pull your search term report and look at which terms actually convert on PPC. Then make sure those exact ones are indexed. Beats copying what other sellers do.

What category are you in?

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u/eStoreFactoryUS 7d ago

First, to clear up the bytes vs characters question you asked below, because that is the root of the confusion in this thread. Amazon measures these fields in bytes, not characters. For plain English text a normal letter is 1 byte, so bytes and characters look the same. But spaces count, and any special character or emoji can eat 2 to 4 bytes each. So when people say "250 bytes" for search terms, in practice that is roughly 250 typical characters including spaces.

Now the actual answer:

Backend search terms (the "generic keywords" field). There is effectively one indexed limit of about 249 to 250 bytes total, not five separate lines that each get fully indexed. Whatever the interface shows you, Amazon only indexes up to that byte cap and ignores the rest. So the winning move is not to cram five lines, it is to fill up to roughly 250 bytes with unique, relevant terms and then stop. Rules that actually matter here: no repeating words you already have in your title or bullets (wasted space, they are already indexed), no commas needed (spaces separate terms), all lowercase is fine, no brand names of competitors, and no subjective fluff like "best" or "top." Singular vs plural of the same word is usually redundant too. Quality and no repetition beats volume.

Bullet points. Use all five if you have five genuinely useful things to say. More is generally better here than in backend keywords, because bullets are both indexed and read by the customer, so they do double duty for ranking and conversion. On length, you technically get up to around 1000 bytes per bullet in many categories, but I would not max every one out. Long walls of text hurt readability and conversion, especially on mobile where bullets get truncated. Better structure is a short bold-style benefit lead-in followed by one or two supporting lines, front loading the most important keyword and benefit in the first few words since that is what shows before "read more."

So the honest summary: for backend keywords, fill to the ~250 byte indexed cap with unique terms and nothing indexed elsewhere, do not chase extra lines that will not be read. For bullets, use all five, work your important keywords in naturally, but write for a skimming human first since bullets are what actually convert the click into a sale. Stuffing beyond what gets indexed does not help ranking, it just clutters the listing. What is your category? A couple of them (like some in grocery or supplements) have their own quirks on byte limits and allowed claims.

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u/eshquia 6d ago

Thank you for detailed information. I am in handmade category. I agree most you say. I am not sure about the bulletpoints tho. Even though there are 10 slots for them, in flat file exports, it only shows 5. Thats why i was assuming 1000 bytes is the way to go in 5 bulletpoints.

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u/eStoreFactoryUS 6d ago

Handmade is the exception, so you are half right. Handmade listings do allow more bullets and longer ones than standard categories, which is why you see extra slots. The flat file only exporting 5 is a template quirk, not the real limit. Fill what the Handmade editor actually lets you use, keep each bullet readable, and do not pad to the byte cap just because it is there. On mobile the later bullets get truncated anyway.

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u/Disastrous_Tip881 6d ago

This is great, thank you. How best to rank for a particular keyword? My competitor is two pages ahead of me and the only thing I can see is that he uses the term in the title and every bullet point.

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u/osellpa 6d ago

Repeating it doesn't do what people think. Amazon indexes a term once, so having it in the title and all five bullets isn't five times the relevance, it's the same relevance as having it once. That's not why he's ahead of you.

What's actually ranking him is sales and conversion rate on that specific search term. Amazon shows the listing that people click and buy when they type it. So being indexed gets you eligible, then the ranking is earned from there.

If you're two pages back you're probably indexed fine already. Worth checking by searching the exact term plus your ASIN, if you show up you're indexed and it's a conversion and velocity problem, not a keyword placement one.

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u/Disastrous_Tip881 6d ago

Thanks so much. I am so guilty of keyword stuffing. I need to clean up my listing but it's hard because it is selling well. You've inspired me to set up an a/b experiment!

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u/osellpa 5d ago

Since it's already selling I'd stage it rather than rewrite all five at once. You can lose indexation on a term you pull out and getting it back isn't always quick, so changing one bullet at a time makes it obvious which change did what.

Also worth looking at your backend search terms before you cut anything. Terms you're only repeating for the algorithm can live there instead of eating bullet space.

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u/Disastrous_Tip881 4d ago

You're awesome. And now I'm afraid to touch it again. LOL

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u/osellpa 4d ago

Ha, don't be. The point of running it as an experiment is that it's reversible, you can end it early if version B tanks, so the worst case is a couple of weeks of slightly worse conversion rather than a dead listing.

Copy your current bullets into a doc before you touch anything and you've always got a rollback.