At the time of writing, the latest version of nginx available from the AWS yum repo is 1.8.

The best thing to do for now is to build any newer version from source.

The AWS Linux AMI already has the necessary build tools.

For example, based on the Nginx 1.10 (I've assumed you're logged in as the regular ec2-user. Anything needing superuser rights is preceded with sudo)

cd /tmp #so we can clean-up easily
wget http://nginx.org/download/nginx-1.10.0.tar.gz
tar zxvf nginx-1.10.0.tar.gz && rm -f nginx-1.10.0.tar.gz
cd nginx-1.10.0
sudo yum install pcre-devel openssl-devel #required libs, not installed by default
./configure \
  --prefix=/etc/nginx \
  --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf \
  --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid \
  --lock-path=/var/run/nginx.lock \
  --with-http_ssl_module \
  --with-http_v2_module \
  --user=nginx \
  --group=nginx
make
sudo make install
sudo groupadd nginx
sudo useradd -M -G nginx nginx
rm -rf nginx-1.10.0

You'll then want a service file, so that you can start/stop nginx, and load it on boot.

Here's one that matches the above config. Put it in /etc/rc.d/init.d/nginx:

#!/bin/sh
#
# nginx - this script starts and stops the nginx daemon
#
# chkconfig:   - 85 15
# description:  NGINX is an HTTP(S) server, HTTP(S) reverse \
#               proxy and IMAP/POP3 proxy server
# processname: nginx
# config:      /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
# config:      /etc/sysconfig/nginx
# pidfile:     /var/run/nginx.pid

# Source function library.
. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

# Source networking configuration.
. /etc/sysconfig/network

# Check that networking is up.
[ "$NETWORKING" = "no" ] && exit 0

nginx="/etc/nginx/sbin/nginx"
prog=$(basename $nginx)

NGINX_CONF_FILE="/etc/nginx/nginx.conf"

[ -f /etc/sysconfig/nginx ] && . /etc/sysconfig/nginx

lockfile=/var/run/nginx.lock

make_dirs() {
   # make required directories
   user=`$nginx -V 2>&1 | grep "configure arguments:" | sed 's/[^*]*--user=\([^ ]*\).*/\1/g' -`
   if [ -z "`grep $user /etc/passwd`" ]; then
       useradd -M -s /bin/nologin $user
   fi
   options=`$nginx -V 2>&1 | grep 'configure arguments:'`
   for opt in $options; do
       if [ `echo $opt | grep '.*-temp-path'` ]; then
           value=`echo value" ]; then
               # echo "creating" $value
               mkdir -p $value && chown -R $user $value
           fi
       fi
   done
}

start() {
    [ -x $nginx ] || exit 5
    [ -f $NGINX_CONF_FILE ] || exit 6
    make_dirs
    echo -n $"Starting $prog: "
    daemon $nginx -c $NGINX_CONF_FILE
    retval=$?
    echo
    [ $retval -eq 0 ] && touch $lockfile
    return $retval
}

stop() {
    echo -n $"Stopping $prog: "
    killproc $prog -QUIT
    retval=$?
    echo
    [ $retval -eq 0 ] && rm -f $lockfile
    return $retval
}

restart() {
    configtest || return $?
    stop
    sleep 1
    start
}

reload() {
    configtest || return $?
    echo -n $"Reloading $prog: "
    killproc $nginx -HUP
    RETVAL=$?
    echo
}

force_reload() {
    restart
}

configtest() {
  $nginx -t -c $NGINX_CONF_FILE
}

rh_status() {
    status $prog
}

rh_status_q() {
    rh_status >/dev/null 2>&1
}

case "$1" in
    start)
        rh_status_q && exit 0
        $1
        ;;
    stop)
        rh_status_q || exit 0
        $1
        ;;
    restart|configtest)
        $1
        ;;
    reload)
        rh_status_q || exit 7
        $1
        ;;
    force-reload)
        force_reload
        ;;
    status)
        rh_status
        ;;
    condrestart|try-restart)
        rh_status_q || exit 0
            ;;
    *)
        echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|restart|condrestart|try-restart|reload|force-reload|configtest}"
        exit 2
esac

Set the service file to be executable:

sudo chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/init.d/nginx

Now you can start it with:

sudo service nginx start

To load it automatically on boot:

sudo chkconfig nginx on

Finally, don't forget to edit /etc/nginx/nginx.conf to match your requirements and run sudo service nginx reload to refresh the changes.

You can install any nginx versions.

Check this: https://centos.pkgs.org/7/nginx-x86_64/nginx-1.14.2-1.el7_4.ngx.x86_64.rpm.html

If you wanna install nginx 1.14.2 follow this:

wget https://nginx.org/packages/centos/7/x86_64/RPMS/nginx-1.14.2-1.el7_4.ngx.x86_64.rpm
sudo rpm -Uvh nginx-1.14.2-1.el7_4.ngx.x86_64.rpm
nginx -v

I'd personally use Amazon's own repo.

The version provided by the Amazon repo is relatively old (1.12.2 at the time of writing). To see what versions the Amazon repo has access to run

amazon-linux-extras list | grep nginx

If you'd like a later version, consider EPEL.

In regards to the config, your best bet is to explicitly supply the configuration you require to the server.

Using the off-the-peg ones are fine to get you up and running. However you run the risk of things changing when Nginx updates. Explicitly supplying your own configuration gives you greater control over what is running.

Probably the simplest approach would be to upload the configuration generated by nginxconfig.io to S3.

Then add a script via user data when creating the EC2 instance to download your configuration.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/user-data.html

Something like this...

#!/bin/bash

# Install Nginx
amazon-linux-extras install nginx1.12

# Back up existing config
mv /etc/nginx /etc/nginx-backup

# Download the configuration from S3
aws s3 cp s3://{my_bucket}/nginxconfig.io-example.com.zip /tmp

# Install new configuration
unzip /tmp/nginxconfig.io-example.com.zip -d /etc/nginx

The configuration supplied by nginxconfig.io sets up all the sites enabled/available for you.