Selecting Amazon Keywords
We need viable keywords created for every book, and this video describes how to get the ones that people actually search on. The example in the video uses 'true crime' as the seed keyword, but you should use all of the phrases that are relevant to your book.
More guidelines from the links below to increase a books exposure and avoid having a book or our entire account shut down by Amazon:
1. Don't repeat any words. Use the space to list other important keywords. You can repeat words in the description which is a big opportunity to list all of the keywords you want.
2. Combine keywords in the most logical order: Customers will search for military science fiction but not for fiction science military.
3. Use up to seven keywords or short phrases. Separate them with commas, and keep an eye on the character limit in the text field.
4. Experiment. Before you publish, search for your book's title and keywords on Amazon. If you get irrelevant results, or results you dislike, consider making some changes—your book will ultimately appear among similar results. When you search, look at the suggestions that appear in the Search field drop down.
5. Think like your customer. Think about how you would search for your book if you were a customer, and ask others to suggest keywords they'd search on.
Useful keyword types
● Setting (Colonial America)
● Character types (single dad, veteran)
● Character roles (strong female lead)
● Plot themes (coming of age, forgiveness)
● Story tone (dystopian, feel-good)
From https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A294SHSUYLKTA6:
Search Keywords
Search keywords can be a word or a phrase. For best results, we recommend using phrases that are 2-3 words long. To determine the right search keywords for your book, we suggest you think like a reader. What topics or genres are your readers searching for?
Avoid search keywords that are not accurate descriptors of your book's central storyline, or keywords that are completely unrelated to what's in the book. Inaccurate keywords can lead to unexpected or confusing search results and provide a poor customer experience. We do not tolerate search keywords that mislead or manipulate our customers. Examples of items that are prohibited as search keywords include but are not limited to:
• Reference to other authors
• Reference to books by other authors
• Reference to sales rank (e.g., "bestselling")
• Reference to advertisements or promotions (e.g., "free")
• Reference to anything that is unrelated to your book's content
Do this to find the keywords that will bring sales:
1. Create a complete list of the keywords after viewing the video above. List them on separate lines in a text file.
2. Prioritize the list. The top 7 will be used in the Amazon keywords list for your book.
3. Create a description to be used at Amazon that contains all of the keywords that you feel are relevant, then send it to us so we can list the new description. You may want to start with the existing Amazon description.
This will boost your visibility significantly, so please do it for all of your books and we'll upload the new keywords and description.
Here are three links on the subject of Amazon Keywords:
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A2EZES9JAJ6H02
https://moz.com/blog/amazon-seo-organic-search-ranking-factors
http://www.sellbox.com/amazon-kindle-keywords-5-best-practices-kdp-ebook-publishers/
HOW TO PICK, IMPLEMENT 5 CATEGORIES
Find a book that is similar and copy their categories into a text file. Take the most appropriate 3 and submit them to KDP at Contact Us > Amazon Product Page, then submit this:
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Subject: Add Categories to ROUGH TRADE ASIN: B01KCW85UW
Will you please add the following categories to ROUGH TRADE by Steve Jackson with ASIN: B01KCW85UW
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > True Crime > Criminals
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > True Crime > Murder & Mayhem
Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Biographies & Memoirs > True Crime > Serial Killers
Thank you
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