Amazon Book Optimization Tip #5 - Choose Keywords That Attract Buyers

The easiest way to understand keywords is to think of them as mini billboards that drive searchers to your books.

Amazon has several areas where you can add keywords to optimize traffic to your book.

1) The book title and subtitle

2) The book description

3) The search keywords you enter when you upload your book

If you’re totally new to keyword optimization, your first question is probably where do you find keywords to describe your book?

A lot of the “experts” send you to the Google Keywords tool, but that really isn’t necessary. What we’re trying to do here is optimize your book for Amazon. The best way to do that is to discover actual search terms for your book used by readers on Amazon.

Nine times out of ten, I select most of my search terms using the Amazon search bar. It shows me the terms readers are using to find similar books on Amazon.

If I’m writing a Kindle book, I go to the Amazon search bar, click on the arrow at the left-hand side, and select Kindle Store. The first thing I’m going to type in is my general search term. In this case, I’ll say “eBay.”

What pops up is –

. eBay in Kindle Store

. eBay in all departments

. eBay in Apps for Android

. eBay selling

. eBay for Dummies

. eBay .com

. eBay business

. eBay garage sale

. eBay home

. eBay books

. eBay store

. eBay 2014

These are the search terms potential readers are going to click on. eBay for Dummies and eBay 2014 can’t be used in your seven search terms because they are titles of books in the category. It is against Amazon’s TOS to use book titles or author names in your search keywords.

Looking over the rest of the list I would use eBay selling, eBay business, eBay garage sale, eBay books, and eBay store.

Next type in “eBay” followed by each letter of the alphabet, and cull out search terms you think would be relevant to your book.

When I did this here are some of the other keywords I came up with –

. eBay Amazon

. eBay arbitrage

. eBay buying and selling

. eBay Basics

. eBay consignment

. eBay Clothing

. eBay drop shipping

. eBay guide

. eBay how to

. eBay income

. eBay power seller

. eBay shipping

This gives us seventeen solid keywords readers searching for Kindle books are actually using. You can further validate these keywords by looking at book titles and descriptions.

Type “eBay” into the Amazon search bar, and select the first book. Go down to the product details section. Most of the books will be ranked in two or three categories. Select the category labeled eBay, and this will take you into the eBay bestsellers.

Look through the titles and descriptions of the books listed, and you can easily determine which keywords other authors determined to be most relevant. Use this info to narrow down your search terms.