As an author, we always have an idea of what a great title should look like; great works such as "The Great Gatsby" and "Catcher in the Rye" are catchy and mysterious titles that trigger the reader's imagination. Although what one would assume to be a good title might not be a good title for your self-published Kindle book. Kindle book titles need to be written so the Amazon search engine, also called the Amazon A9 algorithm, can index your book title properly to the reader's search query. This article will discuss how to create a Kindle book title that ranks, step-by-step.
What is Kindle SEO?
Kindle SEO is the process of ranking your book on the Amazon search engine for a set of keywords that is relevant to your book. For the Amazon search engine to have a "book-to-reader search fit," you need to make sure to place the right keywords into the right places in your book listing.
It is also worth noting that If you don't conduct Kindle SEO correctly, you will more than likely result in less traffic and fewer sales.
The human factor is also a part of Kindle SEO. Your Kindle title and listing must:
1) be informative and
2) elicit an emotional response from the reader.
As a result, you must optimize, not only for the A9 algorithm but also for the reader. The ideal Kindle listing will straddle writing for the search engine and reader.
Why is Kindle SEO Important?
It is important to emphasize how vital Kindle SEO is. The cascading effects of a well-optimized book listing will filter downstream, while the harmful effects of a poorly constructed listing will filter upstream.
A well-written book listing, for example, will receive impressions: more clicks, higher conversion, lower CPC (cost-per-click), higher ranking, and result in more sales/profit.
As you can see, optimizing your self-published book for effective Kindle SEO can help you achieve a good flywheel effect. So yes, it is that critical, and it is well worth the extra effort and time.
Keyword Research
In this stage, your keyword research will not only be finding the right keywords that are relevant to your book but also the need to prioritize them. Because of the 200-character title limit, it is near impossible to include all of your keywords. Besides, you don't want to appear spammy and pack too many keywords into your title.
To start, I would typically begin my research on Amazon. Unless your type of book is not on Amazon (seldom happens), Amazon would be a reliable source.
Seed Keywords
In your keyword research, you can begin by finding the seed keywords. These are highly relevant keywords where you will start your search.
There are two ways to find seed keywords. First, you might already have some seed keywords in mind, which is likely the case if you know the subject matter you are writing on.
Second, you can find seed keywords by searching for books written by your nearest competitors and a reverse ISBN search, also known as a reverse ASIN search. For example, if you are selling a book in the "Keto Diet" niche and your next nearest competitor has an ISBN of 1628602570, you will use this ISBN or ASIN to be entered into a free reverse search tool such as Sonar.
Download the result into a CSV format and sort it further for relevance. To sort by relevance, you will create a bit of a relevancy pyramid. You want to come up with 5-6 keywords (or key phrases) that are the most relevant and with the highest search volume. If you deem any keywords from the list not relevant to your book, feel free to remove them from consideration.
This ensures that a reader's search in Amazon's A9 algorithm can be matched/indexed to your book. Therefore, targeting the proper keywords and including them in the front of your title are important Kindle SEO fundamentals.
Filtering Relevant Keywords: Some Pointers
Here are some filtering tips to assist you in removing unrelated keywords faster:
Remove any keywords phrase with more than four words if you have a large list of results
Remove words in the keyword list that are NOT related to your book.
Look for keywords and phrases that MUST include a specific word or genre.
Based on the above example, the below are good keywords to use:
keto cookbook
ketogenic diet
keto reset diet
ketosis cookbook
keto recipes
30-day ketogenic cleanse
Generating your Kindle Book Title from your Keyword Research
Still working with the 6-8 keywords that you have picked in the previous step, you will curate the title of your book based on them.
Amazon titles have a 200-character limit.
There are 2 goals for the title:
Using the first 50 characters to explain what the book is to the reader, the reader needs to know within seconds what the 50 characters in the title describe;
You will use the rest of the 150 characters to talk to the Amazon search engine, adding searched words that have “-“ in-between for easy understanding. The template for a good Kindle title is as follows:
{main keyword 1} – {variation} – {words in search term that describe book 1} – {words in search term that describe book 2….} – by {Author}
Make sure the main keyword is the function of both the highest relevance and search volume.
Example of a Good Kindle Title
In our example, a good title would be as follows:
“Keto Cookbook - ketogenic diet reset - ketosis recipes for 30-day cleanse”
**Please note: try your best not to repeat keywords. The words only need to appear once for the Amazon A9 to pick up. Repeating words or word density does not help with Kindle SEO.
As you can see in the example above, we were able to hit all the relevant words from our keyword research, with our main keyword serving as the first part of the title.
Additional ways to Boost your Kindle Book Rankings
Besides Kindle SEO there are also more direct ways to boost your self-published book rankings.
Kindle Countdown Deals
These allow writers to run limited-time promotions for eBooks accessible on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk from anywhere in the world. This promotion is only available for eBooks. Customers will notice regular and exceptional prices on the eBooks description page, with a countdown clock. This clock will show you how much time you have left to take advantage of the special price.
Free Book Promotions
Run a Free Book Promotion by making your book available for free for up to 5 days throughout each 90-day KDP Select enrollment cycle.
Kindle eBook Pre-Order
You can start promoting your eBook with a pre-order (pre-orders for paperbacks are currently not available) before it is released. You can promote your eBook's pre-order page on Author Central, Goodreads, your site, and elsewhere. Also, pre-orders will contribute toward sales rank and other Kindle Store merchandising even before your eBook is released. This can help more readers to discover your book.
KDP Advertising
KDP Advertising, which is part of the Amazon Advertising Platform, is used for Amazon Kindle advertising*. It enables you to promote your self-published book with sponsored cost-per-click advertising. The book you want to promote will show up in Amazon search results, eBook detail pages, and on the Kindle device's lock screen.
Conclusion
Finding the best Kindle book title may appear to be hard work. However, when done correctly, this one optimization can provide the highest return on investment of all the front-end effort you can do when ranking your Kindle book on Amazon. Best of luck!
*Check out https://kadaxis.com/advanced-analytics/amazon-ad-keywords for further information on how to identify and maximize your Amazon Advertising Keywords.
Rick Wong is the founder of SellerMetrics, an Amazon PPC Software. Having worked in some of the world’s largest financial institutions in Canada, he ventured into Amazon selling in 2017 and sold his Amazon business four years later.
He currently resides in Hong Kong with his wife and 1 yr old daughter. On days that he is not in his office, you can find him playing golf with his friends or watching the newest show on Netflix with his family.