The publishing world has changed a lot over the years, as writers don’t need to find a publisher to get their writing out there. Platforms, like Amazon KDP, make it easier than ever to self-publish your books.

Amazon KDP allows authors to make their eBooks available to Kindle and Amazon readers. However, as there are so many books on these services, it can be difficult trying to get readers to notice your work. 

Finding the best keywords to describe your book can help with this! 

You’ll learn some ways of doing Amazon keyword research in this post, as well as advice on keywords you should avoid to prevent issues later. 

More About Amazon KDP

Amazon KDP refers to the company’s self-publishing platform, known as Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.

Amazon KDP allows writers to self-publish their work digitally. Using KDP makes your work accessible to readers that use Kindle and Amazon. Writers can market their paperbacks, hardcovers, and ebooks, though material copies will be generated on demand.

As you create a project with the platform, you’ll be prompted to decide on what keywords to use, so potential readers can search for texts like yours through the search engine. 

It’s important to select the right keywords to maximize your chances of people finding your work, which we’ll get into next.

Why Are Keywords Important?

People type keywords into Amazon’s search bar to find a book. Keywords and phrases affect how high your book reaches in the search results.

Choosing relevant keywords increases the chances of your work being displayed to potential readers. 

People search for the things they want to purchase. The first three to four search results are more likely to sell compared to results further down the page.

How To Choose Good Keywords

Make sure that the keywords you use are:

• Chosen with care, as many keywords are low competition.
• Expressions people will really search for
• Words that explain what your book is about to potential readers

Fictional book ideas include the theme, plot, story tone, genre, and main character type. 

In the case of nonfiction books, the keywords should give the reader an understanding of what the text covers. The answers to the questions below can be used as relevant keywords:

• Who is the target audience?
• What are the primary insights and highlights?
• What do readers gain from reading the text?

Keywords To Avoid

Here is some advice on what keywords and phrases you should avoid:

• Avoid Amazon’s branding, like ‘Kindle’, or ‘Kindle Unlimited’. 
• Ensure there are no grammatical or spelling errors.
• Don’t use subjective phrases, like ‘best thriller novel’.
• Avoid time-sensitive words, like ‘available now’, ‘new’, or ‘on sale’.
• Avoid general broad keywords, like ebook, novel, or book.
• Don’t use any words that may appear untruthful

You can find more advice on this with Amazon’s Keyword advice. 

How To Do Amazon KDP Keyword Research 

It may take a while to find the best keywords, but taking the time to perform keyword research will maximize the chances of your work being discovered.

Here are some effective methods of carrying out keyword research:

Look At What People Search For On Amazon

This method may be simple, but it is effective and free! Many search engines, like Bing and Google, have an autocomplete ability. 

As you type in the Amazon search bar, you’ll notice that the bar automatically completes the search. You’ll be given several options related to the word that you typed to choose from. 

Try typing various keywords into the search bar, then increase your list by beginning words with all of the letters in the alphabet. 

Make sure that you’re either in Incognito mode or logged out from your Amazon account. This will prevent your previous order history and past searches from affecting your results.

Here are some tips to help you select the best keywords:

• Try to predict how potential readers will search
• Avoid lengthy phrases and don’t exceed seven words
• Use keywords in a logical sequence

Look At Google Common Searches 

As is the case with Amazon, you can do the same type of search bar research with Google. The autofill function shows even more relevant phrases and keywords than Amazon does!

Other than the search bar, look at the ‘People Also Ask’ questions and ‘Related Searches’ to figure out what words you should use.

Google Keywords Planner and Ahrefs 

After you’ve used Amazon and Google’s search bar function to find some main keywords, you can use Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs to increase your list. 

Search volume is important as it indicates what popular searches people are typing into a search engine. Google Keyword Planner allows you to find relevant phrases by looking at their average monthly search volume. 

You can also use Ahrefs to do this. This platform lets you refine your search to only include Amazon results, removing any needless information from Google. 

Reverse ASIN Search Tools

ASIN stands for Amazon Standard Identification Number. This is a ten-figure code that determines items on Amazon. 

Reverse ASIN Lookup Tools can help you create detailed keyword lists as you can obtain keywords from competitors. Cerebro by Helium10 works well for this as it displays a lot of information.

Follow these steps to find keywords with the reverse ASIN lookup tools. 

• Type some seed keywords related to your text in Amazon’s search bar.
• Note down the top competing ASINs that pop up.
• Type between eight and ten of these rival ASINs into the ASIN lookup platform, eg. Cerebro.
• Narrow down the results by using the filters, eg. maximum word count, or minimum search volume.
• Export the information into Excel, then order the results by Search Volume.
• Shorten the list by narrowing down the raw phrases through relevancy.

Amazon Advertising

You can also use Amazon advertising to carry out keyword research. The company’s automatic advertising can deliver lots of keyword information in only a month. 

Give yourself an appropriate budget and allow Amazon’s console to work. Once the month is up, you’ll end up with a minimum of 100 keywords and related metrics to assess them. 

You can later export the keyword information and filter with three primary metrics. These are:

• Advertising Cost of Sale – ACoS
• Conversion Rate – CVR
• Click Through Rate – CTR

You’ll be looking for keywords with a low Advertising Cost of Sale and a high Conversion Rate and Click Through Rate.

If you do use Amazon’s advertising campaigns, take caution, as these can start to turn into a great expense faster than you think! 

Once you’ve found your relevant keywords, make sure that you move to a manual campaign so you won’t go over your advertising budget. 

Time For New Keywords To Appear

After you’ve chosen your keywords and added them to your book, it’ll take a maximum of 48 hours for the new phrases and words to appear. 

This is also the case with other changes made to the ISBN, title, author’s name, publisher, and description. 

Final Thoughts

If you’re planning to self-publish your book with Amazon’s KDP, keyword research can go a long way in increasing your number of potential readers. 

There are several methods you can use to find effective words and phrases, but make sure that your chosen keywords are relevant and free from errors before you use them.