Writing Your Proposal — Keywords for Publishing SEO

Choose the right keywords

Choose keywords to increase your book’s visibility via Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). These are words and phrases in your title, subtitle, blurb and Keyword box (on your Marketing page) and greatly increase your visibility on search engines such as Google, Amazon, Apple and LibraryThing.

As most people “shop” for books on line, this is crucial to your book’s success.

If you’ve written a book that teaches reiki and someone searches for “book on how to do reiki” and your book does not show up on the first 1-3 pages of results, potential readers are not going to find it.

Add ten to twenty keywords to your Marketing page

Choose 10-20 keywords/phrases that describe the content and theme of your book. Write your keywords in the Keywords box in the Advertising section of your Marketing page.

How to choose keywords for your book

• Choose keywords that describe your book accurately.
• Don’t just choose singular words – use “strings” as well, small groupings or phrases.
• If possible, make sure your most important keywords are in your title, subtitle, and blurb as well.
• For example, "Barbary Corsairs" "Eastern Mediterranean" "sixteenth century" for a serious history book, or alternatively, "racy" "adventure" "pirates" for historical fiction set in the same era/place.
• Put yourself in a reader's position – what might they type into a search engine if they wanted a book like yours? E.g. “How to save the environment books” “racy historical fiction”.
• Use Search Engine Auto-complete: Most search engines such as Google or Amazon can be used to generate ideas for keywords by using the search engine’s built-in auto-complete feature (known as Google Suggest within the Google search engine) to display popular search terms. To use auto-complete, begin typing in the search box; the most commonly entered user queries based on that search engine’s algorithms will appear in a drop-down list in the search box. Please be aware that the results are based on your search history. To avoid this possible bias, clear your search history first.
• Use Google AdWords Keyword Planner. This source for new keywords provides the search volume or traffic estimates for a list of keywords. The “multiply keyword list” feature produces more keywords by generating combinations of keywords from multiple lists: www.google.com/AdWords.

Example

James Fenimore Cooper: A Life, Nick Louras

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) was America’s first novelist, celebrated for his masterpiece, "The Last of the Mohicans." Over a prolific career he created a national mythology that endures to this day. According to Daniel Webster, “we may read the nation’s history in his life.” Yet Cooper was also a provocative figure, ultimately disillusioned with American democracy. He spent his boyhood in the wilds of the frontier, served as a merchant sailor and naval officer, traveled the courts of Europe in an age of upheaval and returned home to scandal and controversy. He conquered the literary world only to fall victim to his own fame. In the first popular biography of Cooper in a generation, historian Nick Louras brings the man and his age vividly to life.

Keywords: James Fenimore Cooper, last of the Mohicans, America’s first novelist, historical biography, literary history, popular biography, American democracy, literary biography, American literature, 19th century novelist.

More SEO Advice For Authors

There are other important things you can do to increase your search engine optimization, such as creating weblinks, social media posts and blog posts with links to your book page.

Here are some links to resources where you can learn more about keywords and SEO:

https://www.springernature.com/gp/authors/campaign...

https://www.amarketingexpert.com/2019/09/11/easy-s...

https://www.authormedia.com/search-engine-optimiza...

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1702257-choosing-keywords-on-amazon

http://www.verticalmeasures.com/resources/seo-tutorial-videos/choosing-the-best-keywords/

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2016/topic-keyword-research-analysis-insights-publishers/

http://marketingland.com/keyword-research-amazon-172127

http://keywordtool.io/

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