If you’re not familiar with basic ranking methods, it involves researching a popular keyword or phrase, then maximizing the odds that your content would show up among the first results when people search for said keyword. While many people are familiar with this to an extent, it can be difficult to actually pull it off. After all, competition these days is fierce, which means you’re not the only person trying to “win” any given keyword.

Today I will talk about maximizing your Amazon ebooks internally within Amazon.com. In other words, I won’t go into external keyword research or backlinking of any kind.

Making Money Through Keywords

Once you choose a genre for your ebook, go to Amazon.com and punch in a single letter (character) into the website’s search field. This single character must be related to your niche/topic/genre. For example, if your book is related to video games, ensure that your search is ultimately geared toward said subject. You will see a broad list of potential terms show up as suggestions. These phrases are actually popular terms that people use frequently on the site to find what they’re looking for. With that information, now go ahead and type a few more letters into the search field to narrow down the list of suggestions.

As a result, you will now notice several popular terms: Write them down, with the first result being the most important.

Sample Amazon Search

Next Steps

Now that you have obtained several popular term suggestions, assign one of these as your book’s title when publishing it. If none of them are appropriate for a title, place them next to your chosen title in parentheses. An example would be: “Making Money On Amazon (Amazon Earnings Series).” Using such phrases in the title will generally help your book show up on the list of results whenever users search for such phrase.

Additionally, place the same phrase on your book’s description to help maximize your optimization efforts. Finally, add related terms into your description to help Amazon recognize your book within your target genre.

Furthermore, use these phrases within the “Keywords” field, found in the main book publishing screen. Amazon allows you to input up to 7 keywords, so I encourage you to research as many as possible to maximize your efforts.

Optionally, use all gathered keywords as your main tags, which are found toward the bottom of the book’s sales page. Tagging does not help in rankings as much as people tend to think, but they are still useful. Please note that this will be the last thing you do, as you must first publish the book.

Also, Amazon has the ability to scan your book’s contents from beginning to end. This is a known fact. With this knowledge, it would be wise for you to include the keywords you researched throughout your book. As a result, this will rank your book a bit higher for said keyword(s).

Finally, I’d like to share a note on reviews/comments. Amazon is completely okay about friends and family leaving a review of your book. **IF** by chance you happen to know that they will leave a review, feel free to encourage them to use one of the keywords you wish to rank for, particularly the one used in your title.

This is only one of many ebook tips. Stay tuned for much more tricks and suggestions. Best of luck!