Keywords for eBooks

Image: Jarvis Luong

We spend a lot of time optimising our content for our website, but we often overlook the value of keywords in eBooks.

Using keywords and metadata in your eBook content can help interested readers find relevant publications.

This leads to more traffic to your website, more downloads, and more sales of your eBook. Here’s how to start integrating keywords into your eBooks.

What are keywords?

Keywords are the words that search engines sort through in order to provide query results. With eBooks, keywords can be included in the direct content but also in the metadata entered on the sales page when the book is uploaded to an online store like Amazon (Digital Book World). Metadata can also include things like the name of the author, the book’s title, and description, and publication categories. You choose keywords when you list the book on your website or a third party seller’s website.

What keywords should you use?

Determining what keywords will help your book rank in search queries can be pretty challenging. Most of the time when people write the metadata for their eBooks they use a lot of descriptive language. However, people do not often search for this language when trying to find some reading material. Instead, you have to put yourself in the place of your audience and think about things that they would look for when searching for your eBook. You can use the same methods you would use for SEO keywords as you would for finding keywords for an eBook. 

Implementing keywords in your metadata

Keywords are often a process of trial and error. So start by doing some research. Look at the top ranking eBooks in your category and read their descriptions. Then look into the reviews of these books to see what words readers are using to describe the novel. Once you figure out some keywords to try, check back to see how you are ranking. If you are still at the bottom of the query list, adjust your keywords until you rank higher. It can often take up to a year to get your keywords just right. So don’t be afraid of trial and error during the process.

If you use the right keywords and achieve a high rank on search queries, you can boost the sales of your eBooks. If you are just starting out or having a difficult time optimising your metadata with keywords, ALHAUS can help. We have all the tools and techniques to help you maximise the ROI on your eBooks. Contact us today to learn more!