Amazon Sales Rankings or Amazon Search Results - Which is more important?

Understandably there has been lots of interest on the part of authors, both self-published and legacy published, in Amazon Sales Rankings. While Amazon refuses to publish data that will allow authors and publishers to determine exact sales figures based on sales rank, statistically minded individuals, such as self-publishing authority Morris Rosenthal, have done the grunt work necessary to try to build statistical models that correlate to actual sales figures.

It's fun to check the Amazon Sales Rankings for your book, particularly when it first starts to sell shortly after being published. 

What's more relevant to your success is Amazon Search Results. If you want to see your Amazon Sales Rankings improve, pay attention to your Search Results.

Amazon's website is both an eCommerce site and a search engine, and an elaborate one at that. Since as authors we have to do the bulk of the marketing of our books, particularly self-published authors, it pays to know how to get the best possible search results for your book.

Since Amazon is so secretive about its alogarhythms, it is hard to determine exactly what to do to boost your search results.

Several facts are reasonable to conclude about the process, some of which you as an author can control. They include:

1. The more your book sells, the higher it will turn up in search results.
2. If using POD with CreateSpace, Amazon allows you to list five keywords for your title. Since I only use CreateSpace now for all my POD sales for Amazon, I cannot address this issue if you use LSI or a different POD service.
3. Your book's title will have a lot to do with the search results.
4. The sub-title of your book is the key.

Since self-publishers need to take as much control as possible, lets look at the tools Amazon does provide authors/publishers to use to increase sales, the key to the first item in improving search results.

One of these programs is Amazon's Look Inside program. Authors have differing views about this program. My take on the program is simple. I participate in the program. Amazon prefers it if authors sign their book up for the program. Why? Amazon is concerned with making its consumers happy as its first priority, not authors (that being said, don't forget Amazon is the self-published author's friend). Consumers want to be able to "pick up the book and thumb through it" like they would in a brick and mortar book store. Look Inside is Amazon's way to allow consumers to do this. As an author I believe if a potential reader skims through my book he/she will buy it because of the information contained.

 

For authors who want to learn more about the entire process of selling books and getting a book listed on Amazon, there are few sources better than Amazon itself. Take the time to visit the Amazon Help FAQ page.

Amazon provides suggestions on how to optimize your book for the best possible search results. Since it's Amazon's search engine it is probably a good thing to pay heed to what Amazon has to say.

 

Categories and tags can help a book in the search result process. So let's take a look at what Amazon has to say about these two tools.

 

Categories:

Tags:

 

The title of your book can also play a huge factor in the search results for your book. No less of an expert than Aaron Shepard suggests dividing the book titling process into two distinct parts. The main title of the book needs to be named in the traditional process.

 

It is with the sub-title that Amazon's search results needs to be considered. Amazon allows the author/publisher to list a sub-title that does not necessary appear on the cover of the book. The sub-title should be crafted using keywords and in such a way as to provide the book with the best possible results in the search process.

 

Self-publishing is a business. Selling books is where the revenue comes from for self-publishers and for most of us, Amazon is where we sell our books. Amazon Sales Rankings are fun, but Amazon Search Results are what matter. Optimize to get the best possible search results for your book and you will generate more sales. You'll also have more fun checking your Amazon Sales Rankings as a result.

Designing Your Book's Title With Amazon In Mind

You only have a few seconds to grab a potential book buyer's attention in a book store with your cover. The cover is also important in attempting to obtain a book buyer's attention on Amazon. It has long been established that the cover is important and it must look good not only when enlarged to book store size when viewed on Amazon, the cover must look good in its thumbnail version.

Not only must the cover be well thought out, but so must the title. Amazon's computers use proprietary logarithms to produce books Amazon thinks best suit the customer's search query, increasing the likelihood of a sale.

This makes the title even more important. The main title must be catchy, informative and make the appeal to the potential buyer that the book will either be entertaining if a work of fiction or solve a problem for the buyer if it is a non-fiction work. Long titles are usually to be avoided.

It is the sub-title that can make a difference in the world of selling books on Amazon. Let's take one of the best known books in the field of self-publishing, Aaron Shepard's Aiming at Amazon. A common sub-title using traditional methods of creating a title would be as follows: Aiming at Amazon: How to Sell Your Book on Amazon.

Let's compare the title Mr. Shepard actually uses in the book's Amazon listing: Aiming at Amazon: The NEW Business of Self-Publishing, or How to Publish Your Books with Print on Demand and Online Book Marketing on Amazon.com.

Wow! That's a mouthful and hardly fits the traditional model for crafting a book title. It does however, fit the model for crafting a title for a book sold on Amazon. Because Amazon's site is essential a search engine, the use of keywords in the title can go a long way in helping the book rise in the search results.

Let's look at the keywords used in the sub-title: self-publishing, publish, print on demand, online book marketing, business (of self-publishing) and finally Marketing on Amazon.com.

All of these keywords are common words used in searches related to numerous aspects of the business of self-publishing. An author interested in learning more about print-on-demand would find this book useful as would an author interested in learning about book marketing, both online and on Amazon.

The carefully crafted subtitle has increased the possible number of ways the book can come up in search results, increasing the chances Mr. Shepard has of grabbing the potential buyer's attention.

Note, the subtitle that appears on Amazon does not have to be the actual sub-title printed inside the book. Amazon allows the author to enter the sub-title in the product description when entering title information. This allows for the opportunity to craft a search friendly sub-title.