In this video,
we're going to look at one of the most overlooked and underused aspects
of creating and publishing KDP no content and low content books on Amazon.
And that's the title and subtitle. So in this video,
I'm going to tell you why it's so important,
common mistakes publishers make and how I structure my titles
and subtitles to take advantage of the Amazon search algorithm so that
I can get my books seen by customers, hopefully clicked on and hopefully bought.
Now,
if you've not been to this channel before then welcome my name's Paul Marles and
I do videos and how to make it, keep it and grow it.
And that's your money I'm talking about. If you do like videos like that,
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So why is the title and subtitle so important? Well,
it's the prime position where you can use and place your
keywords. Now,
keywords are just the search terms that people put in the search bar on Amazon
when they're looking to buy something and the title and subtitle are the most
valuable spots where you can use these because they have a lot of strength when
it comes to ranking books on Amazon.
The title and subtitle also tells Amazon what your book is about. And also,
more importantly, it tells your customers what your book is about.
Because often,
a customer will search on Amazon through all the listings of books,
see a cover that they like and then read the title.
And if that title confirms it's something they're looking for,
there's a good chance that they may then click on that particular book and
hopefully again, make a sale.
Now what the title and subtitle is not,
it's not a sort of salesy headline piece designed to, you know,
stand out and grab a customer's attention. That's the role of your book cover?
As I just said,
the role of the title and subtitle is mainly to tell the customer what your
book is about.
So none of these fancy salesy hyperbole type words
are needed.
It just needs to be simple and structured wellwhich I'll tell you how to do that
in a moment. So common mistakes I see people make with their books.
Number one, that is not using keywords in the title at all.
They're often used in the subtitle,
but I see it all too often not being used in the title.
And so these publishers are really missing a big trick and missing a really
strong way of getting their books ranked on Amazon.
An example of this may be something like, I don't know,
a gratitude journal and the pattern on the front,
maybe something like autumn leaves.
And they'll name their book autumn leaves and use that in the title.
And then go on in the subtitle to give some description of the book and maybe
mention the fact that it is a gratitude journal.
And so they're missing out on that important place to put a keyword.
And in fact, you know,
if they're expecting people to go and look for autumn leaves, well, one,
the customer's unlikely to be searching for that. And if they are,
they're not really going to be looking for a gratitude journal or such like.
Well, probably not anyway.
The other mistake I see publishers make is putting too many
keywords in the subtitle of the book. And this is called keyword stuffing.
And you'll often see 6, 7, 8 keywords, all crammed together.
Maybe the odd comma here and there,
but mostly they're all just crammed together and it doesn't make any sense.
It's not readable. And when customers see it again, it looks amateurish,
unprofessional, puts them off and they just don't click on the book.
The next is adding what I call extra fluff to the title. So for example,
say you are publishing an accounting ledger and that's going to be
your main targeted keyword. So you'd like to use that in the title,
but instead of just using that, they add other words.
So may say something like small business accounting
ledger for keeping records of taxes.
Now that's all good and well it's descriptive.
And it tells everyone what the book is about. However,
it dilutes that main keyword that you are targeting.
And I'll show you some examples in a moment which shows this much better.
Okay.
Next thing that a lot of publishers make a mistake with is spelling mistakes.
And this is a big one.
And it's very easily avoided using things like spell checker or software
like Grammarly. Again,
a spelling mistake looks very amateurish and puts customers off.
The next is things like capitalization and that's the incorrect capitalization
of the words in the title and the subtitle. Again,
it gives that overall picture of being amateurish and unprofessional.
If we have a look here on Amazon, I'll give you an example.
If we have a look at a couple of these titles and subtitles here,
you'll notice that every word is capitalized,
except for the small words like for, and, and.
Same for this book here or capitalized, except for the small word for.
So as a general rule,
what I suggest doing is capitalizing every word in your
title and subtitle, except for those small words, like, and, for,
the, and two and that's to not the number two. Okay.
The next thing I see people do wrong, and that is the punctuation.
And again, this is a big thing.
And it's either too many commas or no commas at all.
Or one of the big things I see is that publishers put in a comma after a word,
then not leaving a space between the comma and the next word. Again,
it doesn't look good. So using software like Grammarly,
if your first language isn't English,
or you are unsure about things like punctuation,
it's worthwhile using a tool like that,
which can help you not only get the spelling, correct,
but also those sort of grammatical errors that it's very easy to make.
Now we come onto how I create and structure my titles
and subtitles,
which I think have helped my books get ranked and get seen on Amazon,
which has contributed to the sales that I've made on the platform.
So first of all, with the title,
I only use one keyword in the title, nothing else,
no other fluff, no adjectives or anything like that, just a single keyword.
And if you want to know how I go about doing my keyword research and how I
choose my keywords to use in the title and subtitle, well,
I've done a video on that already,
which I'll leave a link to up here and I'll also leave a link to it down below
in the description. Now, if we go back across to accounting ledger,
and I'll show you an example of what I mean,
and you'll see that there is this pattern with many books are ranked on the
first page for many niches. So in the search bar,
I've put accounting ledger.
So just let's have a look at the books that are listed on the first page.
And obviously those that listed on the first page are going to make most of the
sales. So I've got this one here, look at the title, accounting ledger,
and we're just going to be looking at the KDP books. Here again, this one here,
title accounting ledger, accounting ledger.
This one's a sponsored ads.
We'll ignore those for the moment because they can appear here just on the fact,
not because of the keywords,
but just because of people have paid for their books to be there.
Scroll down further again here, accounting ledger. So do you see that pattern?
A lot of the books that are appearing on that first page for that particular
keyword have that single keyword in the title don't believe me,
let's go over to say notary journal which I covered in my last video.
Again, I've put notary journal here.
Let's have a look at some of the books that are listed. So this KDP book, title,
notary journal, this one here, notary journal,
notary journal. So again, you're seeing the same pattern notary journal here,
notary journal there,
all these key KDP books are using that main search term
in the title.
And that has contributed to those books appearing on the first page.
So now we come onto the subtitle. And again,
I keep this very simple and I split my subtitle into three
sections. In the first section,
I use a keyword related to my main keyword and I'll use
an adjective.
So it may be something like cool or perfect or
awesome. Now, if we're doing it for accounting ledger,
I might use a related keyword like accounting book. So I'd put something like
stylish accounting book. Then after that,
in what I call the third section.
So I'll write that bit stylish accounting book comma,
then in the middle, I'll write some information about the actual book itself.
So it'll be something like 120 pages, perfect bound comma.
Then I'll go onto the last section. And there again,
I'll use a keyword related to my main keyword,
but I'll introduce some words related to the audience that I'm targeting.
So if we take the accounting ledger again,
I may use something like accountancy ledger. So again,
it's a related keyword, not the exact same keyword that I used in the title.
So that third part, I would say something like accountancy ledger,
perfect for bookkeepers,
accountants and small businesses.
So the advantage of this is that we may also pick up some search traffic
for people that may search for something like a small business accounting
ledger or a bookkeeper's accounting book. See what I mean?
So we do all this now,
does it guarantee that our book is going to appear on the first page for
that particular search term? No, it doesn't.
But what it does do is it gives our books a better chance of ranking
for that particular keyword. You see, when it comes to ranking,
there are many factors involved. You've got the book cover,
you've got the pricing, whether the books had reviews,
whether it's made any sales,
whether you've sold any books yourself as an author and have got some author
ranking. And whether customers actually click on your books.
And this is a big one, the click through rate,
and this a lot of the time comes down to the book cover and in a small
part, the number of reviews and the title. You see,
you may have noticed, or may not, when you do search, use a keyword,
a search term and search on Amazon,
you may sometimes notice that there are books listed pretty high up on that
first page that don't have a best seller's rank.
It just says no rank found, and you go, well, why is that there? You know,
it's not made any sales,
but it's in the midst of all these books here that have made sales and are
ranking well.
Well that's because Amazon is testing out these books. So,
especially after you've published a book,
you may find within a few days or a week that that book has,
or is appearing on that first page.
And they're testing that book to see if customers click on it.
So you may have all the keywords all done correctly,
in the title subtitle and seven keyword boxes.
But if there's a problem related to those I've just mentioned in terms of the
mistakes in the title, or there's an issue of the book cover,
and this is the main area of issue so that customers don't actually click
on it. The book has a very low what they call click through rate.
Not many customers are clicking on it. So if Amazon sees that,
then they're not going to keep a book ranked up highly on that first page,
and it's not going to make any sales. So what happens is,
it just drops down in the rankings on Amazon. And usually,
you know, you may find it after 3, 4,
5 or more pages down the rankings.
So there's lots of factors involved,
but you need to get all these different factors, right.
And all together and all working for your book.
That's why it does take time with this business to learn all the different
aspects of publishing and getting it all right,
so that you do make that breakthrough and do make those sales.
But the title and subtitle is one of the main areas where you can start to get
things right, and gonna say,
give your books a better chance of ranking and a better chance of getting
noticed by customers, getting clicked on and making those sales. Now,
if you are wondering about the keywords, as I've mentioned earlier,
and where and where I find them and how I choose them,
then watch this video next on how I do my own keyword research.
Thank you very much for your time. It's very much appreciated.
Don't forget to hit that subscribe button, and until next time,
goodbye.