Did I Say Keywords Are How Your Readers Find You?

They are vitally important to sales. When you’re working in keywords in Kindle in that front sales page, you will notice that on some of the keywords numbers come up. I used to think that that was the number of people searching for the keyword…it’s actually the number of people using the keyword. It is better to go with a lower number that is a closer fit than with a bigger number that 20,000 people are also using. Also, finding descriptions (several keywords in a cluster) rather than just single words will bring the reader you’re looking for closer to you. Look for the long string combinations with the shorter numbers and then make note of them and use them on Smashwords, Kobo and Nook as well. In this exercise, you are looking for YOUR reader, the person who is looking for your book or product with keywords, more in terms either of people searching generally or others using the same word is not necessarily better. The same hold’s true for your business. Narrowing your market in big venues like yellow pages is always better as long as you know that people are looking for what you’re selling. Example from my old days…”Weight Loss” are terrible keywords. They encompass everything and everyone everywhere. "Los Angeles Weight Loss" is better because at least you’re only competing in one city. "West Los Angeles Weight Loss" narrows the field a lot. "West Los Angeles Weight Loss Hypnosis" is about as narrow as you’re going to get. So, when the yellow pages salesman tells you that they got 50,000 hits for "Weight Loss"… don’t bother to be impressed. That’s not a good thing. Look into the narrower field and see what they got if they even bothered to check. 200-300 really interested possibilities would be a nice number in that narrow field because they’re probably looking for you.