{"id":22990,"date":"2021-08-26T08:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T08:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/?p=22990"},"modified":"2022-06-17T14:51:17","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T14:51:17","slug":"keywords-for-categories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kindlepreneur.com\/keywords-for-categories\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Need Keywords to Get Into Certain Book Categories?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every once in a while I will still come across someone who asks, do I need to use keywords in KDP to rank for a category?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see, when you upload a book to Amazon, you only get to select two categories, but these are actually not the same as Amazon categories. They're BISAC categories, which stands for Book Industry Standards and Communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonus<\/strong>: Want to learn how to rank your Kindle book #1 on Amazon with our collection of time-tested tips and tricks? Download my free ebook now!<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

For example, say you wanted to be in the Arthurian category, but there\u2019s no Arthurian BISAC category available when you upload your book to KDP. Should you include a keyword that says something like \u201cArthurian Novel\u201d to your keywords in the hopes that you will rank for that keyword?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of confusion about this, and even some of the mainstream publishing websites have some of the wrong information, so I\u2019m here to set the record straight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The short answer is, no, you do not need keywords to rank for categories. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on to learn why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIn this article, you will learn:\n
    \n
  1. How the relationship between KDP keywords and categories used to work<\/li>\n
  2. How to add categories today<\/li>\n
  3. How to best make use of your keywords today<\/li>\n
  4. Additional restrictions to categories<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Table of contents<\/h2>
    • How it Used to Work<\/a>
      • Amazon Added the Change Categories Feature<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li>
      • How it Works Today<\/a><\/li>
      • How You Should Use Your Keywords<\/a>
        • How to Find Keywords with Publisher Rocket<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li>
        • Special Category Requirements<\/a><\/li>
        • To Sum Up<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n\n\n

          How it Used to Work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

          Back in the day, selecting the Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) categories in KDP was the only control that you had over book categories<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          All you could do was select the two categories that you wanted (and BISAC categories tend to be very broad), and that was it. You had no more specific control over the categories that your book would show up under.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          So instead, you would use keywords<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Amazon would take the seven keywords that you imputed into KDP and use that as clues on what other categories to rank your book for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          <\/div>Do you need keywords to rank for categories? No, and this article explains why. #selfpublishing #bookmarketing<\/span>Click To Tweet<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

          So if you put \u201cArthurian Romance\u201d down as a keyword, you might have seen that book show up under an Arthurian category, and possibly a Romance category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          But BISAC definitely doesn\u2019t niche down as well as we\u2019d like, so Amazon actually had a list of keywords that you could use to get your books into separate categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          That page no longer exists, but you can still get a glimpse of it using the Way Back Machine here<\/a>. That page now looks like this<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          The Way Back Machine just shows what that page used to like, but you can\u2019t see any keyword lists because they\u2019re hidden in some drop-down menus. Here\u2019s an image showing a list of some of these keywords that would get your book listed in a specific category.<\/p>\n\n\n

          \n
          \"list<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

          As you can see, if I wanted to get into the Arthurian category, all I had to type in was \u201cArthurian\u201d for one of my keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          But there are literally thousands <\/em>of categories, and several just for Arthurian-related topics<\/a>. So how do you get into those categories?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Well, it used to be that if you didn\u2019t get into a category, after you\u2019ve done the work of selecting the right keywords and BISACs, then…tough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          You were out of luck. Until….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Amazon Added the Change Categories Feature<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

          There was originally no way to change your category status apart from selecting BISACs and keywords, and of the thousands of categories out there, it seemed a shame that we couldn\u2019t target all the categories that made sense for the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          So around 2018 (the exact date is unclear), Amazon began rolling out a roundabout way to request certain categories. Here\u2019s a screenshot of what that looked like:<\/p>\n\n\n

          \n
          \"the<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

          Overall, this worked, but Amazon still used keywords to rank for categories, or at least to provide context to add additional categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          However, it was a step in the right direction. I even created a video on how to add or change categories. That video is no longer publicly available, since I\u2019ve updated it recently, but this was a big milestone for authors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          That said, the form you fill out has changed a lot since then, as have the use of keywords. So let\u2019s dig into that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          How it Works Today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

          Today, the process of getting your book added\/removed to a category is much simpler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          All you have to do is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          1. Select the category you want to rank for (copy the full string)<\/li>
          2. Visit this Help\/Contact Page<\/a> for Author Central and sign into your KDP account<\/li>
          3. Under \u201cHow We Can Help\u201d select \u201cAmazon Book Page\u201d<\/li>
          4. Then select \u201cUpdate Amazon Categories\u201d<\/li>
          5. Fill in the information, and you\u2019re good to go!<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

            We\u2019ve got a whole post on this topic that you should definitely check out<\/a> if you want a full walkthrough of how to add your book to different categories. Or you can check out this video:<\/p>\n\n\n\n