Long-Tail Keywords

I went off on useless book marketing advice in my previous post and posited that the only thing that works is SEO. Which I believe, by the way. 

I'd heard of long-tail keywords, of course, but I didn't fully understand how to put them into practice. All I knew was that they consisted of three-to-five words (wrong!) That's what I get for accepting Google's first answer. Actually, a long-tail keyword can be as many words as will fit in KDP's keyword field--50 characters, to be exact. Multiply that times seven and an author can enter up to 350 characters in total. Thanks to BadReadhead Media's Substack for the education!

Still, I remained clueless as to what to stuff those fields with. Previously, I'd dabbled in long-tail (which in my case was "very short-tail") keywords, such as "strong female character". Great. That describes virtually every novel that doesn't focus on a man. Weird that I never see "weak female character"...or short phrases, such as, "female singer". Bland; very bland.

From the article, I kind of knew what I should be aiming for, but either my brain's not functioning today or I misplaced my imagination once I stopped writing. Thus, I turned to AI. I pasted in my blurb and asked it for frequently searched keyword combinations. Initially, it spat out a bunch of combos featuring the word "romance". Oops--that's a no-go. Mine is not a romance novel, and I ain't gonna claim that it is. (Romance readers get really pissed off if you try to pass something off as a romance when it's not.)

So, I clarified for (stupid) AI that this isn't romance. "Oops, sorry!" it said, because it's sickeningly sycophantic. And it proceeded to supply me with a bunch of new suggestions. Again, I had to school it in KDP's forbidden keywords--such as referencing another book or author. It had suggested using something about "Daisy Jones & the Six" and "Taylor Jenkins Reid". It's all well and good to put a line about a comp novel in the blurb, but definitely not in the keyword fields.

Once we got that sorted out, it asked me if I wanted it to test out its suggestions. You bet! Beats having to do it myself! Three-to-four of them were deemed excellent in relation to actual Amazon searches, and one was very good. Then I only had to choose three more and I'd be ready to go.

Here's what I went with:

female singer fiction identity crisis

emotional journey love lost redemption

creative ambition emotional fiction

finding your voice women’s fiction

female artist fiction identity crisis music drama

heartbreak and healing character-driven

self reinvention fiction music backdrop

Yes, a few words are repeated, but in different word combinations, so I'm okay with that. There's only so much one can vary specific themes.

This is one of the few times I can say that AI was helpful. I've employed it before for tagline suggestions, one title suggestion, and even once for a blurb. I view it as a starting point--a brainstorm buddy to help kick things off. This time I can say I appreciate it, especially the keyword testing aspect. I still have to deal with its cloying responses, but maybe I should look at it as my second true fan. (Maybe I should ask it for a book review.) 😀

I view my new keywords this way: they won't hurt and they might help. This, at least, was something within my control.

P.S. I still don't know why Blogger keeps changing my font color in the middle of a post.