Headline optimization

Book descriptions should begin with a brief, bold headline (approximately 25 words or 200 characters) to entice potential buyers. This straightforward “elevator pitch” is critical for search engine optimization and discovery. (Marketing Insights assesses the length, structure, and formatting of your headline, but we do not analyze keyword usage or the quality of the content itself.)

Best Practices & Guidelines

You have a very brief chance—a few seconds or less—to capture a potential buyer's attention and get them interested in learning more. The first sentence or two of your book description is your chance to hook readers in and to incorporate important keywords, topics, and phrases that will help you optimize for consumer search.

Structure and formatting

• Keep it brief.
  The headline should be approximately 25 words, up to a maximum of 200 characters in order to optimize display across devices. Longer headlines may be fine, but be aware that mobile shoppers will likely not be able to read the entire headline without clicking to "read more."
  
  
• Format for emphasis.
  The headline should be in bold (using either <b> or <strong> tags). Bold headlines draw consumers' eyes, signal to retail and search algorithms that the content is important, and have been proven to improve consumer conversion rates.
  
  
• Set it off from the rest of the description.
  Follow your headline with a hard paragraph break. (Read more about supported paragraph breaking methods and why structure is important in product descriptions.)

Note that Marketing Insights assumes the first paragraph of the description to be the headline. If we do not find an initial paragraph break—for instance, if the description is only a single paragraph long—then we will flag the description as not including a headline. Alternatively, if the description includes stray line breaks or other markup at the beginning, we may assess an empty paragraph as if it were the headline.

Content

• Sell the story, don’t tell the story.
  Emphasize key selling points that will resonate with potential buyers. Focus less on the plot and more on why someone might want to buy. What’s the genre or subject? What are the key topics and themes? What are the important brands or characters? Has the book or author won any awards?
  
  “A fast-paced crime thriller set in Sweden from the award-winning author of…” is better than “It was a dark and stormy night...”.
  
  
• Describe what it is.
  Remember that online shoppers can’t see the book for themselves, and this is likely the first thing they’ve read about it besides the title. Cues that readers might have picked up on in a physical bookstore—like where a book is shelved, how it’s merchandised, or a descriptive blurb on the cover—may not translate to your online buyer. Is it a picture book? A tax guide for small businesses? A Christian romance? Is it a Mediterranean cookbook or a travelogue about the sights, sounds, and taste sensations of the Greek isles?
  
  
• Optimize for discovery.
  Include the consumer keywords, topics, and phrases that likely buyers might be looking for. How are readers talking about and searching for books like this?

Further Reading

• Structuring and formatting your description
• Content to include in your book description
• Identifying and using consumer keywords, topics, and phrases
• Writing a book description that sells
• HTML best practices