Description structure and formatting

Format your book description with paragraph breaks and other structural elements to provide emphasis and make it easier for search engines and human beings to parse. (Marketing Insights assesses the length, structure, and formatting of your book description, but we do not analyze keyword usage or the quality of the content itself.)

Best Practices & Guidelines

Structure

Your book description should include at least three distinct sections with proper paragraph breaks to optimize for online discovery and consumer conversion. 

1. Start with a bold headline to grab a potential buyer's attention.
2. Include descriptive detail to tell them everything they need to know about the book.
3. End with a strong close to make the sale.

Read more on how to optimize your book description for sales.

Paragraph/section breaks

Each paragraph or section of the description should be separated visually by vertical blank space using supported breaking methods:

• Paragraph element tags (preferred to differentiate paragraphs)
  <p> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</p>
  
  Make sure to include both the beginning <p> and ending </p> tags.
  
  
• Consecutive line breaks
  Quisque id rhoncus justo. <br /><br />
  Duis id nulla risus.
  
  To create visual space between paragraphs with this method, you must include two consecutive tags. This is often used and is acceptable, but note that it can lead to larger than intended spaces. Other break element variations (<br> and <br/>) are also acceptable but <br /> is recommended for the broadest compatibility.
  
  
• Ordered and unordered lists
  <ul>Mauris nec urna varius:
  <li> Maecenas in ante et tellus sodales iaculis.</li>
           <li> In ac ex a augue finibus fringilla. </li>
  </ul>
  
  Lists are a great way to break up your description and outline features or topics in a book.  Make sure to properly nest and enclose each list item and include the ending list tag (</ul> or </ol>).

Common HTML errors

Though other paragraph break methods may appear correctly on the Amazon product page, you may still receive a red flag from Marketing Insights if your content does not meet established best practices.

• Do not use <div> or <span> tags to structure descriptive copy.
• If using paragraph tags, make sure you include both the beginning <p> and ending </p>tags.
• We do not assess single line breaks (just one <br> tag) as a new paragraph, as that does not create visual space between paragraphs.
• We also may not recognize paragraph breaks if extraneous code is nested between single line breaks (e.g. <br> </div><div> <br>).

Further Reading

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