Amazon keywords for books: how to fill KDP's seven boxes, with an example

When you set up a book on Amazon KDP you get up to seven keyword boxes. They tell Amazon which searches your book should show up for, using terms that aren't already in your title. Most books waste them: on title words, on “book” and “novel”, or on famous authors' names, which isn't even allowed. This guide covers what belongs in the boxes, what doesn't, how to find good search terms, and fills in all seven for an example book.

What KDP's keyword boxes do

According to KDP, your categories and keywords largely decide where Amazon shelves your book and which searches it appears in. Amazon already knows your title and subtitle, so the keyword boxes are the place for terms that appear nowhere else. That is why KDP itself advises against repeating anything already in your title, contributors or categories.

You can enter up to seven keywords or short phrases, one per box, each with a character limit shown in the field. KDP adds two rules of thumb: single words work better than phrases, and specific words work better than general ones. A phrase only matches people who type all of its words.

What goes into the seven boxes

For fiction, KDP names five kinds of terms that work well. For nonfiction they translate into your reader's problems and goals:

Good keywords are the words someone types before they know your book exists. Nobody searches for your title, but plenty of people search for “self-doubt” or “people pleasing”.

What KDP prohibits or advises against

According to KDP's help (November 2026), keep these out of the boxes:

• information already in your title, contributors or categories
• subjective claims like “best novel ever”
• time-sensitive words like “new”, “on sale”, “available now”
• terms common to every book in the category, like “book”
• spelling errors and variants of the same term (spacing, capitalization, plurals)
• misleading information, such as authors not tied to your book
• brands you don't own or aren't authorized to use
• quotation marks
• Amazon program names like “KDP Select”
• HTML

KDP has a zero-tolerance policy for metadata meant to advertise, promote or mislead. A box saying “like Harry Potter” can cost you more than an empty one.

How to find search terms

1. Think like your reader. Write down their problem, their goal, their situation, in their words rather than yours.
2. Ask the Amazon search box. Type the first words of a term and note the autocomplete suggestions. They reflect what people actually type there.
3. Look at books that rank. Which words appear in the titles, subtitles and descriptions of the top books? Use them for ideas, not copies.
4. Compare. Amazon publishes no search volumes, but estimates from market data show which of two terms gets searched more, and that is the decision you're making.
5. Revise after launch. Unlike your title, keywords can be changed after publishing. Replace what isn't working after a few weeks.

Example: seven boxes for a self-esteem guide

Imagine the English edition is called Finally Confident: How to Build Self-Esteem, Set Clear Boundaries and Stop Making Yourself Small, filed under personal growth. Title, subtitle and category already cover confidence, self-esteem and boundaries, so the seven boxes can go after everything else:

1. self-doubt
2. people pleasing
3. saying no
4. inner critic
5. shyness
6. self-love
7. workplace confidence

None repeats the title, none says “book” or “self-help”, none names another author. Most boxes hold one specific word; short phrases appear only where readers search for them as a whole (“people pleasing”, “saying no”). Each one is a problem or goal a reader might have.

Common keyword mistakes

1. Repeating the title. Wastes a box; Amazon already has the title.
2. Long strings. KDP's own example: enter “complex suspenseful whodunit” and only people who type all three words find you.
3. The same term three times. “Self-love”, “self love” and “self-love book” are one term to Amazon.
4. Other people's names and brands. Prohibited, and risky.
5. Set and forget. Keywords are one of the few things you can still change after launch. Use that.

Keywords with search volume

The Bookfairy keyword research finds up to 100 keywords with search volume from Amazon market data and gives you ready-made blocks for KDP. It also builds 10 title ideas from your strongest terms. You see the first search terms for free; everything together costs $7.2060 tokens. To find the categories that go with them, there is the category research.