In my last post I discussed the importance of choosing a publishing site that will make your book easier to find through the online search engines.  This simple feature has helped thousands of authors reach an audience that they’d otherwise miss.

Even with that advantage, however, there’s another thing that you can do on your end to optimize your book’s search engine visibility–and it’s definitely not rocket science.  As crazy as it might sound, your book title can make all the difference in the world, and you should take some care in choosing the title for your book.

So how do you choose a good title? Unless you’re the beneficiary of a $2M promotional campaign for your latest book, you need to put your “Internet Thinking Cap” on when choosing book title. Tom Clancy doesn’t have to worry if “Red Storm Rising” will find buyers, so that obscure title is fine for his book. You, on the other hand, need to think a bit harder about your title. A few well-selected words in the title of your book can make all the difference in the world in regards to the right people finding it when they’re searching the Internet.

“The Boeing 737 Technical Guide” by Chris Brady is a great example of choosing the right title for your audience. The word “737″ is everywhere on the Internet, and trying to compete with everyone listed on Google using only the word “737″ won’t work, so you have to sit back and think of the audience segment that you’re trying to reach. It could have been named “Everything You Need To Know About 737′s,” but obviously the word “Technical” and “Guide” are better words for this market demographic. Anyone can tell from the title that this is a technical reference book for 737′s, and if you think about it these are the same keywords that someone on Google might type in.

Want another example? Look at ”Building Custom PHP Extensions” by Blake Schwendiman. It’s ranked quite high on Google (even if you just type in “Custom PHP Extensions”). He could have easily called it “All About PHP” or “Great PHP Extensions”, but the title he chose hits the mark.

Naming fiction is more difficult, of course. One strong suggestion- if it’s a short story, put “short story” in the title or subtitle. If it’s a romantic thriller, put “romantic thriller” in the title. Be more specific if you can. In your book title choose words that users searching the Internet for information might use. If you follow this rule, you’ll be ahead of 90% of the other authors. Take Jeremy Robinson’s book”The Didymus Contingency,” for example. That’s an obscure title for sure, but typing “Didymus” into Google brings it up every time.

That’s what you want. Naming your book “The Last Dark Night” or “Sarah’s Calling” generally requires someone typing in your entire title to have your book’s listing come up in the search results. You want to make it easy as possible for online users to find your work–so choose your words carefully!

Take advantage of what the Internet can do for you. Still have questions? Call or email me and let’s talk. You can get your book noticed online!

Till next time,

Henry