How Amazon Keywords, Categories, and Positioning Actually Work (and Why Confusing Them Keeps Good Books Invisible)
Most nonfiction authors assume Amazon visibility is a single problem with a single solution.
Pick the right keywords.
Choose the right categories.
Hope the algorithm does the rest.
When that doesn’t work, it feels mysterious. Arbitrary. Rigged.
It isn’t.
What’s actually happening is simpler, and more frustrating: authors are asking the wrong parts of the system to do the wrong jobs.
To understand how books are discovered, ranked, and chosen on Amazon, you have to separate three layers that often get collapsed into one:
Keywords
Categories
Positioning
They work together.
But they do very different things.
1. Keywords: How readers find your book
Keywords exist for one primary reason:
To help Amazon understand what your book is about so it can show it to the right readers.
That’s it.
Keywords are not meant to:
explain what makes your book unique
communicate your credentials
describe your methodology
summarize your philosophy
They are entry points, not persuasion tools.
Broad, high-intent keywords like:
longevity medicine
healthy aging
leadership development
trauma-informed coaching
don’t dilute a book’s identity. They establish relevance.
In practice, strong keyword sets usually include a mix of broader and more specific phrases — but all of them should describe what the book is about, not how it persuades.
Without those anchors, even an excellent book can struggle to surface at all.
This is where many authors get stuck.
They want keywords to differentiate their book.
Amazon wants keywords to place the book.
Those are different goals.
2. Categories: How Amazon understands and places your book
Here’s the part that surprises people:
Most readers do not browse nonfiction categories the way they browse fiction genres. Discovery usually happens through search, recommendations, and external traffic.
So if readers aren’t browsing categories, why do they matter?
Because categories are primarily for Amazon — even though some readers do browse category bestseller lists.
Categories tell Amazon:
what context a book should be ranked in
what other books it belongs next to
which recommendation loops it qualifies for
whether it’s eligible for bestseller lists and badges
The same sale can have very different impact depending on where it’s counted.
That’s why category strategy isn’t about being everywhere.
It’s about being accurately placed.
The right categories don’t sell books on their own.
But they do help Amazon interpret and amplify a book once readers arrive.
3. Positioning: Why readers choose your book
This is the layer authors care about most — and for good reason.
Positioning is where differentiation actually lives:
who the book is for
why it’s credible
what problem it solves
how it’s different from everything else nearby
This shows up in:
the title and subtitle
the description
the framing of the promise
the credibility signals
the structure of the content
Positioning is not metadata.
It’s persuasion.
Trying to force positioning into keywords or categories usually backfires:
long phrases with little search behavior
diluted relevance signals
weaker algorithmic clarity
When authors say “Amazon doesn’t make sense,” what they often mean is:
I’m asking the system to do something it wasn’t designed to do.
The mental model that clears everything up
Here’s the simplest way to think about it:
Keywords = how readers find the book
Categories = how Amazon understands the book
Positioning = why readers choose the book
All three matter.
But they matter at different moments in the journey.
When each layer does its own job:
discovery improves
ranking becomes more predictable
conversion gets easier
the system feels less opaque
When they’re confused or collapsed:
good books stay invisible
authors second-guess themselves
strategy turns into superstition
Why this matters more than ever
As generative search increasingly surfaces “best books for…” and “recommended resources on…,” clarity beats cleverness.
Amazon — and search systems more broadly — reward:
clear topical signals
consistent categorization
strong positioning after discovery
They do not reward:
over-specific keyword stuffing
narrative phrases in metadata
identity confusion
The authors who win aren’t gaming the system.
They’re working with it.
Final thought
If Amazon categories and keywords feel confusing, you’re not missing something obvious.
You’re navigating a system that was never designed to explain itself clearly.
That’s why strategy matters — not as a hack, but as translation.