How to Choose KDP Keywords and Amazon KDP Categories

You've finished the book and the cover is ready. Then KDP asks for seven keywords and three categories, and it's tempting to type "fantasy, magic, romance" and move on to pricing.

Those boxes decide which searches and shelves Amazon connects your book to. Vague choices bury a new book behind every big name in the genre. Specific, honest ones give the right readers a fair chance of finding it, and everything below is checked against KDP's own help pages (October 2026).

What the 7 KDP keyword boxes do

KDP gives you room for up to seven keywords or short phrases, one per box. Good keywords describe your book accurately and match what customers type. Along with sales history and Best Sellers Rank, they can help your placement in search, though KDP says neither it nor Amazon can guarantee a top spot.

KDP's help pages don't state the character limit per box, but authors commonly report about 50, so think short phrases, not sentences.

Rules from KDP's keyword help page and its Metadata Guidelines shape how you fill them:

• Short phrases work well. KDP recommends 2 to 3 words.
• Use natural word order. KDP's example: readers search "military science fiction", not "fiction science military".
• No quotation marks. A phrase in quotes only matches someone who types every word.
• Don't repeat yourself. KDP lists words already in your title, author name or categories as ones to avoid, along with plural, spacing and capitalisation variants.

Box order doesn't feature in KDP's guidance, so don't fuss over it.

What KDP says not to put in keywords

KDP has zero tolerance for metadata meant to advertise, promote or mislead. Between the keyword page and its Metadata Guidelines, leave out:

• Other authors' names, and titles of their books
• Brands or trademarks you don't own or aren't authorised to use
• Sales rank or quality claims, such as "bestselling" or "best novel ever"
• Promotional or time-sensitive words, such as "free", "new" or "on sale"
• Amazon programme names, such as "Kindle Unlimited" or "KDP Select"
• Quotation marks, HTML tags and spelling mistakes
• Words true of nearly everything in your category, such as "book"
• Anything that isn't actually in your book

KDP says neither list is complete, so describe your book and nothing else. If you're weighing up Kindle Unlimited itself, KDP Select vs going wide covers that choice.

How to choose keywords for KDP for free

You don't need a paid tool. KDP's advice is to think like a reader.

1. List what a reader would type. KDP suggests setting, character types, character roles, plot themes and story tone. Add tropes readers ask for by name, like "enemies to lovers". Aim for 20 to 30 candidates.
2. Use Amazon's search suggestions. Set the search bar to the Kindle Store or Books department, type a starting phrase such as "cozy witch" slowly, and note what the drop-down suggests. KDP points authors to these suggestions itself.
3. Study comparable books. Pick five to ten recent books like yours. Note the words their descriptions and reviews use.
4. Search every candidate. KDP recommends this before you publish. Keep phrases that bring up books like yours; change the rest.
5. Cut to seven. Drop anything in your title or categories, anything on the list above, and any overlaps. Keep the most specific.

Worked example: 7 KDP keywords for a cosy fantasy

Take a made-up book, The Witch of Larkspur Lane: a witch runs a bakery in a seaside town, with a talking cat, a found family of regulars and a slow-burn romance with the grumpy blacksmith. It sells mainly on Amazon.com (hence "cozy"), and all three categories are fantasy shelves.

Box	Keyword phrase	Why it earns its place
1	cozy magic bakery	The core promise: comfort, magic and a bakery
2	found family	A trope cosy readers search for by name
3	grumpy sunshine romance	The romance subplot, in readers' own words
4	small seaside town	Setting, one of KDP's suggested keyword types
5	talking cat familiar	Character type: a memorable side character
6	low stakes comfort read	Tone: no dark twist coming
7	cottagecore slice of life	Aesthetic and subgenre words for its feel

Notice what's missing. "Witch" is in the title and "fantasy" is in every category, so both stay out. There's no "book", no "new release" and no famous author, and no word appears twice.

How many Amazon KDP categories you can choose

You choose three categories when you set up a book, from a list based on your primary audience and marketplace. If you find older advice about emailing support for extra categories, check its date: KDP's categories page now describes picking your three yourself.

Categories also vary by format and marketplace, so focus on your primary marketplace. The setup flow:

1. On the Details page, fill in Primary Audience. You must answer the question about sexually explicit images or title before you can pick categories.
2. Choose your Primary Marketplace, the Amazon store where you expect most sales.
3. In the Categories section, click Choose categories. A window opens.
4. Click through category, subcategory and placement until you've picked three, then save.

How to find the best KDP categories for your book

KDP's advice is to balance popularity and relevance: busy enough that readers browse it, not so broad (or narrow) that your book gets lost. Usually that means the most specific shelf that honestly fits, not plain Fantasy.

To check how competitive a category is:

1. On a comparable book's page, scroll to Product Details. Best Sellers Rank shows an overall rank and up to three category ranks.
2. Open the Best Sellers list for a category you're considering. It ranks the top 100 (in the Kindle Store, use the paid list).
3. Note the overall rank of a book near the top, one around #20 and one near #100.
4. Compare. Lower numbers mean more sales. If even #100 has a small overall number, the shelf is crowded. If #20 ranks in the hundreds of thousands overall, a modest burst of launch sales could get you on the list.

A quiet category only helps if your book belongs there, and KDP can remove one that doesn't match.

How keywords fit with your title, subtitle and description

Title. Only the actual title, as on the cover. KDP bans repeated generic keywords, unauthorised references to other authors or trademarks, and words like "bestselling" or "free".

Subtitle. Same rules, and title plus subtitle must stay under 200 characters. KDP notes customers are more likely to skim past titles over 60 characters. Get it right first time: an ebook's title and subtitle lock on publishing (print gets a 72-hour window), and changing them means a new edition.

Description. KDP won't accept keywords or tag phrases here, so write for people: how to write a book description that sells covers the structure. Further down the page, A+ Content for Amazon KDP helps win over a reader who has already found you.

Changing KDP keywords and categories later

KDP says you can change keywords as often as you like, and categories can be updated after publishing too. From your Bookshelf, click the three dots next to the book, edit its details, click Save and Continue, then Publish on the Pricing page.

Changes take up to 72 hours to appear, and after a category change your sales rank can take up to a week to update. A sensible rhythm:

• After launch: search your seven phrases. If your book is nowhere near books like it, swap two or three.
• Give it two weeks before judging a change.
• Every few months: recheck your categories. Amazon updates them from time to time.

Keywords only reach readers already searching. To bring in new ones, start with book marketing for beginners.

Common KDP keyword and category mistakes

• Broad single words. "Fantasy" alone competes with every book in the genre.
• Borrowing a famous name. "For fans of" a bestselling author breaks KDP's rules.
• Choosing a category because it's empty. Readers there won't buy a book that doesn't fit.
• Changing everything at once. If sales move, you won't know why.

Frequently asked questions

How many keywords can you use on Amazon KDP?

Up to seven keywords or short phrases, one per box, and KDP recommends phrases of 2 to 3 words. KDP doesn't publish the per-box character limit, but authors commonly report about 50 characters.

Should you put keywords in your book's subtitle?

Only if they genuinely describe the book. Subtitles follow KDP's title rules, which ban repeated generic keywords, other authors' names and words like "free", and an ebook's subtitle can't be edited after publishing.

How long do KDP keyword and category changes take?

KDP says updates to keywords and categories appear within 72 hours. After a category change, your sales rank can take up to a week to update.

Can you use the same keywords for your ebook and paperback?

Yes, and KDP asks you to keep keywords consistent across ebook, print and audio editions. You enter them separately for each format, so copy them across when you change them. Categories can differ, as some shelves exist only for ebooks or only for print.

Keywords and categories won't sell a book on their own, but they help the readers who'd love it find it. Once they're set, look beyond Amazon: four free sites to promote your indie book is a good next step, and the same reader words work on IndieFiction, where you can list your book free and tag it with moods and tropes readers browse by tag.