How To Get Google To Index Your Books Correctly

Attention Google Play Bookstore and Direct Sales Authors!

If you are a Google Play Books user and have had trouble getting various books to rank in the bookstore’s search results for better visibility, I have learned of a way that you can teach Google about your catalog and get it to automatically associate your books with an author profile.

And if you are building a direct sales store on your website and want to get your products featured under the Google Shopping section, this will work for you too!

In this post, I’ll focus on Google Play Books, but know that this same information can be applied to direct sales authors too.

Google Books and Rich Text

Even after writing Get Your Book Selling on Google Play Books, I couldn’t figure out why traditionally published authors had such better data feeding Google Books and Google Play Books than independently published authors did. I looked at dozens of profiles and saw the same thing! I knew that off-site data was important to Google’s algorithms and success on the storefront, but I assumed that traditional publishers had access to a set of tools from Google Books that independently published authors didn’t.

I should have known better though. Google’s entire storefront and nearly all of their carousels are automated, so it makes sense that they automate the rich text you see in their search results.

Before I get to the tip: this is not my tip, it is a highlighted note that I took down after a presentation from the amazing Chelle Honiker of Indie Author Magazine. She’s given me this amazing free gift to give to you—three free issues of Indie Author Magazine when you claim your free gift on this page: https://indieauthormagazine.com/lp/issue17/

Onto the tip…