Jim Reynolds, Director of eCommerce Product Management at Indigo Books and Music, presents on the importance of adding keywords to your books' metadata in order to improve searchability. This presentation was part of a webinar by BookNet Canada; a recording is also available. Please visit http://www.booknetcanada.ca/webinars for more details and links to other webinar materials.

1. Indigo.ca
Item Keyword Tagging

2. Keywords, Tagging, and On-Site Search
Approximately 80% of visitors to indigo.ca utilize the on-site search bar at some point
during their experience. As such, accurate and relevant search results are critical.
Keywords, in the form of item (book) tags are an integral part of the search
experience.
Item naming, including authors, titles, and subject matter, can be open to subjective
interpretation. Adding metadata such as keyword tags helps their relevancy and
“findability”.
Tags have been utilized on indigo.ca and have improved both search and sales
conversion rates.

3. Book “Subject” Tagging…
Book subjects will often present the greatest opportunity for search improvements.
Searching for “Kate Middleton” before tagging … … And After.

4. Other Book “Subject” Considerations
- Books that are a part of a series should include the series name, for example “Game
of Thrones” should be tagged with “Song of Fire and Ice”.
- Include tags for popular characters, such as “Jason Bourne”, to all relevant titles.
- Book genres, such as “Science Fiction” or “Romance” are commonly searched
terms. Including these tags where appropriate will help findability.
= “Photography Book”
= “Coffee Table Book”
= Other???

5. Author Tagging …
Author names are not always listed with their common parlance.
For example, Hillary Clinton is listed as “Hillary Rodham Clinton” on her new
autobiography, which can negatively impact search results …
Tagging this book with the more commonly searched “Hillary
Clinton” will help improve the relevancy of this new and popular title.

6. Other Author Name Considerations
- Common name misspellings, such as “Hillary = Hilary” and “Rodham = Rodam”, are
tags that can be created. Careful review of commonly searched terms on-site will
reveal these types of opportunities.
- Biographies often do not include the subject name in their title. Including this will
significantly improve findability.
- Author pseudonyms or pen-names, such as “J.K. Rowling = Robert Galbraith” should
also be considered.

7. The Results …
Since the tagging of books and General Merchandise items on indigo.ca,
improvements have been seen in both measurable search and sales conversion rates,
as well as customer satisfaction scores.
Search and sales conversion rates have improved by as much as 300% and 230 basis
points respectively.

8. In Conclusion …
Tagging is as much art as science.
While the best practices included here will broadly improve search relevancy, ongoing
monitoring of our visitor’s search behavior provides us with actionable feedback.
In short, tagging is the starting point, and the single biggest area for improvement in
our on-site search engine’s performance.

9. Thank you