A while back (is it YEARS already?) I saw a video on how to help optimize an author’s Amazon rating. One of the things “they” do is track each and every search a person does, and the tally does not count a repeated search. So if you search for Ebony Sea: Origins, copy the link, and send it to someone, Amazon does not count it when another person clicks on that link.
What does that mean for authors? DO NOT COPY AND PASTE THAT SEARCH LINK!
When you initially publish a book on Amazon, you’ll get a “short link” sent to you. When constructing a web site, use that link. If you lose it, recovering the information is pretty easy. But using that longer link you just searched for won’t tally anyone looking at your books if they clicked on the long link on your site.
How about an example?
Here’s the link for Ebony Sea: Origins when I search for it on Amazon and select the “paperback” result:
Most of that information is “tracking” for Amazon. Part of it is how many seconds have elapsed since a specific time and date, but knowing those details doesn’t help you. The only relevant part of that link is the Amazon web site, and the “dp” information. Like this:
Use that shorter link when building your site, or sharing on social media. They both lead to the same exact place, but omitting the tracking data will make each click “count” for Amazon. That helps in your rankings.
As an author, you need all the help you can get, right?
This is important information. Thank you for explaining it.