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Discoverability starts with metadata, so every title shows its health
Industry data says discoverability is the number one challenge and that metadata reaches systems before it reaches people. Listing health scores the eight fields that matter on every title.
ZI² Books · 2026-10-05 · aktualisiert am 2026-10-09
Kurz gesagt: Listing health gives each title a score out of eight for the fields shelves and search engines use: cover, a description of 300 characters or more, subtitle, subjects, ISBN, page count, contents and excerpt. The console shows the score beside each title and names what is missing on the form, and the book page emits complete schema.org Book data from the same fields.
Trade analyses keep landing on the same point. With around a million ISBNs issued a year, readers find books through search results, categories, recommendations and metadata before they find them through people. Independent presses control their own metadata, which is a lever the big houses envy, and the data shows the presses that use it gain placement.
The trouble is knowing what is missing.
Eight fields
Cover. A description of at least three hundred characters. Subtitle. Subjects. ISBN. Page count. Table of contents. Excerpt. Each of these is read by a shelf, a search engine or an answer engine. Each is also a thing a reader looks for before buying.
The console catalog tab shows a small bar and a score for every title. The title form opens with the missing fields named. Fill them and the score fills.
What the page does with them
The book page renders the same fields as a details deck, a contents list, an author note, a description with a read-more, and structured data for the Book type with ISBN, page count, language and release date. Search engines read that directly. So do assistants that answer questions about books.
The importer fills what it can
Titles listed through the catalog importer arrive with ISBN, page count and year from Open Library where it has them, and covers from the Amazon image service by ISBN. The rest is a form away.
Fragen
Does the score affect ranking on the site?
Not directly. Shelves rank by sales, recency and ratings. The score tells you what search engines and readers are missing.
Where does the description come from?
From you. The importer seeds one where a public source has it; a press should replace it with its own copy.
What is the contents field for?
The contents list shows readers the shape of the book and gives search engines chapter titles to index.