The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization (Theory in Practice)
A well-designed, effortless-to-navigate website is useless if no 1 can find it. If your company is going to succeed in the web economy, optimizing your web site for search engine visibility is vital. In this book, four of the most noted specialists in the field of search engine optimization (SEO) present you with proven guidelines and cutting-edge methods for planning and executing a comprehensive SEO strategy.
The authors clearly explain SEO fundamentals, while correcting numerous prevalent misconceptions. If you are new to SEO, you’ll get a complete and thorough SEO education, as well as an array of effective tactics, from basic to advanced. Seasoned practitioners will find this book useful as a complete reference to SEO finest practices.
- Explore the underlying theory behind SEO and how search engines work
- Learn the steps you will need to prepare for, execute, and evaluate SEO initiatives
- Examine a number of advanced techniques and tactics
- Realize the intricacies involved in managing complex SEO projects
- Discover what’s needed to build a competent SEO team with defined roles
- Glimpse the future of search and what lies ahead for the SEO industry
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{ 3 comments }
Comprehensive Guide,
I am one who has been very outspoken about the more shady SEO practitioners and about the ridiculously overprices “courses” that are heavily promoted on the Internet. SEO has acquired some of the taint of huckster marketing because of that.
I hope this book helps eliminate some of that. There’s no need to pay some self-styled “Internet Guru” hundreds or thousands of dollars for SEO secrets. There are no secrets: every concept, every “trick”, every piece of advice is available on the Internet for free. Of course you have to find it all, you have to learn what things are outdated, what advice doesn’t work – or you could find 99% here in this book.
Of course it’s not for everyone. It assumes some technical knowledge or at least access to someone with that knowledge. As an example, at several points 301 redirects are used as the solution certain SEO issues. Although some minor direction is given about implementing these, you’d need more than is provided here if you were a neophyte – someone using Blogger or [...] isn’t going to become proficient with Apache from reading this.
The only small complaint I can make is that sometimes the authors use too many examples, especially for the more basic concepts at the beginning of the book. However, too many is far better than too few, so I won’t complain too much. I definitely can’t complain that they left anything out: this could serve as a course book for a SEO class.
I’ll be recommending this strongly.
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|Almost Cutting-Edge,
I did enjoy this overview of the SEO field. Granted, even though it has a first printing copyright of October 2009, there are already some outdated links, which only serves to highlight the incredible rate of development that the Internet engenders. This is an excellent introduction to a highly volatile field, and I was very impressed with the depth of subject matter. At the same time, I found the repetition from chapter to chapter of nearly identical text somewhat distracting, which is why I hesitate to give this book a full five stars.
In some ways, this book sets the stage for the next evolution in marketing. Pay-Per-Click does not have the return on investment that Search Engine Optimization can have, and the authors do a very good job of outlining exactly why this is – and while there are many, many different signals which can be manipulated to some extent by a search engine optimizer (optimist?) the authors do an excellent job explaining the many pitfalls that can arise when SEO is done incorrectly. Still, I was somewhat perplexed to note that two tools I rely on most heavily seemed completely overlooked in the text, those being Google Alerts (which provides me with endless supply of keyword-relevant content as it hits the net) and Market Samurai, an astoundingly useful tool in my keyword research process.
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|Just Perfect for the Professional or Quasi-Professional SEO,
The Art of SEO is exactly what I was hoping it would be… a dense, detailed exploration of the basics and best practices of SEO. As many starting SEOs know, there is lots of free information all over the web about various tactics, but the lack of a single comprehensive source to look something up in makes it occasionally frustrating trying to find the best tactic or to find a simple explanation of an SEO concept. That’s why I wanted to buy a nice, thick book on the subject, in hopes that its authors and editors will have organized a comprehensive source to serve as both a learning tool and occasional reference guide, including a little bit of enlightening info about almost everything you can think of in the practice of SEO. This book accomplishes that, giving you advice that can be trusted, so you don’t have to take the risk that a piece of info on some forum post is going to give you the right direction.
I bought this one because Rand Fishkin was involved as one of the authors… his video presentations and blog posts on SEOMoz, along with the rest of that site’s contributers, already represent the most central and credible source of good SEO info on the web. The book follows suit in presenting clear explanations, and solid tactical advice on hundreds of areas, with just enough detail to help you talk like an expert, without bogging you down in trivia or tech-ese. A complete beginner might want to start with a more introductory text, or just stick to the web for awhile with the free stuff, as this book does presume a certain degree of knowledge. But if you know a little SEO and are web-savvy, this book will become your right-hand SEO guide.
One complaint that must be noted… the book’s index is not nearly as complete as it should be – many terms that I just want to jump to and read about are not in the index. There is some amusing irony in the fact that a book about search is… uh… hard to search in. The Table of Contents makes up for this a bit, as it’s relatively easy to scan that section and figure out where you need to go, but it would be better to have a more comprehensive index, because this is not a book you’d be likely to read cover to cover…it’s more likely to be used again and again as ideas develop and questions arise. Maybe they will take care of that in subsequent editions, which will surely be necessary for a book covering a field that is constantly changing.
The Art of SEO is a thick, small-font reference guide covering everything that a quasi-professional or even current expert would want to have at hand, and the charts, tables, and resources are extensive and helpful. I don’t expect the need to buy another book on SEO anytime soon, as this one gives me much to chew on.
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