SEO Bible by Jerri L. Ledford
(ISBN: 978-0-470-17500-2) As usual, I have not purchased this book. I have, however, borrowed it from the Ottawa Public Library.
This is an excellent book for beginners in the “Mug’s Game” of Search Engine Optimization. (SEO) It explains the basic concepts of SEO and why they are essential if you are trying to make money on the web.
The book starts sensibly talking about how you need a plan for using SEO on your site (know what you want to achieve, so you know whether you have succeeded or not). A good point made is that if you are going to do this, you should use Google Analytics to collect data (again, you need data to know whether you are succeeding or not).
The book then dives into different SEO techniques like using META tags on your site to get Search Engine Robots to find your site and classify it correctly. If you do a “View Page Source” on this page, you’ll see which meta tags I have set up for this site too. The key to SEO is the use of Keywords, and the rest of the book outlines well how to get Search Engines to associate Keywords with your website and how to get your rank for that Keyword up the list (appearing on Page 10 on Google isn’t your goal).
Excellent learning points about Keyword densities (don’t use them too little OR too much) and what techniques you should be using in a Pay Per Click (PPC) environment as well. Their explanation of PPC is helpful for “newbies” as well. I learned 1 or 2 things I didn’t know as well. I skipped the section on Advertising keywords since I was not very interested in that section (yet), but it seems pretty detailed on tactics in that area.
Content is king is my philosophy, and the book outlines the importance of not simply putting out a bunch of retread information or some hack-kneed old information. You need to be exciting and fresh to attract KEEP readers (don’t just do book reviews, for example, unless your site is a book review site).
The book’s sections on Links and Robots are again very illustrative and essential to understand if you want to play the SEO game. This site, for example, has very incoming links and whereas my financial site has hundreds of links in, which helps it keep its popularity. How to deal with Robots is also quite essential, and the explanations in the book are beneficial. The author’s warnings about SEO SPAM should be heeded unless you want to be a Black Hat SEO person (i.e. a bad guy).
Analyzing the data after you have implemented your plan is your final goal, and deciding whether you have succeeded (and how you might change your plan to create more success) concludes the book’s content.
Rating:
I always feel that if I get three new ideas from any content, it is of value, and I view this book as a helpful resource and a good read. I will not be buying it, as I have already noted what I want to use, but I recommend this book if you start in the SEO game.
It was an excellent read!
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