David
4th Mar 2008, 10:01 am
Building Findable Websites (Web Standards, SEO and Beyond) by Aarron Walter is an exceptionally good book and will be added to the reading list for the Website Planning course next year.
I pre-ordered the book back in October 2007 based on the synopsis and it arrived yesterday. Much to my surprise, it's as good as I hoped it would be.
Essentially, the book aims to cover all of the things a site builder can do to make their website more "findable". Findability includes SEO, Accessibility, Usability, IA, Marketing etc. So, there is a lot here but topics are covered in a very matter-of-fact way in the best tradition of myth-busting. Chapters include: Introducing Findability, Markup Strategies, Server-Side Strategies, Creating Content that Drives Traffic and Adding Search to Your Site (the first time I've seen this important topic covered in print - Rollyo and Atomz are covered as well as Google). The final chapter, Putting Findability into Practice, gives a prioritised listing, which is spot on. First priority? "Create well-written, original content that fills a niche and is relevant to your audience." No weird stuff, just plain common sense. 5 Stars.
Take a look at the book's website (http://buildingfindablewebsites.com/) and the author's website (http://aarronwalter.com/).
There are also some free bonus chapters (http://buildingfindablewebsites.com/bonus-chapters.php) that didn't go into the book (why?).
I pre-ordered the book back in October 2007 based on the synopsis and it arrived yesterday. Much to my surprise, it's as good as I hoped it would be.
Essentially, the book aims to cover all of the things a site builder can do to make their website more "findable". Findability includes SEO, Accessibility, Usability, IA, Marketing etc. So, there is a lot here but topics are covered in a very matter-of-fact way in the best tradition of myth-busting. Chapters include: Introducing Findability, Markup Strategies, Server-Side Strategies, Creating Content that Drives Traffic and Adding Search to Your Site (the first time I've seen this important topic covered in print - Rollyo and Atomz are covered as well as Google). The final chapter, Putting Findability into Practice, gives a prioritised listing, which is spot on. First priority? "Create well-written, original content that fills a niche and is relevant to your audience." No weird stuff, just plain common sense. 5 Stars.
Take a look at the book's website (http://buildingfindablewebsites.com/) and the author's website (http://aarronwalter.com/).
There are also some free bonus chapters (http://buildingfindablewebsites.com/bonus-chapters.php) that didn't go into the book (why?).