Great SEO Book

[Stewart]

I've been reading a really great SEO book called 'The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimisation' published by O Reilly which I would thoroughly recommend.

One of the things I always look for in any SEO/SEM book is that its current, given that the disciplines are moving and developing so quickly, this was printed in Oct 2009 so it ticked this box.

It is quite heavy, over 500 pages but covers lots of different SEO related topics. There is a great section on the operation of search engines, It then goes through in detail with lots of examples and what process an SEO expert moves through to indentify deficiencies and develop SEO projects. Of particular value are all the resources which an SEO professional would use. Of course all the standard website focused activities are described in detail together with the technical considerations. I found the sections on vertical search (text, image, video, product, local) and link building really interesting which could be applied directly to the thesis projects.

My only criticism is that the book is US focused so some of the resources are only applicable to the US but of course a bit of searching will easily provide UK and European equivalents.

If you want to really understand SEO and many of the most up to date concepts and approaches then this is a very useful resource - you'll certainly be able to impress the client after reading this.

[James]

I just got this book and agree - it is excellent. Very detailed and goes way beyond the basics.

[David]

This book has been on my shelf for a few months now and I just haven't had time to read it cover-to-cover but I keep dipping into it and it is very impressive. Will be on our core reading list for next year.

I know Will has been reading it - maybe he could let us know what he thinks.

[mac928]

Thanks for sharing this. I notice that there are many SEO books on the market. But I wasn’t sure which one is the best SEO book. I might buy this book, which might helps on my thesis web project.

[Will]

It's a great book and makes for quite addictive reading. I've also dip into it fairly often for clarification. At times it's fairly scientific, and at others fair amount of theory/conjecture-based, but it's honest in whatever information it presents. I'd have to say that it's definite must read for a serious webmaster, even if you ignore everything in it, you at least know how things are working OR importantly how your competition thinks things are working.