Get to the Top on Google: Tips and Techniques to Get Your Site to the Top of the Search Engine Rankings -- and Stay There [Paperback]

David Viney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2008

It is a fact that people avoid sponsored search results and rarely make it past page two of their result listings on Google. So how do you get your business to the top and keep it there? It has been predicted that Internet sales will make up nearly half of all purchases by 2012. As a result, being at the top of organic search results can literally transform your business. Get to the Top on Google: Tips and Techniques to Get Your Site to the Top of the Search Engine Rankings-and Stay There is the first book to comprehensively address all aspects of modern day search engine marketing through a straightforward methodology, which includes an up-to-date assessment of the impact of Web 2.0 on marketing strategies. Thorough and accessible, Get to the Top on Google provides you with the advice and knowledge of a genuine expert in the field. Through a series of case studies and examples, David Viney shows business owners, both large and small, how to improve their search engine rankings, leads, and sales in order to stay ahead of this next step in the evolution of consumer behavior.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"David Viney's book pulls off the difficult trick of both being comprehensible to beginners and offering a level of comprehensive (and up to date) detail that will appeal to older hands. It's divided into seven steps that broadly follow the timeline of an SEO campaign, with some useful case studies. Put simply, this book delivers what it promises." -- .NET Magazine, August, 2008

The information in this very specific book can help you increase the effectiveness of your Web efforts and gain better visibility among the Web search results on Google and other search engines. David Viney shares his expertise in Search Engine Optimization and provides useful detail on the topic. Have you wondered if you need professional input in this area? Read here to find out how expert guidance, copywriting, site design and Web master services can supplement your efforts, and boost your visibility and sales. Viney explains how to assess your current results. He tells you how to make sure your Web page appears among search results in productive positions, but he doesn't overpromise about what you can accomplish. Much of his information is quite detailed and technical, but relatively accessible and applicable -- The Press-Enterprise, June 30, 2008

From the Publisher

Search Expert, David Viney, provides his top 5 tips to improve the search ranking of your business.

Court the Crawl
Don't bother with paid search engine submission services; they're now obsolete. If you have at least one link from another website, the search engine spiders will list you eventually. 90% of the market is controlled by the big 4 (Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask.com).

More important today is that all your pages carry the right weight (on Google, called "PageRank"). Make your site structure like a tree; the home page is the trunk, your categories the branches and the pages the leaves. Make your tree (a) symmetrical rather than lopsided, and (b) don't have too many branch levels before you reach the leaves. Less is more!

Find Phrases the Pay
What do you want to be top on Google for? Don't limit your ambitions to being top for the name of your business, but target instead searchers looking generally for services you offer.

The key is to research the popularity and competition for each search phrase. As an example, did you know that people search for "rugs" four times more often than "carpets", but that carpets features on twice as many pages? There are a number of keyword analysis tools on the web that help you find these "phrases that pay".

Target the Long Tail
Some phrases, like "mp3 player" are very competitive! Try targeting the longer phrases, as demand for these falls more slowly than supply!

For example, ranking well for "ski chalet Chamonix child care" is likely to be easier than "ski accommodation France" (and get more conversions)

Prime your Pages
The best-known part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is SEO copywriting, the art of writing content that both humans and search engines love.

Realize every part of the page is read by the spider, including the full URL (or page address).

The most important page elements are the page title, the full URL and the page headings.

Remember 3 rules; (a) prominence, (b) proximity and (c) density. Put your keywords nearer the front of a text block, keep them together and make sure they appear often.

Landing the Links
The Google algorithm gets tweaked often but retains a simple principle; sites that get mentioned often by others (on a topic) will rank better on that topic! You need links from other sites in (a) quantity, (b) quality and (c) containing the keywords or phrases that you want to be top for.

If you write great content, others will naturally find it and link to it over time, but you can speed this along through listing on directories, forum participation, article submission, online press release publication, and exchanging links with other webmasters. KEY FACTS Do not doubt the size of the prize on offer; It has never been as vital to top the search engines as it is today! 40% The U-Switch forecast for the percentage of all sales online by 2020. 90% Percentage of site visits that originate from the top four search engines 80% The Market Share of Google on most industry measures 84% Of users never go beyond the bottom of page two of the Google results 65% The percentage of users who never click on sponsored (or paid) ads

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857885023
• ISBN-13: 978-1857885026
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #505,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not very useful July 10, 2008

By Adele Drake

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I wanted to use the structured approach to SEO presented in this book but it was mainly a waste of my time. The system is based on the frequency of searchs for your keywords but can not be used since the suggested tools are no longer available and/or based on very old data. SEO changes rapidly and I was hoping this recently published book would be more topical. Frequent plugs for his website are a distraction and the book is unnecessarily jargon heavy. It did get me to follow through on some things so I'm giving it 2 stars.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointment June 13, 2008

By Sandpiper

Format:Paperback

May be I am already sufficient at SEO, but I could not find much new information that helped me improve my web sites. It also seems that this book is geared towards getting more customers for the author's web site (monthly subscription, readers of the book get the first 6 months for free). There are references to his web site all over the book, usually with a remark in the nature of: "I will not explain all details, but check out my web site".

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A very solid introduction and guide to Search Engine Optimization using Google May 5, 2008

By Craig Matteson HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

I love how new technologies also breed experts to help us understand and guide us through their complexities. David Viney calls himself "The SEO Expert". So, what is SEO? It is Search Engine Optimization. That is, how can your company make the best use of marketing to your customers using search engines, in this case Google. Since 84% of all people doing searches on the web never get past the second page of search results, it makes sense to do what you can to get your web pages as close to the top as possible.

Viney is very clear about the work involved and the kinds of businesses that do best in these efforts. He provides a seven step process to help you optimize the trade-offs you face in trying to get seen in the Google search results pages.

The first step is to get the right words and phrases. But for whom? You have to first decide what you can best sell and provide over the web and who those customers are. It isn't everything to everyone. He provides the D-A-D process where you make a list (a long list) of keywords and keyphrases. This is supposed to be a laundry list of as many possible keywords and phrases that you can think of. Then you winnow them down to the very best and most relevant items on that list, and put them in your pages in the right way.

The second step takes you through the process Google uses to discover and rank your pages (a very cursory explanation) and how you need to design and arrange your web pages to "court the crawl" of Googlebot. Step 3 is about priming your pages and discusses the difference between Google's main and supplemental indexes and how to tell which of your pages is in which index. Viney also warns you off certain popular practices that may well get you penalized by Google.

Step 4 is all about developing high quality links using content, relationships with web content providers, and avoiding penalties from developing too many cheap links too quickly. The fifth step examines the trade-offs of paid advertising on Google, its dangers, benefits, and when it is likely to be more effective for you. I like Viney's honesty about the need for experienced and high quality web copywriters. You can waste a lot of money with the wrong ads that attract lots of non-customers. You also need to have great web designs for the customers you attract to land on and will help convert them from someone browsing to the web into purchasing customers.

Step 6 talks about getting your site ready today for the mapping and geographic technologies that are rising and will likely be part of everyone's web experience soon. Step 7 talks about the tools Google and others provide to help you track and analyze your web traffic.

A useful book that doesn't require you to be very technical. However you must be able to be somewhat familiar with the argot and jargon of the web to get through this stuff.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI