SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible [Paperback]

Jerri L. Ledford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 17, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0470175001 | ISBN-13: 978-0470175002 | Edition: 1

• This in-depth Bible delivers the holy grail of online marketing: how to influence search engine results to drive online shoppers to specific Web sites; the process is called search engine optimization (SEO) and it is a hot topic
• One-stop resource offers readers what they need to plan and implement a successful SEO program, including useful tips on finding the shortest routes to success, strategy suggestions, and sidebars with more information and additional resources
• Features interviews with executives from top search companies, plus appendices on creating successful listings with Google, MSN, Yahoo!, and others
• Topics include creating an SEO plan; managing keywords; maximizing pay-per-click strategies; understanding the role of links and linking; robots, spiders, and crawlers; maintaining SEO; analyzing success rates; and much more

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Increase your web traffic with better search results

Wonder how some companies pop up high in search engine rankings? It's all about search appeal. Master the strategies, techniques, and shortcuts in this detailed SEO guide and you can improve your web site's search rankings and start driving the targeted traffic you want to your virtual door. Learn to punch up keywords, add HTML tags for tracking, evaluate pay-per-click strategies, and much more. If you want to make SEO work for you, this is the book you need to succeed.

• Learn how to give your web site search appeal

• Target behaviors and draw the customers you really want

• Employ social media in your search engine marketing

• Optimize your site specifically for Google®, MSN®, or Yahoo!®

• Demystify the role of links and linking in search

• Understand robots, spiders, and crawlers

• Analyze your SEO efforts and see what works

• Make use of SEO tools available online

• Create a winning SEO plan

• Read interviews with over a dozen SEO experts

About the Author

Jerri L. Ledford has been a freelance business technology writer for more than 15 years. Over 750 of her articles, profiles, news stories, and reports have appeared online and in print. She also develops and teaches technology training courses for such companies as IBT Financial, Hewlett Packard, and CNET. She is the author of Google Powered: Productivity with Online Tools and coauthor of Google Analytics, both from Wiley.

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470175001
• ISBN-13: 978-0470175002
• Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 7.4 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,191,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jerri Ledford has been a freelance business technology writer for nearly 20 years. During that time, over 1,000 of her articles, profiles, news stories and reports have appeared online and in print. Her publishing credits include: Intelligent Enterprise, Network World, Information Security Magazine, DCM Magazine, CRM Magazine, IT Manager's Journal.

Jerri also develops and teaches technology training courses for both consumer and business users. She's developed and taught courses on security, customer service, career skills, and technology for companies such as: Franklin Covey, IBT Financial, Writer's Village University, Beacon Hill Financial Services, Hewlett Packard, and CNET. She is the author of 18 non-fiction books, and her first fiction book, "Biloxi Sunrise" is scheduled to be released in eBook format in October 2011.

In her off-time Jerri divides her time between Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee where she enjoys the beach, hiking, reading, and traveling whenever possible. It's Jerri's goal to visit a new place every opportunity she gets.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Just the same old... April 20, 2008

By J. S. Robinson

Format:Paperback

This book should be titled "SEM Overview with some SEO sprinkled in".

It contains misinformation, misconceptions, and myths (particularly on CMS and dynamic sites that use query strings). There about 40-50 pages in this book that are worth reading in regards to SEO, and misses out on a lot more. SEM gets a lot of pages (how to run a PPC campaign) and the rest is fluff.

What's missing? To start: no recommendations on real SEO implementation, just that you should do things. Sure, you should write a good Title tag and Meta Description, but how long should they be? What density of keywords? Should you try to get more than one keyword in a Title tag?

Inbound links section is woefully short, 10 pages of real content, 2 pages covering directories, and the directories to submit to is a list five entries long. There are many more that count than these five.

Following the steps in this book can certainly get a site headed in the right direction, but if your market is already competitive in terms of SEO, this is just the tip of the iceberg, and it doesn't really give a structure for understanding how much work is involved (there is a lot of it) or how long it will really take.

All in all, you can get all this and much much more from just a few web sites. If you feel you need to read it on paper, then print the sites out.

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Long on Words -- Short on Expertise May 13, 2008

By Inius Mella

Format:Paperback

The first thing you should read in this book is the author's bio on the back cover. You'll discover that her expertise is freelance business writing, not SEO. That will go a long way in explaining why her book just skims the surface of this complex subject and will provide you with precious little information you can actually use. This book has lots of words, but very little expertise and no depth.

Her discussion of meta tags, title tags, and meta name descriptions, for example, goes no further than explaining what a meta tag looks like. She writes, "Such a tag for the search engine optimization page might look like this:" She then shows us an example...and then moves on to other subjects. There is no in-depth discussion of how to write these critically important tags, how to use or not use keywords or keyword phrases in these tags, no discusses relating to keyword denisty or character length in meta tags or practical example of how sucessful meta tags are written. All you'll be given is an example of what a meta tag looks like. And that's why this book can be described in one word -- shallow.

If you need a bigger clue, this "expert" in SEO has not created any website or blog for her book. Try Googling "SEO Bible" and see what you get. It won't be her book. Sure, there's a page ranking compliments of Amazon.com. But that wasn't her doing. She hasn't even created anything TO optimize. This person probably knows a lot about research and writing -- but knows very little about SEO. Don't be sucked in by the title. This book is not worth it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Shoots high, falls low April 27, 2008

By Eli C. Romberg

Format:Paperback

I read so many good reviews about this book before I purchased it, as it was praised to be one of the best books out there on the subject of SEO. But I found it to be extremely disappointing. While reading the book I kept on thinking to myself that what the author had very little to say but managed to spread it out on 300 pages, by repeating the same mantras over and over. You could summarize the entire book in 20 well written pages. If this is the SEO bible, I would have preferred the 10 commandments. Did not learn all that much from this book.