The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization (Theory in Practice) [Paperback]

Eric Enge (Author), Stephan Spencer (Author), Rand Fishkin (Author), Jessie Stricchiola (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0596518862 | ISBN-13: 978-0596518868 | Edition: 1

Four acknowledged experts in search engine optimization share guidelines and innovative techniques that will help you plan and execute a comprehensive SEO strategy. This second edition brings you up to date on recent changes in search engine behavior—such as new ranking methods involving user engagement and social media—with an array of effective tactics, from basic to advanced.

• Comprehend SEO’s many intricacies and complexities
• Explore the underlying theory and inner workings of search engines
• Understand the role of social media, user data, and links
• Discover tools to track results and measure success
• Recognize how changes to your site can confuse search engines
• Learn to build a competent SEO team with defined roles
• Glimpse the future of search and the SEO industry

Visit www.artofseobook.com for late-breaking updates, checklists, worksheets, templates, and guides.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eric Enge is the President of Stone Temple Consulting, a leading SEO consulting firm with offices in Boston and Northern California. Eric is a regular speaker at search industry conferences, such as Search Engine Strategies (SES), Search Marketing Expo (SMX), and Webmaster World. Eric also makes regular contributions on the topic of SEO to Search Engine Land and Search Engine Watch, SEOmoz, and his own blogs. Eric is particularly known for his in depth interviews of major players in the search engine industry including dozens of people who work in senior capacities at the search engines. Eric is also asked to make guest contributions to Website magazine, other SEO related blogs and news web sites, and is a senior editor for the SEO section of the Search Engine Marketing Journal.

Stephan Spencer is founder and President of the highly-respected SEO firm Netconcepts. Clients include Discovery Channel, HSN, AOL, CNET, and SuperPages.com, to name a few. He is inventor of Netconcepts' automated, pay-for-performance SEO technology platform GravityStream which powers the natural search channel for online retailers such as Cabela's and Northern Tool. Stephan is a regular contributor to Search Engine Land, Multichannel Merchant, Practical Ecommerce and MarketingProfs, among others. Stephan is a sought-after conference presenter who's spoken on SEO at hundreds of events across the globe for organizations such as the DMA, the AMA, Shop.org, Internet Retailer, SMX, IncisiveMedia (Search Engine Strategies), O'Reilly/TechWeb, PubCon, ECMOD, IQPC and IIR. Stephan is an avid blogger. He blogs primarily on his own blog, Stephan Spencer's Scatterings. But his posts can also be found on Searchlight (part of the CNET Blog Network), Shop.org Blog, Natural Search Blog, BusinessBlogConsulting.com, MarketingProfs Daily Fix, Changes For Good, and Google.

Rand Fishkin is the CEO & Co-Founder of SEOmoz, a leader in the field of search engine optimization tools, resources & community. In 2009, he was named among the 30 Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs Under 30 by BusinessWeek, and has been written about it in the Seattle Times, Newsweek and the New York Times among others. Rand has keynoted conferences on search from Sydney to Reykjavik, Montreal to Munich and spoken at dozens of shows around the world. He's particularly passionate about the SEOmoz blog, read by tens of thousands of search professionals each day. In his miniscule spare time, Rand enjoys the company of his amazing wife, Geraldine.

Jessie Stricchiola is a search industry veteran and founder and CEO of the highly-respected SEO firm Alchemist Media, Inc., consistently recognized by BtoB Magazine as one of the top search marketing vendors in the US. Jessie lectures extensively on all matters related to SEO and search at leading industry conferences worldwide, including ad:tech, SMX, Incisive Media's Search Engine Strategies, O'Reilly Media's Web 2.0 Summit, Webmaster World's PubCon, Shop.org, Stanford's Web Publishing Workshop and others. She is one of the original nine founders of SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization), serving two years on the Board of Directors for the organization while chairing the Membership Committee. Jessie is widely recognized for identifying and publicizing the first case of PPC click fraud in 2001, and her subsequent work to combat the issue has been featured in numerous media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, and NPR. Jessie has served as an expert consultant and witness on various internet and search-related litigation involving SEO and paid search, as well as patent, trademark, and copyright infringement on the web.

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (October 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596518862
• ISBN-13: 978-0596518868
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > Computers & Technology > Internet & Web Culture > Search Engine Optimization

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 55 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive Guide November 17, 2009

By Anthony Lawrence VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I am one who has been very outspoken about the more shady SEO practitioners and about the ridiculously overprices "courses" that are heavily promoted on the Internet. SEO has acquired some of the taint of huckster marketing because of that.

I hope this book helps eliminate some of that. There's no need to pay some self-styled "Internet Guru" hundreds or thousands of dollars for SEO secrets. There are no secrets: every concept, every "trick", every piece of advice is available on the Internet for free. Of course you have to find it all, you have to learn what things are outdated, what advice doesn't work - or you could find 99% here in this book.

Of course it's not for everyone. It assumes some technical knowledge or at least access to someone with that knowledge. As an example, at several points 301 redirects are used as the solution certain SEO issues. Although some minor direction is given about implementing these, you'd need more than is provided here if you were a neophyte - someone using Blogger or [...] isn't going to become proficient with Apache from reading this.

The only small complaint I can make is that sometimes the authors use too many examples, especially for the more basic concepts at the beginning of the book. However, too many is far better than too few, so I won't complain too much. I definitely can't complain that they left anything out: this could serve as a course book for a SEO class.

I'll be recommending this strongly.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost Cutting-Edge November 4, 2009

By Wes Unruh

Format:Paperback

I did enjoy this overview of the SEO field. Granted, even though it has a first printing copyright of October 2009, there are already some outdated links, which only serves to highlight the incredible rate of development that the Internet engenders. This is an excellent introduction to a highly volatile field, and I was very impressed with the depth of subject matter. At the same time, I found the repetition from chapter to chapter of nearly identical text somewhat distracting, which is why I hesitate to give this book a full five stars.

In some ways, this book sets the stage for the next evolution in marketing. Pay-Per-Click does not have the return on investment that Search Engine Optimization can have, and the authors do a very good job of outlining exactly why this is - and while there are many, many different signals which can be manipulated to some extent by a search engine optimizer (optimist?) the authors do an excellent job explaining the many pitfalls that can arise when SEO is done incorrectly. Still, I was somewhat perplexed to note that two tools I rely on most heavily seemed completely overlooked in the text, those being Google Alerts (which provides me with endless supply of keyword-relevant content as it hits the net) and Market Samurai, an astoundingly useful tool in my keyword research process.

19 of 25 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Link Building Chapter Saves this Book January 19, 2011

By Alexander Kine

Format:Paperback

Chapter 7 "Creating Link-Worthy Content and Link Marketing" saves this otherwise mediocre book. While this 555-page tome contains lots of information, it lacks few new insights or gems. With four authors, where was the editor?

Score:
2 stars: Overall
5 stars: New information about the importance of link building makes Chapter 7 a must read
1 star: The book fails to mention free seo/web developer toolbars from SEObook, SEOmoz and Chris Pederick
1 star: In the midst of citing research from SEO industry cronies, the authors forgot to attribute The Long Tail to Chris Anderson, citing a derivative work instead.
1 star: The book lists accolades from dozens of respected industry leaders and published authors, but the content fails to live up to this hype. Quid pro quo?