Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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 Of course you have to find it all, you have to learn what things are outdated, what advice doesn't work - or you could find 99% here in this book.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.

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 Granted, even though it has a first printing copyright of October 2009, there are already some outdated links, which only serves to highlight the incredible rate of development that the Internet engenders.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.

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?

The Art of SEO is exactly what I was hoping it would be... a dense, detailed exploration of the basics and best practices of SEO. As many starting SEOs know, there is lots of free information all over the web about various tactics, but the lack of a single comprehensive source to look something up in makes it occasionally frustrating trying to find the best tactic or to find a simple explanation of an SEO concept. That's why I wanted to buy a nice, thick book on the subject, in hopes that its authors and editors will have organized a comprehensive source to serve as both a learning tool and occasional reference guide, including a little bit of enlightening info about almost everything you can think of in the practice of SEO. This book accomplishes that, giving you advice that can be trusted, so you don't have to take the risk that a piece of info on some forum post is going to give you the right direction.

I bought this one because Rand Fishkin was involved as one of the authors... his video presentations and blog posts on SEOMoz, along with the rest of that site's contributers, already represent the most central and credible source of good SEO info on the web. The book follows suit in presenting clear explanations, and solid tactical advice on hundreds of areas, with just enough detail to help you talk like an expert, without bogging you down in trivia or tech-ese. A complete beginner might want to start with a more introductory text, or just stick to the web for awhile with the free stuff, as this book does presume a certain degree of knowledge. But if you know a little SEO and are web-savvy, this book will become your right-hand SEO guide.

One complaint that must be noted... the book's index is not nearly as complete as it should be - many terms that I just want to jump to and read about are not in the index. There is some amusing irony in the fact that a book about search is... uh... hard to search in. The Table of Contents makes up for this a bit, as it's relatively easy to scan that section and figure out where you need to go, but it would be better to have a more comprehensive index, because this is not a book you'd be likely to read cover to cover...it's more likely to be used again and again as ideas develop and questions arise. Maybe they will take care of that in subsequent editions, which will surely be necessary for a book covering a field that is constantly changing.

The Art of SEO is a thick, small-font reference guide covering everything that a quasi-professional or even current expert would want to have at hand, and the charts, tables, and resources are extensive and helpful. I don't expect the need to buy another book on SEO anytime soon, as this one gives me much to chew on.

This is a great book for someone who already knows a bit about SEO. I've read the book cover to cover and I highly enjoyed it. Two additions that would have made The Art of SEO five stars in my opinion: A Glossary, and a list of Resources referred to in the body of the book. Often while reading I came across a word or phrase that hadn't yet been defined, with a note saying the concept would be discussed in a later chapter. Well, if I need to know what that word means to understand the sentence, telling me to find it in a later chapter isn't much help. Further, I really like that so many websites and tools (often multiple per page) are referred to as being helpful for this or that, but I wish there was a compendium of resources where I could look up all the websites that are good for whatever I might be interested, instead of trying to find the mention of these tools who knows where in the book later.

I enjoyed reading this book. The majority of the content was useful from my perspective as a copywriter, even already knowing something about SEO. It may not be the best entry-level book for the beginner. However, a motivated beginner would be rewarded for their effort. I think the book successfully addresses two audiences, the business owner or marketing consultant with a more than casual interest in SEO, and the professional SEO practitioner or web developer who would appreciate the in-depth technical and architectural issues that impact SEO.

The chapter on keyword research is the most useful information I have read on the subject. It gives you detailed examples on the use of three top keyword research tools, and other helpful ways to do keyword research.

Overall, this is a comprehensive text and reference book that the serious SEO student or professional will want to keep around.

Original review written by Mario Fusco, JUG Lugano, [...]
Before start reading this book, I was almost convinced that black magic had more clear and predictable rules than search engine optimization. It happened to me lots of times to read a blog post suggesting a given strategy in order to improve the search ranking of a web site and then to find another post, from an equally authoritative author, giving exactly the opposite advice. Are URLs containing keywords important or not influential to the eyes of a search engine? To repeat the same keyword more and more times in the same page is positive or detrimental? You can find people saying everything and its exact contrary when speaking about these topics.

This book analyzes these and many more controversial arguments by clarifying how search engines works on their respect and then suggesting the best actions to take in order to make your web site more appealing to them. Indeed, in my opinion, this is one of the most valuable characteristic of the book: it explains the algorithms implemented by people who write the search engines themselves. That makes the set of the suggestions it gives not another list of ingredients to be added to a mysterious magic formula, but, more practically, just a list of viable advices justified by well stated technical reasons.

If I should make a compliant about the book it is that in some cases it sounds a bit redundant. The same concepts are repeated here and there with tons of sometimes trivial and avoidable examples. I admit too many examples is better than too few, and probably this choice has been made with the purpose to make the book accessible by people with very heterogeneous technical skills. However I believe that to cut some not strictly useful parts could make the book a bit more fluent and enjoyable.

In the end I recommend this book to everybody interested in search engine optimization. The black art of SEO is a bit less obscure now.

This book is completely invaluable to any SEO specialist or technician. This book combined with SEOMoz.org's blog is all one needs to stay on top of this ever changing business. I appreciate the fact somebody took all their hard work and knowledge, experience and secrets and put them nicely together in this book for people like myself.

This is one monster of a book on SEO. Very technically written, not for the ultra-novice, "just starting out online" reader in my opinion.

But, after reading this, I got the feeling that I received a firm and solid education on the subject in a WIDE variety of areas. Not to mention, I am a fan of books that can be technically written without sounding "ultra-clinical".

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has read a bunch of blogs or other info on SEO (some of which is misinformation), and really wants the foundational education to keep on their bookshelf as a reference.

As a SEM/SEO Analytics Specialist, this book has been a great resource for me. I'm in a position now, where I use this book, daily for project references. A good friend and technology professional recommended the book to me. As I develop my SEO skill set, I can relax knowing there are great books out there to enhance my career. From my experience, this is few and far between. Keep up the good work!