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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Content is still king
This well-written and informative book on getting your web site noticed by users boils the advice down to one sentence: "Your content should always be written for humans first, and search engines second!" It emphasizes building attractive content first, then removing any roadblocks that would prevent search engines from finding it.
The book is an interesting...
Published on April 22, 2008 by Allen Stenger
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12 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Not an SEO book...
I'm not so happy with this book. The idea is good - talking about 'Findability', which is more than SEO. He defines the findability of a web site as
the way to attract visitors (who can find you on search engines)
the way people find content on your site
making people return to your site
My main problem is that I wanted an SEO book, and...
Published 16 months ago by Ron Mertens
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Content is still king, April 22, 2008
This review is from: Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond (Paperback)
This well-written and informative book on getting your web site noticed by users boils the advice down to one sentence: "Your content should always be written for humans first, and search engines second!" It emphasizes building attractive content first, then removing any roadblocks that would prevent search engines from finding it.
The book is an interesting blend of high-level strategy and low-level techie tools and techniques. The mostly likely audience is actually webmasters more than web designers or marketers, although all would benefit from it. The most valuable part for me was the review of the many management tools, most of them free, available for studying your web site.
The web standards part doesn't really get a lot of attention in this book. No one today is going to seriously argue against following web standards. The advice in this book is limited to "use HTML elements for what they were designed for," with a promise that that will improve your search rankings. For example, it recommends using the various header levels to structure your document instead of just using boldface and bigger type, and it recommends using tables only for tabular date and using CSS for precise placement of a mosaic of elements.
A lot of what's here is not really about findability but about making your site worth finding, and about how to hold on to your audience once they've found the site. It covers techniques such as mailing lists (old technology but still very valuable), RSS feeds, user-generated content (such as product reviews), and blogs. The book makes the interesting point that authoring for search engines is very similar to authoring for the visually impaired. If you are careful to make your site accessible to humans, it will automatically be more accessible to search engines. There is specific advice on handling blogs, JavaScript menu systems, Shockwave Flash, and Ajax.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Not just another SEO book, July 9, 2008
This review is from: Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond (Paperback)
I went to the book store looking for a book on blogging and spotted this unusual title 'Building Findable Websites'. Within the first few moments of thumbing through the book, I knew I was going to get it. I already had several search engine optimization books, but this one talked about SEO and so much more. It even had a chapter on blogging.
What strikes me most about this book is that literally every page has website resources or bits of code. The second most striking this is the author does not fill page after page of why to do something. The whys are kept to the point and jump right into the hows. This book is not filled with dozens of interviews or inspirational stories though it does have real world examples which the author provides links to so the reader can get more detail. I really liked the example of BMW Germany getting blacklisted from Google for blackhat SEO tactics.
The author also has a great companion website to the book which includes 5 bonus chapters, the table of contents for the book, website tools and code used in the book. Since Amazon doesn't have a 'Search Inside' on this book, you can read the bonus chapters to get a feel for the book and the author. Also be sure and check out his blog at [...] where you can see samples of his work and a list of books he uses as references two of which I've decided to get as well.
After reading this book, I appreciate the difference between findability versus SEO. This book focuses on best practices and web standards of which SEO is only a part of.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
SEO the right way, March 20, 2008
This review is from: Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond (Paperback)
The big buzz phrase for the past few years has been Search Engine Optimization(SEO). Companies are paying other companies millions of dollars to get, and keep their websites in the front of different keyword searches on the larger search engine sites. Is it worth it? In most cases... probably not. Anyone thinking about paying money to have someone make their site "SEO" friendly should read Building Findable Websites.
Being a web standards practitioner, I had great theories of how building a website the right way can take care of most of your SEO woes. After reading Aarron's book on the topic, my theories were solidified. having a website that is built semantically using XHTML, CSS and javascript will drastically make your web presence findable for your users and for the search engines.
Is your website still wrangling a table based layout with messy unreadable code? Before spending thousands on SEO enhancements, read this book. See what the buzz of Web Standards is about(if you have not already) and go from there; you will not be disappointed.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
The Title Is Very Fitting, May 16, 2008
This review is from: Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond (Paperback)
I got this book because I'm a web developer by trade, working on the back-end (mostly PHP) and a lot of front-end. This book helped illuminate a lot about the "black art" that is SEO. It dispelled some myths, confirmed some thoughts of mine and all in all was a good book, especially if you're techincal.
That's the "building" part of the title. The author also covers basic and advanced SEO strategies that don't require knowledge of any kind of programming language. That's the "SEO" part of the title. The last bit is the "beyond" and covers a lot about driving and maintaining traffic to your site. I didn't pick up this book for that reason, but I read most of these sections anyway and I'm glad I did because I learned a lot more than I thought I would.
If you're a developer of any kind working on web sites, or are a project manager dealing with clients, this book will help you sound smart and have some ammo to back it up. I'm already under water with a project that is implementing a ton of these tips - I'm curious to see how much the traffic increases.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Outstanding Web Design and Marketing Read!, August 28, 2008
This review is from: Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond (Paperback)
Mr. Walter has done an outstanding job giving the reader not only a solid overview of many different aspects of SEO, but also delving into actual code and its various details. He discusses optimizing one's code for the search engines, giving numerous examples for the reader. He discusses the importance of separating content from presentation (CSS) and behavior (JavaScript). Mr. Walter sprinkles some PHP code throughout the book, too; however, he does an excellent job telling the reader what he's doing - where - and why, with plenty of comments to support his coding.
Additionally, he discusses the importance of blogging and adding local search to one's Web site(s). Blogging is clearly important to SEO due to the consistent blog posts as well as the linking strategy (to and from the Web site) that complements any blog.
He finishes his fine tome with a chapter on preventing Findability roadblocks - such as using too much Flash and avoiding JavaScript & AJAX issues - as well as a discussion on integrating an email newsletter service (e.g. MailChimp) into your Web site. All quite helpful to any Web designer.
Mr. Walter provides numerous illustrations throughout the text and explains them thoroughly. He is clearly an exceptional teacher, very practical in both his design and his prose; It's probably fair to guess that his teaching style matches his writing style.
This is an enjoyable and enlightened book for both Web designers and Web marketers. I highly recommend 'Building Findable Websites.'
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Best practices give a better user experience, August 30, 2008
This review is from: Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond (Paperback)
What makes "Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond" by Aarron Walter so interesting to me is the simple, easy-to-implement common sense advice. In fact, I quickly updated our local web professional group website with several recommendations from the book.
Aarron covers a wide range of areas in the book, including user experience, markup, search engine optimization, and site promotion, that some people may find distracting.
However, I liked the mix of technical advice, delving into server-side settings and development and WordPress tweaking, and the more practical tips on creating content and setting up mailing lists. As Aarron points out in the first chapter, developing a findable website is the result of many aspects in web development which help your target audience find the information they seek.
It may seem a small detail, but an added bonus of the book is how the book is laid out and formatted, improving readability:
* the book lays flat with wide pages and wide margins
* line spacing is generous, and
* excellent use of text color in main content, chapter and section headings
As the sole employee of a web development company, I wear several hats as marketer, information architect, designer, coder, developer and search engine optimization analyst. Aarron's book is a great resource for improving website findability by improving the user experience.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Complete Resource, August 10, 2009
This review is from: Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond (Paperback)
This book has it all, from the simplest principles and basic practices to more complicated techniques. The author thoroughly explores what it takes to attract web visitors, and keep them coming back. He includes plenty of concrete examples of what to do, links to resources on the web, and so forth. This book should benefit any website owner, from the small business or individual, to the largest organization. A couple nice extras: More chapters, to supplement the book, and freely available on the book's companion website; and code for some of the examples in the book, also on the website.
If you own a web site, or you're planning one, get this book. It's essential reading!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
This is a valuable guide for anyone developing websites., July 29, 2009
This review is from: Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond (Paperback)
This book describes in great detail a list of potential pitfalls and best practices for creating content that is not only easier for users to find, but to the search engines as well. Numerous HTML, CSS, Javascript, .htaccess, and PHP examples are given and thoroughly explained. I found this book to be easy to read and yet very informative, especially when it pointed out design choices I had been making that were in fact hurting search engine rankings.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent book full of practical, usable advice, September 23, 2009
This review is from: Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond (Paperback)
Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond by Aaron Walter is the best web development book I've read in a long time. It is densely packed with actionable advice for improving the "findability" of your site, and in so doing, improve the usability, readability, speed, and manageability of your site. Findability is a broader concept than simply SEO. It is helping people find your site, helping people navigate your site and retrieve the information/action they want from it, and encouraging people to return to your site.
Walter covers a wide range of areas you can work on to improve the findability of your site, from the importance of quality content with strategically placed keywords, using semantic markup with clear hierarchies, server-side strategies such as friendly urls, rss and email subscriptions, etc.
I heartily recommend this book to not just web designers and developers, but also website owners and managers and web content writers.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A must have book for web designers, May 9, 2009
This review is from: Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond (Paperback)
I have always wanted to know more about SEO tips and strategies - but this book completely flips that thought on its head. Findable websites do not just try to optimize for search engines but are accessible, usable; and value informative, pertinent content before anything else. There are lots of tips and tricks for people who like them and also insights into how to use Google Analytics (or other web statistics software) for tweaking your design based on the implicit feedback of the users (actions users take on your web page).
I find this book standing in stark contrast to most other "SEO" books, in that it actually clearly states what it takes to build findable websites without resorting to jargon or marketing gimmicks.
I hope Aarron Walter would write more books for web designers!
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