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The Art of SEO (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)) 1st (first) Edition by Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, Jessie Stricchiola published by O'Reilly Media
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First published January 1, 2009
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November 6, 2015
Content is King
Search 1.0: keywords and text
Search 2.0: link analysis
Search 3.0: integration of vertical results
Search 4.0: personalization
SEO strategy: Scramble!
At the end of the day, the best results are likely to be provided by the best sites. The technology that has driven search engines were based on two ranking signals: good keyword targeting and good links, but user experience and engagement are now significant factors too (a good example being Youtube shifting from views to watch-time as primary ranking signal for videos). And you can’t really game those signals.
There is just no substitute for having good content (and showing it off well, of course - don’t hide the mousetrap). Anything beyond that Search 4.0 or 5.0 will probably catch you anyway.
+++
A TL;DR Summary for the Book:
Today, SEO can be fairly easily categorized as having five major objectives:
• Make content accessible to search engine crawlers.
• Find the keywords that searchers employ (understand your target audience) and make your site speak their language.
• Build content that users will find useful, valuable, and worthy of sharing. Ensure that they’ll have a good experience on your site to improve the likelihood that you’ll earn links and references.
• Earn votes for your content in the form of editorial links and social media mentions from good sources by building inviting, shareable content and applying classic marketing techniques to the online world.
• Creating web pages that allow users to find what they want extremely quickly, ideally in the blink of an eye.
Search 1.0: keywords and text
Search 2.0: link analysis
Search 3.0: integration of vertical results
Search 4.0: personalization
SEO strategy: Scramble!
At the end of the day, the best results are likely to be provided by the best sites. The technology that has driven search engines were based on two ranking signals: good keyword targeting and good links, but user experience and engagement are now significant factors too (a good example being Youtube shifting from views to watch-time as primary ranking signal for videos). And you can’t really game those signals.
There is just no substitute for having good content (and showing it off well, of course - don’t hide the mousetrap). Anything beyond that Search 4.0 or 5.0 will probably catch you anyway.
+++
A TL;DR Summary for the Book:
Today, SEO can be fairly easily categorized as having five major objectives:
• Make content accessible to search engine crawlers.
• Find the keywords that searchers employ (understand your target audience) and make your site speak their language.
• Build content that users will find useful, valuable, and worthy of sharing. Ensure that they’ll have a good experience on your site to improve the likelihood that you’ll earn links and references.
• Earn votes for your content in the form of editorial links and social media mentions from good sources by building inviting, shareable content and applying classic marketing techniques to the online world.
• Creating web pages that allow users to find what they want extremely quickly, ideally in the blink of an eye.
September 16, 2011
hi, hmmm how should i start this post, ok i will be honest:
"The Art of SEO is a frustrating read!" There i said it now send the mob after me.
first, the 4 authors are great thinkers and innovators in the organic SEO field. the book offers lots and lots of know how for a good price.
sadly the editor was clearly overwhelmed: if you collaborate on a book you need a great, strong editor to make the book a whole. this did not happen with this book.
every topic is not discussed once but up to 4 times, a lot of times (but not always) with a note saying: see chapter XX site YY. but then the topic is discussed again (and again).
also its not well structured, you jump from a beginners topic to an advanced topic to a beginners topic and back again. its frustrating.
randfish and all the other authors: you have contributed great knowledge to a book which should have been great, sadly the outcome is not the great book it should have been. it seems the editor could not match all those inputs into one great book.
i seriously believe that all the praise this book got could not be from people who have read it front to cover as the weaknesses and the downsides are clearly visible. this book is way below the o'reily standard.
"The Art of SEO is a frustrating read!" There i said it now send the mob after me.
first, the 4 authors are great thinkers and innovators in the organic SEO field. the book offers lots and lots of know how for a good price.
sadly the editor was clearly overwhelmed: if you collaborate on a book you need a great, strong editor to make the book a whole. this did not happen with this book.
every topic is not discussed once but up to 4 times, a lot of times (but not always) with a note saying: see chapter XX site YY. but then the topic is discussed again (and again).
also its not well structured, you jump from a beginners topic to an advanced topic to a beginners topic and back again. its frustrating.
randfish and all the other authors: you have contributed great knowledge to a book which should have been great, sadly the outcome is not the great book it should have been. it seems the editor could not match all those inputs into one great book.
i seriously believe that all the praise this book got could not be from people who have read it front to cover as the weaknesses and the downsides are clearly visible. this book is way below the o'reily standard.
September 16, 2011
A very comprehensive (if dense) book on SEO. Read my full review.
May 20, 2020
SEO rule 1: ensure security
In the meantime, websites with SSL encryption have become a fixed standard, which must also be taken into account when it comes to search engine optimization. People also take this for granted. A site with an SSL certificate clearly says something about the site operator, namely that he has the topic of security on his screen. Google has confirmed HTTPS as a ranking signal and meanwhile Google Chrome is even showing the following: "The connection to this website is not secure". Would you trust such a website? Probably not. If you haven't already done so, make sure you switch to HTTPS, preferably sooner rather than later. Incidentally, Google sees it the same way and could punish your SEO efforts by downgrading your rankings and thus organic visibility due to the lack of security on your website. Here you can read exactly how to change your website to HTTPS in the morefire blog.
SEO rule 2: PageSpeed optimization
People don't like to wait, nor do search engines. Every user expects a fast loading page and will be disappointed if this expectation is not met. And here it is similar to Google: why waste valuable resources on slow pages? With a slow website you risk the success of your SEO work. The following points should be observed and checked regularly:
Eliminate resources that block the rendering of your website
Postponing invisible images (offscreen images that appear below the fold)
Reduced load on the main thread (saving time by reducing parsing, compiling and executing JavaScript)
Provide modern image formats to enable faster loading of the images
You can get a first overview with the "PageSpeed Insights" tool:
The advantage of this tool is that you get clear instructions on how to improve the speed of your website. If necessary, a lot more information about the respective PageSpeed aspects can be called up.
As with PageSpeed Insights, the "TestMySiteWithGoogle" tool provides an overview of the most important PageSpeed aspects of your website. This tool also provides recommendations for the optimization of your PageSpeed. In addition, you can have a free report sent to you here, which summarizes the analyzes and recommendations.
The third tool that you can use for a first PageSpeed analysis is the tool “WebPageTest.org. Particularly important: Take a close look at your competition. If your competitors have faster websites, they have a clear advantage when it comes to search engine optimization. More information about faster websites can be found here or here.
SEO rule 3: optimize mobile presentation
How important the topic of "Mobile" is in connection with SEO should be clear at the latest with the statement that Google takes the step to "Mobile First" and no longer wants to differentiate between desktop index and mobile index. Tool providers like SISTRIX also follow suit and analyze a special visibility index for mobile devices. Therefore, you should be prepared for this and ideally be set up to be mobile optimized when you start a new website. The "MobileFriendly" tool tests your website for mobile optimization.
Rules of thumb for good mobile usability and thus SEO basics are:
Fast loading time
Recognizable font sizes
"Sausage finger" operability
Sufficient space between the different side elements
If, in addition to search engine optimization, you also want to deal a little more with the topics of mobile and usability, we recommend you take a look here in our blog.
SEO rule 4: Make content accessible
People are supposed to find certain content, so make it as easy as possible for them. Search engines like Google want the same thing again. Ensure a clean information architecture and a flat hierarchy of your website, because this definitely has a positive effect on your SEO results. In practical terms this means:
Share content with search engines
Make every content accessible with 3-4 clicks
As banal as that sounds, check whether your website is even approved for search engines. Often it is enough to put a small tick or forget and the page flies out of the Google Index. Keyword: noindex.
A so-called "site query" on Google can help:
google-site-query-seo
The 77,000 results shown here in the example correspond to the number of pages that are in the Google Index. If this number differs roughly from the number of pages that you have stored in your CMS or shop system
In the meantime, websites with SSL encryption have become a fixed standard, which must also be taken into account when it comes to search engine optimization. People also take this for granted. A site with an SSL certificate clearly says something about the site operator, namely that he has the topic of security on his screen. Google has confirmed HTTPS as a ranking signal and meanwhile Google Chrome is even showing the following: "The connection to this website is not secure". Would you trust such a website? Probably not. If you haven't already done so, make sure you switch to HTTPS, preferably sooner rather than later. Incidentally, Google sees it the same way and could punish your SEO efforts by downgrading your rankings and thus organic visibility due to the lack of security on your website. Here you can read exactly how to change your website to HTTPS in the morefire blog.
SEO rule 2: PageSpeed optimization
People don't like to wait, nor do search engines. Every user expects a fast loading page and will be disappointed if this expectation is not met. And here it is similar to Google: why waste valuable resources on slow pages? With a slow website you risk the success of your SEO work. The following points should be observed and checked regularly:
Eliminate resources that block the rendering of your website
Postponing invisible images (offscreen images that appear below the fold)
Reduced load on the main thread (saving time by reducing parsing, compiling and executing JavaScript)
Provide modern image formats to enable faster loading of the images
You can get a first overview with the "PageSpeed Insights" tool:
The advantage of this tool is that you get clear instructions on how to improve the speed of your website. If necessary, a lot more information about the respective PageSpeed aspects can be called up.
As with PageSpeed Insights, the "TestMySiteWithGoogle" tool provides an overview of the most important PageSpeed aspects of your website. This tool also provides recommendations for the optimization of your PageSpeed. In addition, you can have a free report sent to you here, which summarizes the analyzes and recommendations.
The third tool that you can use for a first PageSpeed analysis is the tool “WebPageTest.org. Particularly important: Take a close look at your competition. If your competitors have faster websites, they have a clear advantage when it comes to search engine optimization. More information about faster websites can be found here or here.
SEO rule 3: optimize mobile presentation
How important the topic of "Mobile" is in connection with SEO should be clear at the latest with the statement that Google takes the step to "Mobile First" and no longer wants to differentiate between desktop index and mobile index. Tool providers like SISTRIX also follow suit and analyze a special visibility index for mobile devices. Therefore, you should be prepared for this and ideally be set up to be mobile optimized when you start a new website. The "MobileFriendly" tool tests your website for mobile optimization.
Rules of thumb for good mobile usability and thus SEO basics are:
Fast loading time
Recognizable font sizes
"Sausage finger" operability
Sufficient space between the different side elements
If, in addition to search engine optimization, you also want to deal a little more with the topics of mobile and usability, we recommend you take a look here in our blog.
SEO rule 4: Make content accessible
People are supposed to find certain content, so make it as easy as possible for them. Search engines like Google want the same thing again. Ensure a clean information architecture and a flat hierarchy of your website, because this definitely has a positive effect on your SEO results. In practical terms this means:
Share content with search engines
Make every content accessible with 3-4 clicks
As banal as that sounds, check whether your website is even approved for search engines. Often it is enough to put a small tick or forget and the page flies out of the Google Index. Keyword: noindex.
A so-called "site query" on Google can help:
google-site-query-seo
The 77,000 results shown here in the example correspond to the number of pages that are in the Google Index. If this number differs roughly from the number of pages that you have stored in your CMS or shop system
July 10, 2010
This book took me a while to read but it was worth it. There's a ton of information in just a few pages. It's an excellent book and reference.
May 17, 2017
One of the best books I read on SEO. However, the link building part was not really up to the mark.
Content of the book in brief:
Understanding how SEO works is crucial if redesigning your website to not lose your current rankings and organic search. Once it’s done, it’s done. If you do not have someone on your team that knows how this works, it is extremely necessary to know how to do this right. One way is to do hours of research and trust that you or team members will do this correct or another way is to find a trustworthy source or SEO marketing agency that knows how the two work together and do this for their own website. Below are some “Key” reasons…
Key Reasons Why Needing a Specialist or Trustworthy help:
* Need to know how to let Google know if the website URL changes. If you don’t, SEO rankings will fall. All of the time that the domain URL has logged to build up the site would be lost and may have to start over again with the new URL.
* Performing an inbound link analysis. Inbound links are extremely powerful and losing these links will cause your site to lose the authority it does have. Find what pages are linking to your site and where they are linking. Then let your developers know so that they can make the right changes.
* 301 Redirect. This is absolutely critical to have your pages with a 301 redirect to the new pages and will safely pass PageRank and your site will be able to maintain search equity.
* Have an SEO audit completed. What’s the loss in doing this? It’s extra eyes on your site to make sure that you don’t miss anything. An SEO will also be able to share little tweaks and changes to help maximize your site.
There are quite a few more essentials to make sure to do this right in making the redesign of your website compatible with your Google and search engine rankings."
The link building part was not up to the mark. I use this website for understanding link building seo link building service
Content of the book in brief:
Understanding how SEO works is crucial if redesigning your website to not lose your current rankings and organic search. Once it’s done, it’s done. If you do not have someone on your team that knows how this works, it is extremely necessary to know how to do this right. One way is to do hours of research and trust that you or team members will do this correct or another way is to find a trustworthy source or SEO marketing agency that knows how the two work together and do this for their own website. Below are some “Key” reasons…
Key Reasons Why Needing a Specialist or Trustworthy help:
* Need to know how to let Google know if the website URL changes. If you don’t, SEO rankings will fall. All of the time that the domain URL has logged to build up the site would be lost and may have to start over again with the new URL.
* Performing an inbound link analysis. Inbound links are extremely powerful and losing these links will cause your site to lose the authority it does have. Find what pages are linking to your site and where they are linking. Then let your developers know so that they can make the right changes.
* 301 Redirect. This is absolutely critical to have your pages with a 301 redirect to the new pages and will safely pass PageRank and your site will be able to maintain search equity.
* Have an SEO audit completed. What’s the loss in doing this? It’s extra eyes on your site to make sure that you don’t miss anything. An SEO will also be able to share little tweaks and changes to help maximize your site.
There are quite a few more essentials to make sure to do this right in making the redesign of your website compatible with your Google and search engine rankings."
The link building part was not up to the mark. I use this website for understanding link building seo link building service
April 19, 2020
An exhaustive overview of SEO. That's what you will get in this book. Since I tend to focus on the content aspects of SEO, it was helpful to read about technical aspects here. As an O'Reilly book (i.e. a technology publisher), I'm not surprised that we get a heavily technology based view of SEO here. It is a good reminder that SEO is a blend of both technology and classical technology. If you are only going to read one book on SEO, make it this one!
The main weakness with the book is dated material. This 3rd edition came up in 2015 and makes reference to search engine patterns from the early 2010s and earlier. Certainly, many fundamental concepts remain the same. However, do not expect the screenshots (and there are many of them) to match what you see today.
The main weakness with the book is dated material. This 3rd edition came up in 2015 and makes reference to search engine patterns from the early 2010s and earlier. Certainly, many fundamental concepts remain the same. However, do not expect the screenshots (and there are many of them) to match what you see today.
September 8, 2016
Its very useful to learn about SEO and also provide with great methods i already tested and its work and lead to good success not to mention its provide with many tools and provide good vision about future of SEO
i will keep it as guide for my journey to be more professional in SEO
i will keep it as guide for my journey to be more professional in SEO
June 9, 2011
informational, a bit outdated, and a bit long and repetitive by the later third. Some of the resources are outdated but likely to happen with nature of the business.
January 26, 2023
As of 2023 some concepts discused in this book are out of date. But universal thruths, good practices, tips and solutions are still very usefull. What iritated me throuoguht reading was topics that were repeated over and over and in the next sections only little modified. Nonetheless it would be veryinteresting to see the 4th edition.
Read
March 7, 2024Great Book for SEO Beginners.
February 5, 2024
Comprehensive and detailed SEO reference by authors who are clearly experienced. The book tells what works and what doesn't. It's packed with tool recommendations. It covers keyword research, on-site SEO, off-site SEO, technical SEO, local SEO, analytics, and more.
The book explains that search engines use 2 key ranking signals, keyword targeting and links, but that UX is also important.
The last chapter includes this list of major SEO objectives so you know what to focus on. The rest of the book provides detail on how to accomplish these.
• Make content accessible to crawlers.
• Determine questions and needs that prospects have, find keywords they use, make site speak their language.
• Create content that users will find useful, valuable, share-worthy. Ensure they’ll have a good experience to earn links and references.
• Earn links and social media mentions by creating shareable content and marketing it online.
• Create pages that allow users to find what they want quickly.
Notes
Search: Reflecting Consciousness and Connecting Commerce
Technical SEO only allows your pages to compete for rankings. How highly pages rank depends on quality and depth of content, site's reputation, online visibility (including inbound links).
Not every visitor that comes to an ecommerce site will be ready to buy, so ecommerce sites should publish content for every stage of customer journey, and capture those in stages before buying.
A 2019 study by Hallam Internet suggests that #3 and #4 ad positions may offer highest ROI. High cost of #1 spot can reduce net margin, though it provides branding and market share benefits.
Google Search's guidance about AI-generated content
Generative AI and Search
Sample GPT prompts
• Determine keyword intent for a group of keywords
• Group keywords by relevance
• Generate a list of questions on a topic
• Generate article outlines
• Create potential title tags
• Generate meta descriptions
• Generate text descriptions
• Generate a list of FAQs for a block of content
• Find and source statistics
• Summarize content
• Create Schema.org markup for one or more Q&A questions
• Generate hreflang tags
• Generate .htaccess code
Search Fundamentals
EEAT
• Experience: experience or point of view based on experience
• Expertise: deep knowledge
• Authoritativeness: links from authoritative sites that have been trustworthy over time
• Trustworthiness: long history of consistently following rules, not being compromised by spammers or scammers
Your SEO Toolbox
Open Web Analytics is a self-hosted Google Analytics alternative. It can track via PHP and JS, so it can collect some data from users who use blockers or have JS disabled.
Keyword analytics tools
Google Analytics doesn’t reveal keywords people searched for to arrive on your site; these tools can.
• Keyword Hero
• Keyword Tool
• Kissmetrics
• Adobe Analytics
• Open Web Analytics
• Semrush
• Ahrefs
• Conductor (formerly Searchmetrics)
Search engine tools for finding keywords
• Google autocomplete
• Google Ads Keyword Planner (available even if not using Google Ads, but accuracy will be limited; can give idea for keyword popularity, keyword difficulty, CPC)
• Google Trends (Useful for identifying and predicting spikes in search volume, finding related topics and queries, comparing volumes of keywords over time, competitive brand strength research, country-level trends. Only samples popular searches, so won't give long-tail keywords. Spikes can reveal events and news that contributed to spikes, which can give ideas for content and media outreach.)
• Google News (useful for extremely current keywords)
• Related (related results on SERP, "people also ask" queries, related videos on YouTube; especially useful for competitive markets)
SEO platforms
• Semrush
• Ahrefs
• Conductor (formerly Searchmetrics)
• Moz Pro
• Rank Ranger
• BrightEdge
• seoClarity
vidIQ helps gain YouTube views and subscribers.
TubeBuddy provides keyword explorer and A/B testing of YouTube video titles and thumbnails.
Some SEO platforms (e.g., Ahrefs, Rank Ranger) have YouTube keyword research and rank-tracking capabilities.
SEO Planning
Material for planning and keyword research
• Lists of products, brands, trademarks
• Commissioned studies, paid market research reports
• Customer interviews, reviews, testimonials, surveys
• Licensed content (photos, videos, music)
• Analysis of previous marketing campaigns
• Access to Google Analytics (or other marketing/analytics platform)
• Access to Google Ads data
• Site architecture or information architecture documents
Customer persona demographic questions
• Age range
• Location
• Job title or role
• Hobbies
• Income (or net worth)
• Marital status
• Parental status (and number)
• Primarily search from mobile or desktop?
• Annual spending on industry products and services
• How late do they work?
• Weekend activities
Customer persona psychographic questions
• Fears
• Frustrations
• Wants
• Aspirations
• Problems they're trying to solve (go deeper than spoken problem to find unspoken problem)
• What does success look like? Failure?
• Who are their mentors, heroes, supporters? Detractors, enemies, critics?
If you don't have budget to compete for high-difficulty keywords in web search, try to rank in image or video search.
Keyword Research
Building topics list
• Identify entities and concepts relevant to company, products/services, industry. Begin at lowest level, go up 1 step at a time.
• Identify related topics. Why do people buy products/services? What are their concerns? What purposes do products/services serve? What are alternatives? What are most important features, qualities?
• Are there other high-cardinality topics worth exploring?
Changing word order can generate more keywords. When in doubt, choose keyword closest to natural language question.
Internal resources for keyword research
• Web logs, search console reports, analytics
• Competitive analysis (check competitors’ sites, try to determine target keywords; look for variations and synonyms in content)
• People (marketing, sales, engineering/product, IT, customer service, owners, customers, non-customers; ask questions below)
Questions to ask employees
• What words define our business, products/services?
• What words do customers use when they talk about our products/services?
• What questions do prospects and customers ask us?
• What questions do people ask before they connect with us?
• Are there gaps in how we talk about our products/services and how customers see their needs?
External resources for keyword research
• Natural language questions (try to have at least 1 for each keyword)
• AlsoAsked.com analyzes natural language questions and returns mind map of related questions.
• AnswerThePublic analyzes topic and returns mind map of most popular natural language questions and prepositions. AnswerSocrates.com is similar.
Researching trends, topics, seasonality
• Google Trends
• X sidebar, hashtags
• BuzzSumo tells what content is trending overall, by topic, by keyword
• Soovle shows popular related searches on several sites
Check for disambiguations and alternate spellings and phrasings of high-difficulty keywords (hyphenation, verb tenses, singular/plural variations). Use thesaurus.
95% of SERP clicks are on page 1 (top 10 results), and large percentage goes to #1 result. It probably isn't worth investing much to improve ranking until you're around #20 or higher.
Developing an SEO-Friendly Website
See what initial fully rendered version of a page looks like with Google’s Rich Results Test, Mobile-Friendly Test, or Chrome Inspector.
Pagination is problem for SEO because pages are about same topic and can be seen as "thin," content of pages shifts as posts or products are added or removed, and can create spider traps. Keep pagination to minimum and use HTML links to connect paginated pages or create a view-all page and use canonical tags to point paginated pages to it.
Subfolders are better than subdomains for SEO; subdomains don't always inherit SEO metrics from root domain. Subdomains are useful when you want to create separation from root domain, for content or business purposes.
A single good external link to a page positively influences entire domain and every page on it.
Best gTLD is .com or ccTLD for country your site serves.
Choose domain names that make site content obvious (e.g., AutoTrader.com).
If you have hundreds of posts or products and are targeting long-tail traffic, it may be better not to write meta descriptions, as search engines will then pull relevant text from page, and display keywords user searched for.
Bolding or italicizing text adds a little SEO value.
Google recommends Schema.org JSON-LD for structured data.
Avoiding issues with syndicated content
• Get site publishing your content to include rel="canonical" link to your original page.
• Have other site noindex their copy of content.
• Have other site link to your original page.
If you put content licensed from others on your site, put in page header.
Addressing copyright infringement
• Ask publisher to remove offending content. Provide documentation to show you created content.
• File DMCA infringement request with Google, Bing, site’s host.
• Threaten or file legal suit. DMCA.com is effective and inexpensive.
Avoid duplicate content on your site
• Ensure each page is referred to by only 1 URL. 301-redirect others
• Use robots.txt to block spiders from crawling duplicate versions
• Use rel="canonical" link element (won't work if you block page with robots.txt)
• Use meta robots noindex tags on duplicate pages (won't work if you block page with robots.txt)
If content can be viewed in multiple sort orders (e.g., tag, rating, etc.), you can prevent search engines from indexing multiple pages with same content by requiring cookie for users to access alternative sort order versions, or by using the rel="canonical" link element.
If you force users to register to view some content, keep URL same for logged-in and non-logged-in users, and show 1-2 paragraphs to non-logged-in users and search engines. If you want to display full content to search engines, control content delivery via cookies or sessions (e.g., show 1-2 pages to new visitors without requiring registration). Consider Google’s flexible sampling program to allow Google’s spiders to view content.
nofollow any links that are paid for.
Use rel="ugc" on outbound links in user-generated content.
Use rel="sponsored" on outbound links in ads or sponsored content.
Don't use URL parameters in gTLDs to target different languages countries, because then you can’t use Google Search Console’s geolocation feature when targeting countries, or rely on translation/localization of URL structure depending on selected language or country.
Geolocating by using subdirectories under gTLDs will likely be easiest option if already using a gTLD
Hosting within a country isn’t a definitive signal.
Don't automatically redirect users based on IP location or browser language; this might prevent search engines from crawling all language/country versions. Instead, suggest that user go to version in their language/country.
Specify page’s language/country by using "content-language" meta tag, embedding info in HTTP headers, or using hreflang annotations (usually in HTML head). Use hreflang when you have more than one language/country.
Structured data aids indexing, but not ranking.
Verify structured data with Google’s Rich Results Test.
Core Web Vitals are more important than PageSpeed Insights metrics, but aren't a significant ranking factor.
Core Web Vitals tools
• Lighthouse Chrome extension
• Chrome User Experience (UX) Report
• PageSpeed Insights
SEO Analytics and Measurement
Analytics platforms
• Google Analytics
• Adobe Web Analytics
• Adobe Marketing Analytics
• Woopra Customer Journey Analytics
• Clicky (privacy-friendly)
• Matomo (privacy-friendly)
• Webtrends Analytics for Web Apps
Track which items in following categories bring most conversions
• Keyword
• Referrer
• Page
• Initial entry page
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) tools
• Optimizely
• VWO
• Mouseflow
• Plerdy
• Unbounce
• Attention Insight
• UserTesting
• Hotjar
Calculating ROI
• Number of people searching for your keywords
• Average conversion rate
• Average transaction value
• SEO revenue = people searching for keywords * click-through rate * average conversion rate * average transaction amount
• SEO ROI = SEO revenue / SEO cost
• SEO revenue = increase in (pages/content getting search clicks * search clicks per page) * average conversion rate * average transaction value [alternative equation, because you have little control over impressions and click-through rate]
Google Algorithm Updates and Manual Actions/Penalties
Even though page speed is a ranking factor for mobile results, Google says this only impacts slowest sites.
Auditing and Troubleshooting
Crawlers
• Botify
• Lumar
• Oncrawl
• Screaming Frog
Backlink tools
• Ahrefs
• Majestic
• Moz Link Explorer
• Semrush
Broken external links "do not add value to your site’s ranking," so fix them.
Local search tools
• Advice Local
• Birdeye
• BrightLocal
• GeoRanker
• Localo
• Moz Local
• ReviewTrackers
• Rio SEO
• Semrush Listing Management
• SOCi
• Synup
• Uberall
• Whitespark
• Yext
Tools to pull raw backlink data: Ahrefs, LinkResearchTools, Majestic, Moz Link Explorer, Semrush
Promoting Your Site and Obtaining Links
Tactics to avoid
• Paying site owners to link
• Swapping links
• Exchanging charitable donations for a link
• Excessive guest posting
• Offering site owners gifts, free products, or compensation for links
• Obtaining links from many other sites without regard to their relevance to your brand
Moderate guest posting is OK (e.g., monthly guest posts on 2 relevant sites, not 10 guest posts each month on 10 different sites).
Moderate donating to earn links is OK (e.g., donating to a cause aligned with your brand, not donating small amounts to dozens).
Link analysis tools for link-building: Ahrefs, Moz Link Explorer, Majestic, LinkResearchTools, Semrush
Effective headlines
��� Don’t lie or mislead
• Short as reasonable
• Include most important keywords
• Address reader with 2nd-person pronoun (you)
• Include a number
• Use emotional adjective (e.g., surprising, exciting) and/or superlative
• Include "how to" if applicable
• Don't duplicate existing headlines from other sites (unless your content is much better)
Link research tools
• Ahrefs
• LinkResearchTools
• Majestic
• Moz Link Explorer
• Semrush
• SparkToro (audience research)
• Pitchbox (outreach management)
In link-building, avoid asking for specific anchor text, reciprocal linking.
In US, anyone who posts product review must disclose that they received compensation (including free product).
Outbound links impact rankings, because you’re endorsing that site’s authority, and relevance of that site to yours.
Vertical, Local, and Mobile SEO
Google Business Profile > Performance shows calls and website clicks from Google Maps.
GetStat.net will track map pack changes.
Traditional keyword ranking tools can't accurately track Google Maps; need geogrid tool (e.g., BrightLocal, Local Falcon).
Check Google Maps for fake competitors monthly, and report them.
If you use call tracking number, make it primary number in Google Business Profile and make receiving number secondary number, so Google knows relationship between numbers.
If business hides its address in Google Business Profile, rankings will be based around address used to verify listing, and rankings will be strongest in 3-5 mi around that address.
In local search, links from your community carry more weight, even if unrelated to your site.
Citations (mentions of business’s name, address, phone) on third-party sites now have limited influence.
Title attribute may be used for images, but it’s likely unnecessary if you're using alt attribute. If you specify a title, use same words as alt text.
4-6 hashtags is enough for most YouTube videos.
Speechpad can transcribe videos.
Google prefers only 1 video per webpage, and that it be prominent.
The book explains that search engines use 2 key ranking signals, keyword targeting and links, but that UX is also important.
The last chapter includes this list of major SEO objectives so you know what to focus on. The rest of the book provides detail on how to accomplish these.
• Make content accessible to crawlers.
• Determine questions and needs that prospects have, find keywords they use, make site speak their language.
• Create content that users will find useful, valuable, share-worthy. Ensure they’ll have a good experience to earn links and references.
• Earn links and social media mentions by creating shareable content and marketing it online.
• Create pages that allow users to find what they want quickly.
Notes
Search: Reflecting Consciousness and Connecting Commerce
Technical SEO only allows your pages to compete for rankings. How highly pages rank depends on quality and depth of content, site's reputation, online visibility (including inbound links).
Not every visitor that comes to an ecommerce site will be ready to buy, so ecommerce sites should publish content for every stage of customer journey, and capture those in stages before buying.
A 2019 study by Hallam Internet suggests that #3 and #4 ad positions may offer highest ROI. High cost of #1 spot can reduce net margin, though it provides branding and market share benefits.
Google Search's guidance about AI-generated content
Generative AI and Search
Sample GPT prompts
• Determine keyword intent for a group of keywords
• Group keywords by relevance
• Generate a list of questions on a topic
• Generate article outlines
• Create potential title tags
• Generate meta descriptions
• Generate text descriptions
• Generate a list of FAQs for a block of content
• Find and source statistics
• Summarize content
• Create Schema.org markup for one or more Q&A questions
• Generate hreflang tags
• Generate .htaccess code
Search Fundamentals
EEAT
• Experience: experience or point of view based on experience
• Expertise: deep knowledge
• Authoritativeness: links from authoritative sites that have been trustworthy over time
• Trustworthiness: long history of consistently following rules, not being compromised by spammers or scammers
Your SEO Toolbox
Open Web Analytics is a self-hosted Google Analytics alternative. It can track via PHP and JS, so it can collect some data from users who use blockers or have JS disabled.
Keyword analytics tools
Google Analytics doesn’t reveal keywords people searched for to arrive on your site; these tools can.
• Keyword Hero
• Keyword Tool
• Kissmetrics
• Adobe Analytics
• Open Web Analytics
• Semrush
• Ahrefs
• Conductor (formerly Searchmetrics)
Search engine tools for finding keywords
• Google autocomplete
• Google Ads Keyword Planner (available even if not using Google Ads, but accuracy will be limited; can give idea for keyword popularity, keyword difficulty, CPC)
• Google Trends (Useful for identifying and predicting spikes in search volume, finding related topics and queries, comparing volumes of keywords over time, competitive brand strength research, country-level trends. Only samples popular searches, so won't give long-tail keywords. Spikes can reveal events and news that contributed to spikes, which can give ideas for content and media outreach.)
• Google News (useful for extremely current keywords)
• Related (related results on SERP, "people also ask" queries, related videos on YouTube; especially useful for competitive markets)
SEO platforms
• Semrush
• Ahrefs
• Conductor (formerly Searchmetrics)
• Moz Pro
• Rank Ranger
• BrightEdge
• seoClarity
vidIQ helps gain YouTube views and subscribers.
TubeBuddy provides keyword explorer and A/B testing of YouTube video titles and thumbnails.
Some SEO platforms (e.g., Ahrefs, Rank Ranger) have YouTube keyword research and rank-tracking capabilities.
SEO Planning
Material for planning and keyword research
• Lists of products, brands, trademarks
• Commissioned studies, paid market research reports
• Customer interviews, reviews, testimonials, surveys
• Licensed content (photos, videos, music)
• Analysis of previous marketing campaigns
• Access to Google Analytics (or other marketing/analytics platform)
• Access to Google Ads data
• Site architecture or information architecture documents
Customer persona demographic questions
• Age range
• Location
• Job title or role
• Hobbies
• Income (or net worth)
• Marital status
• Parental status (and number)
• Primarily search from mobile or desktop?
• Annual spending on industry products and services
• How late do they work?
• Weekend activities
Customer persona psychographic questions
• Fears
• Frustrations
• Wants
• Aspirations
• Problems they're trying to solve (go deeper than spoken problem to find unspoken problem)
• What does success look like? Failure?
• Who are their mentors, heroes, supporters? Detractors, enemies, critics?
If you don't have budget to compete for high-difficulty keywords in web search, try to rank in image or video search.
Keyword Research
Building topics list
• Identify entities and concepts relevant to company, products/services, industry. Begin at lowest level, go up 1 step at a time.
• Identify related topics. Why do people buy products/services? What are their concerns? What purposes do products/services serve? What are alternatives? What are most important features, qualities?
• Are there other high-cardinality topics worth exploring?
Changing word order can generate more keywords. When in doubt, choose keyword closest to natural language question.
Internal resources for keyword research
• Web logs, search console reports, analytics
• Competitive analysis (check competitors’ sites, try to determine target keywords; look for variations and synonyms in content)
• People (marketing, sales, engineering/product, IT, customer service, owners, customers, non-customers; ask questions below)
Questions to ask employees
• What words define our business, products/services?
• What words do customers use when they talk about our products/services?
• What questions do prospects and customers ask us?
• What questions do people ask before they connect with us?
• Are there gaps in how we talk about our products/services and how customers see their needs?
External resources for keyword research
• Natural language questions (try to have at least 1 for each keyword)
• AlsoAsked.com analyzes natural language questions and returns mind map of related questions.
• AnswerThePublic analyzes topic and returns mind map of most popular natural language questions and prepositions. AnswerSocrates.com is similar.
Researching trends, topics, seasonality
• Google Trends
• X sidebar, hashtags
• BuzzSumo tells what content is trending overall, by topic, by keyword
• Soovle shows popular related searches on several sites
Check for disambiguations and alternate spellings and phrasings of high-difficulty keywords (hyphenation, verb tenses, singular/plural variations). Use thesaurus.
95% of SERP clicks are on page 1 (top 10 results), and large percentage goes to #1 result. It probably isn't worth investing much to improve ranking until you're around #20 or higher.
Developing an SEO-Friendly Website
See what initial fully rendered version of a page looks like with Google’s Rich Results Test, Mobile-Friendly Test, or Chrome Inspector.
Pagination is problem for SEO because pages are about same topic and can be seen as "thin," content of pages shifts as posts or products are added or removed, and can create spider traps. Keep pagination to minimum and use HTML links to connect paginated pages or create a view-all page and use canonical tags to point paginated pages to it.
Subfolders are better than subdomains for SEO; subdomains don't always inherit SEO metrics from root domain. Subdomains are useful when you want to create separation from root domain, for content or business purposes.
A single good external link to a page positively influences entire domain and every page on it.
Best gTLD is .com or ccTLD for country your site serves.
Choose domain names that make site content obvious (e.g., AutoTrader.com).
If you have hundreds of posts or products and are targeting long-tail traffic, it may be better not to write meta descriptions, as search engines will then pull relevant text from page, and display keywords user searched for.
Bolding or italicizing text adds a little SEO value.
Google recommends Schema.org JSON-LD for structured data.
Avoiding issues with syndicated content
• Get site publishing your content to include rel="canonical" link to your original page.
• Have other site noindex their copy of content.
• Have other site link to your original page.
If you put content licensed from others on your site, put in page header.
Addressing copyright infringement
• Ask publisher to remove offending content. Provide documentation to show you created content.
• File DMCA infringement request with Google, Bing, site’s host.
• Threaten or file legal suit. DMCA.com is effective and inexpensive.
Avoid duplicate content on your site
• Ensure each page is referred to by only 1 URL. 301-redirect others
• Use robots.txt to block spiders from crawling duplicate versions
• Use rel="canonical" link element (won't work if you block page with robots.txt)
• Use meta robots noindex tags on duplicate pages (won't work if you block page with robots.txt)
If content can be viewed in multiple sort orders (e.g., tag, rating, etc.), you can prevent search engines from indexing multiple pages with same content by requiring cookie for users to access alternative sort order versions, or by using the rel="canonical" link element.
If you force users to register to view some content, keep URL same for logged-in and non-logged-in users, and show 1-2 paragraphs to non-logged-in users and search engines. If you want to display full content to search engines, control content delivery via cookies or sessions (e.g., show 1-2 pages to new visitors without requiring registration). Consider Google’s flexible sampling program to allow Google’s spiders to view content.
nofollow any links that are paid for.
Use rel="ugc" on outbound links in user-generated content.
Use rel="sponsored" on outbound links in ads or sponsored content.
Don't use URL parameters in gTLDs to target different languages countries, because then you can’t use Google Search Console’s geolocation feature when targeting countries, or rely on translation/localization of URL structure depending on selected language or country.
Geolocating by using subdirectories under gTLDs will likely be easiest option if already using a gTLD
Hosting within a country isn’t a definitive signal.
Don't automatically redirect users based on IP location or browser language; this might prevent search engines from crawling all language/country versions. Instead, suggest that user go to version in their language/country.
Specify page’s language/country by using "content-language" meta tag, embedding info in HTTP headers, or using hreflang annotations (usually in HTML head). Use hreflang when you have more than one language/country.
Structured data aids indexing, but not ranking.
Verify structured data with Google’s Rich Results Test.
Core Web Vitals are more important than PageSpeed Insights metrics, but aren't a significant ranking factor.
Core Web Vitals tools
• Lighthouse Chrome extension
• Chrome User Experience (UX) Report
• PageSpeed Insights
SEO Analytics and Measurement
Analytics platforms
• Google Analytics
• Adobe Web Analytics
• Adobe Marketing Analytics
• Woopra Customer Journey Analytics
• Clicky (privacy-friendly)
• Matomo (privacy-friendly)
• Webtrends Analytics for Web Apps
Track which items in following categories bring most conversions
• Keyword
• Referrer
• Page
• Initial entry page
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) tools
• Optimizely
• VWO
• Mouseflow
• Plerdy
• Unbounce
• Attention Insight
• UserTesting
• Hotjar
Calculating ROI
• Number of people searching for your keywords
• Average conversion rate
• Average transaction value
• SEO revenue = people searching for keywords * click-through rate * average conversion rate * average transaction amount
• SEO ROI = SEO revenue / SEO cost
• SEO revenue = increase in (pages/content getting search clicks * search clicks per page) * average conversion rate * average transaction value [alternative equation, because you have little control over impressions and click-through rate]
Google Algorithm Updates and Manual Actions/Penalties
Even though page speed is a ranking factor for mobile results, Google says this only impacts slowest sites.
Auditing and Troubleshooting
Crawlers
• Botify
• Lumar
• Oncrawl
• Screaming Frog
Backlink tools
• Ahrefs
• Majestic
• Moz Link Explorer
• Semrush
Broken external links "do not add value to your site’s ranking," so fix them.
Local search tools
• Advice Local
• Birdeye
• BrightLocal
• GeoRanker
• Localo
• Moz Local
• ReviewTrackers
• Rio SEO
• Semrush Listing Management
• SOCi
• Synup
• Uberall
• Whitespark
• Yext
Tools to pull raw backlink data: Ahrefs, LinkResearchTools, Majestic, Moz Link Explorer, Semrush
Promoting Your Site and Obtaining Links
Tactics to avoid
• Paying site owners to link
• Swapping links
• Exchanging charitable donations for a link
• Excessive guest posting
• Offering site owners gifts, free products, or compensation for links
• Obtaining links from many other sites without regard to their relevance to your brand
Moderate guest posting is OK (e.g., monthly guest posts on 2 relevant sites, not 10 guest posts each month on 10 different sites).
Moderate donating to earn links is OK (e.g., donating to a cause aligned with your brand, not donating small amounts to dozens).
Link analysis tools for link-building: Ahrefs, Moz Link Explorer, Majestic, LinkResearchTools, Semrush
Effective headlines
��� Don’t lie or mislead
• Short as reasonable
• Include most important keywords
• Address reader with 2nd-person pronoun (you)
• Include a number
• Use emotional adjective (e.g., surprising, exciting) and/or superlative
• Include "how to" if applicable
• Don't duplicate existing headlines from other sites (unless your content is much better)
Link research tools
• Ahrefs
• LinkResearchTools
• Majestic
• Moz Link Explorer
• Semrush
• SparkToro (audience research)
• Pitchbox (outreach management)
In link-building, avoid asking for specific anchor text, reciprocal linking.
In US, anyone who posts product review must disclose that they received compensation (including free product).
Outbound links impact rankings, because you’re endorsing that site’s authority, and relevance of that site to yours.
Vertical, Local, and Mobile SEO
Google Business Profile > Performance shows calls and website clicks from Google Maps.
GetStat.net will track map pack changes.
Traditional keyword ranking tools can't accurately track Google Maps; need geogrid tool (e.g., BrightLocal, Local Falcon).
Check Google Maps for fake competitors monthly, and report them.
If you use call tracking number, make it primary number in Google Business Profile and make receiving number secondary number, so Google knows relationship between numbers.
If business hides its address in Google Business Profile, rankings will be based around address used to verify listing, and rankings will be strongest in 3-5 mi around that address.
In local search, links from your community carry more weight, even if unrelated to your site.
Citations (mentions of business’s name, address, phone) on third-party sites now have limited influence.
Title attribute may be used for images, but it’s likely unnecessary if you're using alt attribute. If you specify a title, use same words as alt text.
4-6 hashtags is enough for most YouTube videos.
Speechpad can transcribe videos.
Google prefers only 1 video per webpage, and that it be prominent.
August 25, 2013
Удивительная книга, скорее справочник! Привезли мне ее вчера и сразу нашел в ней практическую инструкцию по сервису flickr. Все собирался забросить туда свою графику, но что-то мешало. В книге очень короткая, абсолютно исчерпывающая инструкция: что, как и зачем делать! Удивительно, как авторы излагают на 3-х страницах то, на что другие расходуют сотни страниц! Получил практический результат сразу. Ради этих 3-х страниц стоило купить книгу в 668 страниц!
Книга абсолютно адекватно издана: мягкая обложка, тонкая газетная бумага, удобный формат, красивый дизайн обложки.
В книге есть Глоссарий и Предметный указатель. Советую всем, кто пытается сам разобраться в раскрутке своих интернет-ресурсов.
Книга абсолютно адекватно издана: мягкая обложка, тонкая газетная бумага, удобный формат, красивый дизайн обложки.
В книге есть Глоссарий и Предметный указатель. Советую всем, кто пытается сам разобраться в раскрутке своих интернет-ресурсов.
August 26, 2019
- Epic introduction into SEO. It really helps you set up the thought process and understand the basic moving blocks necessary to master the industry.
- Covers a lot of the topics, like analyzing the non-link based aspects of your competitors, that don't have the glory or buzz words of topics link-building.
- A lot of really dense information, it helps to have a project to work on as you go through it... or it will be in one ear and out the other.
- Covers a lot of the topics, like analyzing the non-link based aspects of your competitors, that don't have the glory or buzz words of topics link-building.
- A lot of really dense information, it helps to have a project to work on as you go through it... or it will be in one ear and out the other.
March 2, 2021
SEO 2021 Learn Search Engine Optimization With Smart Internet Marketing Strategies: Learn SEO with smart internet marketing strategies Paperback – December 4, 2020
[image error]
Learn SEO and rank at the top of Google with SEO 2021—beginner to advanced!
Newest edition - EXPANDED & UPDATED DECEMBER, 2020
No matter your background, SEO 2021 will walk you through search engine optimization techniques used to grow countless websites online, exact steps to rank high in Google, and how get a ton of customers.
In this SEO book you will find:
1. SEO explained in simple language, beginner to advanced.
2. The inner workings of Google’s algorithm and how it calculates the search results.
3. How to find “money” keywords that will send customers to your site.
4. Sneaky tricks to get local businesses ranking high with local SEO.
5. How to get featured in the mainstream news, for free.
6. Three sources to get expert SEO and Internet marketing advice worth thousands of dollars for free.
7. A simple step-by-step checklist and video tutorials, exclusive for readers.
Now, let me tell you a few SEO marketing secrets in this book...
1. Most search engine optimization advice online is wrong!
If you've browsed through search engine optimization advice online, you may have noticed two things:
- Most SEO advice is outdated or just dead-wrong.
- Google's constant updates have made many popular SEO optimization strategies useless.
Why is this so?...
2. Google is constantly changing and evolving.
Some recent changes:
1. November 2020 - Google announces the upcoming Page Experience Update, including new factors in Google's search algorithm, rolling out May, 2021.
2. May, 2020 - Google makes major changes to how the search results are calculated, titled the "May 2020 Core Update".
3. April, 2020 - The world is hit by the global COVID crisis, affecting businesses, employees and customers. Google releases new guidelines for site owners during the crisis.
4. October, 2019 - Google releases the groundbreaking new BERT machine learning algorithm, with Google now understanding searches almost like a human.
SEO 2021 covers these latest updates to Google's algorithm and how to use them to your advantage. This book also reveals potential changes coming up in 2021.
3. How to sidestep search engine updates and use them to rank higher.
Contrary to Internet marketing gossip, problems caused by Google updates are rarely irrecoverable, in fact, you can use them to rank higher—but you need the right knowledge. This book reveals:
- Recent Google updates—Google's May 2020 Core Update, Google's January 2020 Core Update, Google's COVID guidelines, Google's BERT Update, Google's Mobile First Index, Google's RankBrain algorithm and more...
- Potential changes coming up in 2021.
- How to safeguard against changes in 2021 and beyond.
- How to recover from Google penalties.
4. Learn powerful link building techniques experts use to get top rankings
Link building is the strongest factor for ranking high in Google. Unfortunately, most widely-used methods suck! This chapter walks you through new powerful techniques that won't get you in hot-water with Google. Now updated with more link building strategies, and extra tips for advanced readers.
5. And read the special bonus chapter on pay-per-click advertising.
In this special bonus chapter, learn to quickly setup pay-per-click advertising campaigns with Google Ads, and send more customers to your site overnight, literally.
With this SEO book, learn SEO from a fundamental level, achieve top rankings, and generate a wave of new customers to your site.
One of the most comprehensive SEO optimization and Internet marketing books ever published—now expanded and updated—of all best-selling SEO books, this is the only one with everything you need. Scroll up, click buy, and get started now!
[image error]
more details https://amzn.to/383WYEO
[image error]Learn SEO and rank at the top of Google with SEO 2021—beginner to advanced!
Newest edition - EXPANDED & UPDATED DECEMBER, 2020
No matter your background, SEO 2021 will walk you through search engine optimization techniques used to grow countless websites online, exact steps to rank high in Google, and how get a ton of customers.
In this SEO book you will find:
1. SEO explained in simple language, beginner to advanced.
2. The inner workings of Google’s algorithm and how it calculates the search results.
3. How to find “money” keywords that will send customers to your site.
4. Sneaky tricks to get local businesses ranking high with local SEO.
5. How to get featured in the mainstream news, for free.
6. Three sources to get expert SEO and Internet marketing advice worth thousands of dollars for free.
7. A simple step-by-step checklist and video tutorials, exclusive for readers.
Now, let me tell you a few SEO marketing secrets in this book...
1. Most search engine optimization advice online is wrong!
If you've browsed through search engine optimization advice online, you may have noticed two things:
- Most SEO advice is outdated or just dead-wrong.
- Google's constant updates have made many popular SEO optimization strategies useless.
Why is this so?...
2. Google is constantly changing and evolving.
Some recent changes:
1. November 2020 - Google announces the upcoming Page Experience Update, including new factors in Google's search algorithm, rolling out May, 2021.
2. May, 2020 - Google makes major changes to how the search results are calculated, titled the "May 2020 Core Update".
3. April, 2020 - The world is hit by the global COVID crisis, affecting businesses, employees and customers. Google releases new guidelines for site owners during the crisis.
4. October, 2019 - Google releases the groundbreaking new BERT machine learning algorithm, with Google now understanding searches almost like a human.
SEO 2021 covers these latest updates to Google's algorithm and how to use them to your advantage. This book also reveals potential changes coming up in 2021.
3. How to sidestep search engine updates and use them to rank higher.
Contrary to Internet marketing gossip, problems caused by Google updates are rarely irrecoverable, in fact, you can use them to rank higher—but you need the right knowledge. This book reveals:
- Recent Google updates—Google's May 2020 Core Update, Google's January 2020 Core Update, Google's COVID guidelines, Google's BERT Update, Google's Mobile First Index, Google's RankBrain algorithm and more...
- Potential changes coming up in 2021.
- How to safeguard against changes in 2021 and beyond.
- How to recover from Google penalties.
4. Learn powerful link building techniques experts use to get top rankings
Link building is the strongest factor for ranking high in Google. Unfortunately, most widely-used methods suck! This chapter walks you through new powerful techniques that won't get you in hot-water with Google. Now updated with more link building strategies, and extra tips for advanced readers.
5. And read the special bonus chapter on pay-per-click advertising.
In this special bonus chapter, learn to quickly setup pay-per-click advertising campaigns with Google Ads, and send more customers to your site overnight, literally.
With this SEO book, learn SEO from a fundamental level, achieve top rankings, and generate a wave of new customers to your site.
One of the most comprehensive SEO optimization and Internet marketing books ever published—now expanded and updated—of all best-selling SEO books, this is the only one with everything you need. Scroll up, click buy, and get started now!
[image error]more details https://amzn.to/383WYEO
November 6, 2011
This books is an exhaustive overview of all things SEO. It's everything a school book textbook is not. It's fantastically written, extremely thorough, succinct. I am a 25% through it as per Kindle, but looking forward to the rest of the read.
October 16, 2012
Great advice and training.
February 1, 2020
It's pretty good and complete but a bit dated given the fast dynamic search/SEO landscape we have.
April 10, 2025
When I first picked up The Art of SEO, I wasn’t expecting it to change the trajectory of my career—but that’s exactly what it did.
The book delivers a vast and comprehensive overview of search engine optimization, covering everything from foundational strategies to nuanced technical practices. It breaks down the evolution of search itself—from early keyword and text relevance (Search 1.0), through the rise of link analysis (2.0), vertical integration (3.0), and now, into a world of personalized, intent-driven results (Search 4.0 and beyond). It makes a compelling case for why content is king—but also why content alone isn’t enough anymore.
And that message hit home for me.
While the authors (Rand Fishkin and team) are brilliant minds and pioneers in the field, the book isn’t without flaws. It can be repetitive, occasionally disorganized, and sometimes bounces between beginner-level advice and advanced theory in a way that feels jarring. The editing could have done more to weave the contributions of the four authors into a more cohesive whole.
But even with its imperfections, The Art of SEO gave me a foundation. More than that—it gave me the spark to launch Pandeia, my SEO agency where we specialize specifically in comprehensive SEO audits.
Through Pandeia, I took the key takeaways from the book—like the importance of technical crawlability, user-focused content, and the power of high-quality backlinks—and built them into a refined, results-driven audit framework. We don’t just run through a checklist. We dive deep into a site’s structure, content, competition, and backlink profile to uncover hidden opportunities and actionable improvements. Because in a post-Search 4.0 world, SEO isn’t something you can fake. It's earned—through clarity, relevance, and real value.
If The Art of SEO opened your eyes to the power of search—or if you’re just beginning to explore how SEO can support your business—I’d love to connect. At Pandeia, we believe every site has untapped potential, and we specialize in helping brands uncover it. Curious about what a true SEO audits can reveal about your site? Let’s start the conversation. Reach out to Pandeia and let’s talk strategy.
The book delivers a vast and comprehensive overview of search engine optimization, covering everything from foundational strategies to nuanced technical practices. It breaks down the evolution of search itself—from early keyword and text relevance (Search 1.0), through the rise of link analysis (2.0), vertical integration (3.0), and now, into a world of personalized, intent-driven results (Search 4.0 and beyond). It makes a compelling case for why content is king—but also why content alone isn’t enough anymore.
And that message hit home for me.
While the authors (Rand Fishkin and team) are brilliant minds and pioneers in the field, the book isn’t without flaws. It can be repetitive, occasionally disorganized, and sometimes bounces between beginner-level advice and advanced theory in a way that feels jarring. The editing could have done more to weave the contributions of the four authors into a more cohesive whole.
But even with its imperfections, The Art of SEO gave me a foundation. More than that—it gave me the spark to launch Pandeia, my SEO agency where we specialize specifically in comprehensive SEO audits.
Through Pandeia, I took the key takeaways from the book—like the importance of technical crawlability, user-focused content, and the power of high-quality backlinks—and built them into a refined, results-driven audit framework. We don’t just run through a checklist. We dive deep into a site’s structure, content, competition, and backlink profile to uncover hidden opportunities and actionable improvements. Because in a post-Search 4.0 world, SEO isn’t something you can fake. It's earned—through clarity, relevance, and real value.
If The Art of SEO opened your eyes to the power of search—or if you’re just beginning to explore how SEO can support your business—I’d love to connect. At Pandeia, we believe every site has untapped potential, and we specialize in helping brands uncover it. Curious about what a true SEO audits can reveal about your site? Let’s start the conversation. Reach out to Pandeia and let’s talk strategy.
July 2, 2025
🎯 Why Crowd Marketing Is a Smart Move
💰 Cost-Effective Alternative to Traditional SEO
Crowd marketing offers tangible results at a fraction of the cost of classic link building or digital outreach campaigns.
🌱 Natural and Steady Link Growth
Links are placed organically over time, mimicking real user behavior — which search engines reward with better rankings.
🤝 Builds Trust Through Real Conversations
Your brand gets discussed in relevant forums and communities, creating authentic touchpoints that users believe in.
🔍 Boosts Engagement and Organic Traffic
Genuine interactions improve behavioral metrics and help attract long-term, high-quality traffic.
🔗 Safe and Google-Friendly
We steer clear of manipulative tactics. No PBNs, no automation — only ethical, white-hat strategies that keep your site protected.
🌟 What Sets Us Apart — Our Core Priorities
✅ 1. Unmatched Execution Quality
Each comment is crafted by hand, matched to the forum’s tone, and placed on carefully selected platforms.
No bots. No templates. No spam. Just high-quality, human-written posts that work.
🎓 2. 10+ Years of Proven Expertise
We’ve been doing crowd marketing since day one — long before it was popular.
With over 5,000 completed projects, we’ve worked with clients across industries — from local businesses to international SaaS and e-commerce giants.
🌐 3. Vast Network of Verified Platforms
Thousands of active forums, blogs, and Q&A sites are already in our database, allowing us to launch your campaign instantly — with laser-targeted precision if needed.
🧑💻 4. Elite Team of Professionals
Our writers are SEO-savvy, highly skilled, and trained to create comments that read naturally and earn trust. Each one is moderated manually.
📦 5. Scalable for Any Project Size
Whether you need 20 links a month or 500 a week, we’ve built the systems to handle any volume without compromising quality.
📞 Let’s Work Together
🌍 crowd-seo.net/en/home-2
✉️ Email: [email protected]
💬 Telegram: @CEO_crowd
💰 Cost-Effective Alternative to Traditional SEO
Crowd marketing offers tangible results at a fraction of the cost of classic link building or digital outreach campaigns.
🌱 Natural and Steady Link Growth
Links are placed organically over time, mimicking real user behavior — which search engines reward with better rankings.
🤝 Builds Trust Through Real Conversations
Your brand gets discussed in relevant forums and communities, creating authentic touchpoints that users believe in.
🔍 Boosts Engagement and Organic Traffic
Genuine interactions improve behavioral metrics and help attract long-term, high-quality traffic.
🔗 Safe and Google-Friendly
We steer clear of manipulative tactics. No PBNs, no automation — only ethical, white-hat strategies that keep your site protected.
🌟 What Sets Us Apart — Our Core Priorities
✅ 1. Unmatched Execution Quality
Each comment is crafted by hand, matched to the forum’s tone, and placed on carefully selected platforms.
No bots. No templates. No spam. Just high-quality, human-written posts that work.
🎓 2. 10+ Years of Proven Expertise
We’ve been doing crowd marketing since day one — long before it was popular.
With over 5,000 completed projects, we’ve worked with clients across industries — from local businesses to international SaaS and e-commerce giants.
🌐 3. Vast Network of Verified Platforms
Thousands of active forums, blogs, and Q&A sites are already in our database, allowing us to launch your campaign instantly — with laser-targeted precision if needed.
🧑💻 4. Elite Team of Professionals
Our writers are SEO-savvy, highly skilled, and trained to create comments that read naturally and earn trust. Each one is moderated manually.
📦 5. Scalable for Any Project Size
Whether you need 20 links a month or 500 a week, we’ve built the systems to handle any volume without compromising quality.
📞 Let’s Work Together
🌍 crowd-seo.net/en/home-2
✉️ Email: [email protected]
💬 Telegram: @CEO_crowd
November 17, 2023
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Ready to skyrocket your website to the top of the digital game? 🚀✨ Our SEO services are here to turn your online presence into a powerhouse! 💻📈
🎯 Precision Targeting: We don't just aim for visibility; we hit the bullseye! 🎯 Our SEO experts use strategic techniques to ensure your brand stands out in the online crowd.
📊 Data-Driven Strategies: Numbers speak louder than words, right? Our SEO services are backed by data-driven insights, helping you make informed decisions and stay ahead in the competitive digital landscape.
🔍 Unleash Your Potential: Say goodbye to being lost in the vast online world. Our SEO wizards optimize your content to make sure your business is discovered by the right audience, at the right time.
🌐 Global Reach, Local Impact: Whether you're a local business or eyeing global domination, our Jacksonville SEO strategies that suit your goals. It's not just about visibility; it's about making an impact!
💡 Innovative Solutions: The digital landscape evolves, and so do we! Our SEO services stay ahead of the curve, implementing innovative solutions to keep your website on top and in tune with the latest trends.
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July 21, 2025
Book Reviewed: The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization
As someone working actively in the SEO and digital marketing space, I found The Art of SEO to be a deep and informative resource—especially for intermediate to advanced readers. While the fundamentals are well-covered, the real value lies in the strategic frameworks surrounding keyword architecture, link building, and site structure.
What stood out for me was the emphasis on content authority and ethical SEO, which resonates with my own experience running a content services platform at Aimservicess.com. In particular, their discussions on guest posting, off-page SEO, and long-tail keyword strategies align perfectly with what I implement for clients and write about regularly.
I do think some sections (especially around algorithm updates) feel slightly dated, which is understandable given how fast the search landscape changes. For that reason, I recommend pairing this book with current blogs, case studies, and practical implementation.
If you're starting out in SEO or want to move beyond surface-level tactics, this book gives a strong theoretical base. And if you're interested in guest blogging, content writing, or SEO consulting, feel free to check out the resources on my site as a practical next step.
🔍 Keywords you’ll want to explore after this read:
semantic SEO, Google E-E-A-T, link diversity, backlink audit, technical optimization.
Overall, a solid investment for anyone serious about mastering the foundations of search engine optimization.
As someone working actively in the SEO and digital marketing space, I found The Art of SEO to be a deep and informative resource—especially for intermediate to advanced readers. While the fundamentals are well-covered, the real value lies in the strategic frameworks surrounding keyword architecture, link building, and site structure.
What stood out for me was the emphasis on content authority and ethical SEO, which resonates with my own experience running a content services platform at Aimservicess.com. In particular, their discussions on guest posting, off-page SEO, and long-tail keyword strategies align perfectly with what I implement for clients and write about regularly.
I do think some sections (especially around algorithm updates) feel slightly dated, which is understandable given how fast the search landscape changes. For that reason, I recommend pairing this book with current blogs, case studies, and practical implementation.
If you're starting out in SEO or want to move beyond surface-level tactics, this book gives a strong theoretical base. And if you're interested in guest blogging, content writing, or SEO consulting, feel free to check out the resources on my site as a practical next step.
🔍 Keywords you’ll want to explore after this read:
semantic SEO, Google E-E-A-T, link diversity, backlink audit, technical optimization.
Overall, a solid investment for anyone serious about mastering the foundations of search engine optimization.
January 30, 2024
As an SEO consultant, I approached this book with specific expectations, but found it did not meet my needs. The content, while comprehensive, comes across as overly detailed and somewhat monotonous, which may not appeal to all readers. It seems primarily tailored for academic purposes rather than practical application. For those new to SEO or looking to expand their knowledge, I suggest exploring alternative resources like LearningSEO.io or the e-books from Search Engine Journal, which might offer more engaging and applicable insights into the field of SEO.
August 10, 2017
It is one of the best books for SEO's. The third edition is the latest one. This Book helped me a lot to optimize my websites:
1) Search Engine Call
2) Indian Government Jobs Website
3) Best Product Reviews Website
4) A to Z News Website
5) WordPress Tutorials
1) Search Engine Call
2) Indian Government Jobs Website
3) Best Product Reviews Website
4) A to Z News Website
5) WordPress Tutorials
Read
August 29, 2025The Art of SEO is a must-read for anyone serious about mastering search optimization. At DataOnMatrix, we focus on delivering advanced SEO strategies that align with the principles shared in this book. It’s a great resource for both beginners and professionals looking to improve visibility and rankings.
April 9, 2018
Excellent introduction to SEO, but the editor could have done a far better job organizing the content to make a narrative. Topics jump around, which makes it challenging to follow along. Will be keeping this book on the shelf as an invaluable reference guide.
August 30, 2022
SEO Master
This was an excellent book on search engine optimization (SEO).
I got a lot out of it. A vast majority I already knew, but a great resource for sure.
Would highly recommend for those new to SEO.
4.8/5
This was an excellent book on search engine optimization (SEO).
I got a lot out of it. A vast majority I already knew, but a great resource for sure.
Would highly recommend for those new to SEO.
4.8/5
October 17, 2022
This book wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but I was able to walk away with a few ideas that will help me with my own website. I think it's still somewhat relevant, but it needs to be updated with new information. Things just change too quickly in this field, imho.
June 30, 2023
No half stars, so I'll be kind and give 4. Very good SEO book but has a lot of irrelevant information such as Google+ and 5 year old+ SEO material. Still, most of it is solid suggestions for those starting out. Well sourced and points to excellent blogs for further information.
June 1, 2025
Honestly, I didn't even manage to finish the book. Perhaps I'm not one of the target users (I'm an engineer) or perhaps was the overly verbose writing style but, honestly, the entire book could be summarized in 100 pages or less.
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