Best SEO Books Ever – Review of Best Search Engine Optimization Books by Jason McDonald, SEO Book Reviewer

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, of course is all about getting to the top of Google, Yahoo, and Bing’s free listings. When a potential customer inputs target keywords into that infamous Google query box, does your company come up on page 1? Positions 1, 2, or 3? SEO is all about putting your website forward in the most favorable light, so that Google (and Yahoo and Bing) reward you with a top position in the search results. Keeping up with SEO is important to your business, it’s great that along with books there are things like seo ready editorial calendars to help your content marketing efforts.

Almost every company now sets this as a marketing objective, and most marketing managers are at least dimly aware of SEO. Many turn to a charlotte seo company or consultants; so few turn to books because it won’t give them as much experience as SEO companies; and still quite a few more turn to SEO classes, like those that I teach. If you are looking for an SEO book, keep in mind these two basic objectives for your learning experience –

1. Theory of SEO – an overview to what SEO is, how search engines work, and the recommended ‘best practices’ to get your company to the top.
2. SEO Tools, Tricks, and Resources – lists of the best (hopefully free) SEO tools, SEO tricks, and SEO resources on the Web.

Most books – in my experience – overemphasize the details, and miss the big picture of what it takes to get to those verified rankings. And few give you lists of the best available online learning resources, though there are many. At any rate, here is my list of the best SEO books, ever.

1. Search Engine Optimization for Dummies by Peter Kent. The BEST and MOST significant part of the book is his discussion on PageRank, Google’s special sauce that measures the ‘authority’ of pages based on incoming links. Mr. Kent explains ways to build your own site, that take advantage of PageRank, plus emphasizes that reciprocal links and outbound links are still valuable. This is contrary to the advice of many SEO people. I’m not sure I fully agree with it, but it is a provocative and interesting detailed approach to PageRank.
2. Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies by Bruce Clay. The good – the book does have a lot of useful information. It is especially strong on the technical aspects of SEO, such as how fast your server responds to Google queries. This is a relatively new emphasis in SEO and one that many beginners are not yet aware of. His concept of siloing – putting like items into like directories is also a very good way to conceptualize how you should organize your website. But, like so many SEO books, the book suffers from esoterica fatigue. Too much information, too many details, and not enough clear “big picture” guidelines into what should be done when. As I have learned from my own SEO students, they often need a simple step-by-step guide to SEO, and need to prioritize their efforts. Yes, your server response speed is important, but getting your home page TITLE tag correct is even more so. I would recommend this book for experts and advanced SEO people. For beginners, Peter Kent’s SEO book is a better bet.
3. Sams Teach Yourself Google Analytics in 10 Minutes by Michael Miller. Mr. Miller takes the traditional book-as-manual approach to Analytics, and he largely succeeds. The book is part of the in 10 Minutes series, but by 10 minutes he means 10 minutes per day. The book begins with how to set up an Analytics account on Google, and proceeds chapter by chapter with some of the most important concepts in Analytics: using the dashboard, tracking visitors, analyzing top content, and even tracking AdWords and ecommerce. Pretty much every important topic in Analytics is covered.
4. Search Engine Optimization: Your visual blueprintTM for effective Internet marketing by Kristopher Jones. Kristopher Jones has updated what is one of the landmark do-it-yourself books on SEO. I really hoped that the visual method would be more helpful than the word-heavy books that plague the SEO industry. That said, this book is also quite heavy on text and very, very light on theory. My students need simple step-by-step instructions that do not overwhelm them.

Books are great, especially if you are a so-called book learner. Most people are too busy to learn from books, especially busy marketers and small business owners. It is often much, much easier to have someone ‘show’ you how to use the various SEO tools, as well as have someone ‘present’ to you the theory and practice of effective SEO. That’s what I try to do in my own SEO training, both in San Francisco and online for the JM Internet Group. The best way to try out that alternative method to a book is to start with my free introductory webinar on the Top Ten Free Tools for SEO.

If you know of other amazing SEO books, please do email me!