This book shows you how to increase your web popularity, page rank, website visitor retention and internet sales through building backlinks, using link exchanges, search engine submissions, directory manual submissions, social media (i.e. RSS, forums, groups, blogging, vlogging, photoblogging, social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace etc), paid inclusion, pay-per-click, paid submissions, banner advertising, banner exchanges, news and PR article submissions, podcasting, doorway pages, referrals, affiliate networks and affiliation, eCourses, eBooks, foreign language search engines, free and low cost advertising websites, conventional marketing methods (such as, billboards, building wrapping, inflatables, vehicle wrapping, aerial banners, posters, radio and television), campaign monitoring, SEO campaign fine-tuning and more.
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Star Nothing to do with SEO
I’m writing my thesis on search engine optimization and asked my university library to purchase this book, since it was written recently and customer reviews seemed to be positive. I just finished reading it and I’m sorry to say that this guy does not know anything about SEO: Out of 240 pages only 20 concentrate around the actual subject and rest is wasted on such interesting “SEO techniques” as advertising your website with inflatables. Yes INFLATABLE’S!! And out of those 20 pages he goes on and on about META tags for eight pages…
Like couple people before me noticed, looks like these five star reviews of this book were written either people who do not know anything about search engine optimization and/or author himself. PLEASE, DO NOT PURCHASE THIS UTTER PIECE OF RUBBISH!
5 Stars easilly understood
This book was just what I needed for the novice trying to find out about the basics and details of the search engine world.I highly recommend purchasing this book, not only was it clearly written, but broke everything down so it was easy to understand. From the experienced to the beginner-this has it all.
3 Stars Worth Knowing
SEO techniques are good to learn. However, if you run a business or are serious about your business, odds are you do not have the time to handle everything that is required for internet marketing. I would strongly suggest utilizing a professional service such as what is offered by [...]
In any case, it’s good to understand the process so that you can know what is happening with your site and your competitors.
3 Stars A good guide for someone unfamiliar with the subject
This is a good starter guide to the various mechanisms of Internet marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (i.e. in rough English, how to get more people to click your links and earn some money in the process!)
The mechanisms by which this can be achieved are explained clearly enough so that a neophyte like me could understand the concepts. Blankson provides useful links at every juncture and guides the user through the processes without bombarding him or her with too much stuff. I learned a few new things. For starters, I had no idea how useful a sitemap is for search engine indexing, nor did I know how easy such a map is to generate, if you use the correct tools and XML. The use of keywords for searches is also advice I will keep on mind if I market products online in future.
I was also interested by the chapter on social marketing, via blogs, video clips and commentary. I vaguely knew about RSS feeds, but didn’t realise that they were designed to be syndicated on other websites and that links back to your websites could be contained therein. I have a blog myself which is a mixture of personal items, current affairs analysis and embedded clips. While syndication is not an option I would consider now, it was definitely worth looking at all the possibilities.
The use of certain mediums to copyright work was another suggestion I was not familiar with and could use, as well as the suggestions of banners and e-zines.
Regarding BBS and message board linking, Blankson is careful to note the caveats of just barging in and posting spam, i.e. links to your website. I suspect that even with engagement with the topic through posting, spamming posts may well still get deleted by the moderators, but it would be unfair not to say that the reader is duly warned about this. At all stages when specifying methods unpopular with or banned by search engine, the author includes a warning note. I would quibble with an inconsistency here: sometimes the warning note appears before the technique in question and sometimes afterwards, which can be confusing. A good editor would sort that out and correct the occasional typos and spelling errors that occur and which could easily be cleared up with a quick proofing.
Apart from the typos, I would also have liked some more detailed explanations at some points, such as when discussing the link farm, as I felt none the wiser about link farms at the end of the paragraph as when I’d started. But given this seems an expensive and non-recommended practice, perhaps is the aim is to dissuade the amateur from using same - though this should be more clearly specified.
In summary - some editing issues but in general a good guide for breaking down the concepts involving optimisation and marketing.
1 Star This Book is not wroth the money
Overall this book does not have any direction. Most of the facts and resources are outdated. Very bad at explaining the process. It seems to me that this book was written 8 years ago not 2008. I didnt read the reviews on this book but what it seems like is that the 5 star reviews are FAKE!!!
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November 13th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Thanks for the tip.
I will not go out and purchase that book.
I have read a few similar books that go on and on and they make it seo sound more difficult than it needs to be.
Thanks again