Search Engine Optimization (SEO) How to Optimize Your Website for Internet Search Engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN Live, AOL, Ask, AltaVista, FAST, GigaBlast, Snap,  LookSmart and More) OUT NOW!

Reviews

Samuel Blankson obviously knows what he is talking about when it comes to SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.  Unlike many of the ebooks that are currently on the market on the subject, “SEO – How To Optimize Your Web Site For Internet Search Engines”, delivers 100% on the title promise.

Samuel Blankson is an internet entrepreneur who has managed websites throughout the spectrum of industry.  He has optimized sites not only for his own keywords relating to his business, but acts as a consultant for other companies wishing to do the same as well.  He has been doing this for a number of years and has learned the lessons that he teaches in his book the hard way – through experience. 

It is difficult to wade through the literature available on the subject without feeling skeptical about the whole industry.  As someone who has been performing SEO on sites since 1996, I often see mistakes made by new authors who think they have learned the big secret to fooling the search engines, when in fact they are recommending “Black Hat” techniques that will get your site banned. 

Blankson’s book circumvents all of the hyperbole so commonly found in SEO books and gives page after page of helpful information.  The book is arguably an excellent substitute for a much more expensive SEO seminar or course, as it teaches the same lessons. 

Blankson is also innocent of the usual crime that most SEO experts commit, which is thinking that their audience is going to know the industry acronyms that the authors regard as second nature.  Generally, someone is purchasing a book on SEO because they don’t know anything about the industry, and acronym abuse puts off novices immediately.  Blankson simplifies everything without being pedantic or patronizing to his reader. 

One of the points worth mentioning about Blankson’s book in general is that he doesn’t try to hold back any secrets or tricks of the trade – he shares them all.  The book is current, with tips on Social Media marketing, how to properly structure an XML sitemap, and lots of other brass tacks tips that add up to a lot of useful information for the reader.

Blankson starts out very simply with a brief rundown on the internet and how search engines work.  He then gradually builds on these lessons with the importance of website content and proper sitemaps for the search engines.  People looking for ways to hide code from competing websites will also find assistance in this book – Blankson gives you ways to do it that will not get your site banned. 

Throughout the text, Blankson is kind enough to point out where techniques that he is recommending may fall into grey areas as far as the search engines are concerned, so that these techniques may be avoided or researched further as the reader sees fit. 

I first became notably impressed with the book when Blankson discussed the realities of search engine submission, and how one should submit to each site by hand.  Having preached this myself for a number of years for the same reasons that he cited, I was definitely onboard with whatever else he had to say.  Not only that, he tells you which sites to go to and actually gives addresses, something another author may have not taken the care to do.

When recommending directory submissions, Blankson not only tells you how to do it properly, but gives you a list of the directory sites that you should be going to in order to do so.  This is taking things a step further than most search engine optimization books do already.  It doesn’t stop there – in the social media marketing section, Blankson gives the reader a step-by-step guide to proper search engine marketing through social media like Facebook, Hi5, and Twitter. 

There is also an extremely helpful section on non-English language sites.  He not only gives you some excellent tactics to use to ensure that your site is publicized around the world, but publicized in such a manner that those with a modicum of English can use the site.  He also tells when and when not to hire a translator, and gives site addresses for the proper sites to submit to. 

Equally impressive is Blankson’s chapter on all of the free tools that Google has available to help out webmasters.  Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, Google AdSense, and more are given the necessary in-depth examination that they deserve.  Blankson goes beyond the usual “use this because it is good” and really takes the reader by the hand and walks them through the process step by step.  I have not yet seen any literature, online or otherwise, that really deconstructs the Google tools as well as Blankson does here, including Google’s own help sections on each of the tools. 

The section on pay-per-click advertising is as comprehensive as the Google tools section.  Normally regarded as a complex topic with a number of ins and outs, pay-per-click advertising has been completely demystified by Blankson’s book to the point where PPC “experts” should be running scared since their knowledge is now available to everyone. 

Coming from the “old school” of SEO myself, I found myself a bit confused by all the talk about “link building”, and hadn’t really been able to find a satisfactory explanation for the term online.  Samuel goes on about link-building in-depth and with a lot more “meat” than any online article could possibly serve up.  While I had been used to doing some of the more old school methods of link building, Samuel’s book gave me loads of new strategies to work with and for that alone, this book is worth the cover price. 

The social media marketing section does not ignore the importance of wikis.  Blankson goes into detail about how and where to set up a wiki to the point that once he is done, he has all but built the wiki for you.  His coverage of social bookmarking is equally effective, ensuring that you go away from the book with proper resources to use for your own purposes.

The section on blogs and monetizing your blog through affiliates, advertising, and other means was a real eye-opener.  While I had long used Google AdSense on my blog, I hadn’t thought of using affiliates until I read his book.  This was very useful and profitable information.

The section on conversion rates and landing pages was equally informative.  While I knew what conversion rates were and how to monitor them, Blankson’s book gave me new ways to do so that I will be employing immediately. 

Blankson stresses the need for offline methods of promotion as well as online for your site.  Coming from a publicity background in the pre-internet days, I couldn’t agree more.  This is an often overlooked way of promoting your site and yourself – those of us who had the pleasure of being around before the internet know how effective it is to get out there with press releases, speeches, and articles of our own, but these days a lot of people just expect that they can do everything online.  As far as forging real, personal relationships, you cannot beat other mediums, and Blankson’s recognition of this solidifies the fact that he is writing from his own, real-world experience.    

The best approach to Blankson’s book as a teaching aide is to create a website, if you don’t have one already.  Then, go through the practical applications of all of the things in the book that are free to do.  By the end of it, you should be able to market your website as proof that you have a solid knowledge of SEO.  Better yet, if you already have a commercial website, tacit use of the tactics referred to in the book will give you a noticeably increased rate of return on your sales, something that you can use as take-it-to-the-bank evidence of your newfound knowledge. 

Excellent results could be achieved with any site that took most of the recommendations found in the book and put them into action, including submitting to the proper directory sites and following the social media tips that Blankson has laid out.  I’d be willing to place odds on the fact that a site actually using most of the tips in the book would go from page 4-5 in Google to page 1 within a few weeks. 

This is a book that you need to read if you have a website, are a publicist, or you are simply interested in the art of internet promotion.  The advice contained in this book will make it one of the best investments that you have ever made in yourself or your business.  Most of it is advice that will be current one, two, and even five years from now. 

Spiders, robots and crawlers – Yikes! Google, Yahoo, YouTube - who are these guys and what can they do for you? The reader will learn the fine points of web marketing in Samuel Blankson’s book, SEO: Search Engine Optimization - How to Optimize Your Website for Internet Search Engines. In his most recent publication, Blankson delivers a detailed overview of the internet, how we use it, how search engines respond to our requests for information, and how we can make the most of those processes.

Search Engine Optimization may well be the only resource an independent Web entrepreneur needs to develop a highly effective web presence. In fact, the book goes well beyond search engine optimization to discuss ways an online business person can optimize revenue using a variety of web-based resources. One caveat: this volume is most well suited to the needs and abilities of an individual who already has some technical understanding, as the material is presented with a sophisticated level of knowledge.

Blankson begins with some fundamentals about the internet, and quickly moves into the real meat of the book - best practices to drive relevant traffic volume to a website. Every step of the way, he demonstrates that language and wording are the keys to success: choose the right words for your domain name, your tags, your content, and your battle to establish a dominant web presence is well begun. Content is critical.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization is filled with practical applications. The book offers a wealth of links to valuable resources, as well as examples of HTML code for specific purposes. The book also includes many cautionary notes which are well worth remembering (for example, pay attention to copyright rules; don’t try to trick Google!). In addition, the author weighs the costs and benefits of using services that charge a fee, including search engine submission services and link exchanges against handling those tasks manually.

The book is bursting with informative reference lists: best ideas to generate revenue with a blog; the top ten (English language) search engines; the most popular web directories; sites that offer software to create and edit a video log, or vlog. And lest the reader overlook the global nature of the internet and e-commerce, the author includes web addresses for search engines that use a language other than English.

The author reminds his reader that it is vitally important to track website traffic to understand online customers. One of the book’s greatest contributions to understanding the competitive world of search engine optimization is its in-depth tour of Google’s Webmaster tools. The author walks the reader step by step through Google Analytics to explain how a webmaster can learn who visits a site, how long the visitor stays, what visitors look at, and how they found the site in the first place.

SEO introduces the reader to a variety of potential profit centers that go well beyond a single website. Blankson describes social media marketing using such sites as YouTube, MySpace and Wikis, and offers recommendations for making the most of social media to promote business. He explains how the reader can utilize ebooks, webinars, affiliate programs, pay per click programs, even publications in hard copy, to drive traffic and generate income on the web. A newcomer to the world of online commerce may find the level of complexity here a bit daunting. Blankson writes for the reader who has more than a basic level of knowledge about the structure of a web page; in fact, he recommends that readers should become familiar with the concepts in his book, META Tags. On the other hand, it is not necessary to have a degree in Computer Science to understand what he is saying.

Readers who have a comfortable relationship with the web and who have dabbled in the world of online business will find a wealth of good information in SEO: Search Engine Optimization - How to Optimize Your Website for Internet Search Engines. From the first page, the book delivers a wealth of information and valuable tools for making the most of a web-based enterprise.