SEO Wordsmith Marketplace

No, I’m not talking about the SEO Book, though that certainly qualifies as a top quality SEO tome (I’ll review that ebook in the future). I’m talking about SEO books printed on actual paper. It may seem strange to read a book about online marketing in a bound book, but trust me, reading a bound search engine optimization book is a much different experience than sifting through the pages upon pages of information (and misinformation) posted about SEO and marketing online.

As I mentioned in my post this week about web reading habits, people read much differently online than they read other material. Yes, this even means marketers. Reading online is an experience similar to watching TV – hopping around from one blog to the next, never taking time to absorb any one site for too long.

The brain just absorbs information differently when reading from a printed book. This may seem like a small issue, but it’s not. If you read the same information via a bound book, you’re much more likely to absorb that information, take written notes, and put those issues into practice. As books are fact checked, you can be certain you’re not getting misinformation. It’s also easy to reference a book as you work online, rather than flipping between different websites. Finally, books are portable in ways that computers are not.

In short, reading a book about online marketing is not a contradiction in terms. So here are the top five books on SEO and marketing I’ve found in my work as an SEO, all with recent information:

This book is like a hybrid book and computer screen in one, which is very helpful. Other books are print only with very few pictures, whereas this book lays it all out with screenshots so you can get a good bird’s eye view into comparing your site with the competition. This book covers everything related to SEO. Everything. If you want to save money on hiring a pro SEO (don’t know why I’m saying this, self-defeating) then buy this book and you’ll have most everything you need (except someone to do all the actual work of optimization).

This is a more professional-grade book, useful for marketing professionals. Site owners can benefit too by knowing the jargon before working with a professional marketer and by employing the tactics described here. Covers impressive ground related to search engine marketing, as opposed to straight optimization.

If the above book is a bit too comprehensive, this book is stellar at putting marketing information in more layman’s terms, yet without sacrificing the amount of information. Great info on the entire Web 2.0 experience and beyond - much about viral marketing, rather than just marketing for search engines. It’ll help you devise a complete online marketing program.

This book is a bit outdated, but the basics for using Google Adwords haven’t changed that much in two years, so this is a good Adwords Bible to have by your side that will likely get a lot of use. Adwords is like the stock market - it’s a lot more dangerous than SEO. If you don’t optimize, you might lose money from a lack of sales, but you won’t actually have to pay anything out. A wrong turn with Adwords and it’s like having a bad investment. An Adwords primer is vital.

There are other good “a day” books, but I didn’t want to repeat books with some of the same information. Measuring how you’re succeeding is half of success. If you’re not measuring your site’s performance based on a string of different factors, then you’re only doing part of the work. Improve you return on investment by altering your marketing strategy based on what you find in an analytics program.

Good overview for the beginner - thought I’d throw this in if the first optimization book seems a little heavy. Good information on web design and effective copywriting - not just about keyword optimization and other basic SEO principles. Updated with new information.

I’d recommend this book for someone just getting into blogging, or with intermediate experience, but for that it’s invaluable, as is the ProBlogger site. Even this blog entry is based on Darren Rowse’s tips: to improve Amazon commissions, write a series of Best Of posts with Amazon products. I’m revealing my impetus for writing this post, but I also wanted to get across the research I’ve done on SEO in books.  As the title shows, he knows how to market to get a maximum response: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income.