I've recently launched a B2C website and I know enough to know that it's no longer the case that you "build it and they will come". But I didn't realise getting my website to be seen by enough people to make it financially viable would be quite this difficult!

Like many new businesses I have a limited budget so I wanted to see if I could tackle some of the SEO work myself or if I had to pay for someone to do it for me, I wanted to have some knowledge before I hired someone.

This book breaks up the multiple and often lengthy tasks required to tackle SEO. It makes technical terms easy to understand which helps if you're not a technical person like me. And it allows you to do a bit of SEO work at a time meaning if you are even a little bit disciplined, you can fit some SEO work into your busy day.

Other SEO books I've read can make the task sound so daunting you don't know where to start so you don't. By breaking up tasks into bite sized chunks, this book motivated me to start my SEO work. Bring on the results!

Search Engine Optimization is a complicated process made so by the fact that Google, the number one search engine, has successfully kept its algorithms a deep, dark secret and continues to do so.

The book is divided into three parts: 1) Foundation, 2) Strategy and 3) Your SEO Plan. Foundation stresses the need to thoroughly understand what you want your website to do for you. Some people want to promote their businesses; but a surprising number just want to provide reliable information or publicize a provocative blog. Once you know what you want, you can start thinking about how to tailor your approach to SEO to meet those goals. Several downloadable worksheets are referred to, and the explanations on how to use them and how they are interrelated are clear and logical.

Many who read this book will be optimizing their own websites; but for those who are fortunate enough to have colleagues on whom they can draw, a number of suggestions for how to obtain their willing assistance are offered. There also is a 50-page chapter devoted to a four week plan on how to get ready to implement your SEO Plan.

The Plan itself covers three months and includes a systematic method for accomplishing the most important optimization tasks in the first instance, and then establishing the habit of checking them regularly thereafter.

At the rate of one hour per day, the average reader should be able to implement the entire program in four months, which is the intent of the book. Those who are more experienced at SEO may be able to complete the program in less time. Four months may seem like a long time, but as I said at the beginning, it is complicated. There is much to remember; and because the Internet doesn't stand still, neither can the SEO process. Although there were a couple of URLs that no longer worked, the authors responded promptly to my e-mail asking for their assistance after I pointed this out to them.

On a final note, I need to say that I couldn't disagree more with the reviewer who thought the book was "poorly organized." Quite to the contrary, it is well organized and well-thought out. I warmly commend it to all who want to increase their Web presence.

Bruce Hoag, PhD
Co-author Managing Value-based Organizations: It's Not What You Think (New Horizons in Management Series)
http://www.p-advantage.com

The book is well written and easy to read but having said that I find that the downloadable workbooks (of which there are a number) are of little value and far too basic.

I also would have liked the book written in 2 sections - Got on with it and Go through the Lessons whereas the book is simply 'Go through the Lessons' without a sensible way to read through and garner useful info.

The paced structure is, I find, limiting rather than enlightening.

Mind you for people who learn differently to me this book could be a veritable goldmine of information and could lead then toweards being very competent SEOers.

There is a lot of proud guys entered the 1 star to this book - DO NOT be mis leaded please, when you are choosing a SEO book. Right on, there is probably a lot of water inside, and I also do not like the spreadsheets what authors are suggesting to download and fill all the way - but hey - the information what they suggest enter on them - are useful, and worked for me. I started use the tips they suggest in July 2007, and back then according Google analytics the % of organic google search was 0.5 %. Now, it came up to 18 % (most are PPC still), and guess what - I never used another book for this, and all other books I read till now, or numerous suggestions in blogs and forums, well they actually are same, maybe small details missed.
I highly recommend this book. My personal example shows - generally the methonds they offer works.

I am torn on this book because I liked the first few chapters and found them simple to read and incorporate the ideas. I liked the theory of the "right brain + left brain" approach. I'm not new to SEO so I was able to move quickly through the work. The templates were helpful -- at first. But soon I found them cumbersome and not always worth the time I spent to put them together - especially when it came to key word selection. The industry is changing so fast the URLs were not always accurate anymore. The Wordtracker product they highly recommend i thought was a waste of my time - but it could just be the industry i'm in. So try this book if you are new to SEO - it won't hurt and may help.