Posts About ‘books’

The Link Building Book by Paddy Moogan: A Review

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Earlier this year Paddy Moogan told me he was writing a book and asked me if I wanted to read it. Knowing his articles here on State of Search and on other blogs I off course immediately said yes to that. His writing has always been insightful and valuable, so an entire book of that type of content would be a treat.

When I got the book it was in an e-book format, which makes sense because the subject, Paddy’s speciality link building, is a timely topic, so a hard copy book would be outdated before even published. The thing is with an e-book, unlike holding a real life hard copy book, you can’t immediately see how much is in there, there is not give away if the book is long or short other than going through the book.

That is why it has taken me a long time to actually write the review: there is so incredibly much (valuable) content in the book which I couldn’t imagine when seeing the cover of the book (don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice cover, but it doesn’t show you how much is behind). Although the title could have been a give away, it truly is “THE” Linkbuilding book. So yes, it has taking me a longer time than expected to get through it, but it’s worth it. I just wish… No, I’ll wait with that part, read the review below and find out. (more…)

Book Review: Outsmarting Google – Evan Bailyn

Outsmarting Google

Outsmarting Google
SEO Secrets to Winning New Business
By Evan Bailyn with Bradley Bailyn
Book Website | Amazon UK | Amazon.com

Outsmarting Google is a book that’s been out since 2011, so I’m late with this review. And due to the fast-moving nature of the SEO industry, some parts of the book are expectedly out of date.

In the interests of full disclosure, before I began reading the book I was fully prepared to dislike it. Over the years I’ve developed a mild allergy for what I’d call ‘self-help business speak’. We all recognise this type of hyped-up copywriting when we see it: ‘Killer Strategies to Success’, ‘Hidden Secrets To Become an Instant Millionaire’ – books with such titles are a dime a dozen, and usually worth even less than the paper they’re printed on. (more…)

SEO: The Secrets of Closing the Sale

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As part of my new years resolution, I have promised myself that I will read more. This does include a number of highly recommended digital marketing and SEO reads, but I have also promised that I will branch out a little reading things that aren’t necessarily focused on SEO. I believe that many SEO’s, like me, can spend too much time reading everything and anything to do with SEO using services like Buffer, Instapaper and Reeder. However, doing this gets us trapped in our own filter bubble the information being shared restricts you from seeing the bigger picture. My reasons for focusing on some non-SEO reads is a selfish one, I’m aiming to broaden my knowledge and learn things from others that I may be able to apply to my profession. (more…)

Eric Schmidt to Publish Book on how Internet is Changing Society

Video thumbnail for youtube video Eric Schmidt did not buy Facebook Stocks "That Would Not have been Appropriate" - State of Search

Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, now executive chairman, is going to publish a book. Knopf Publishers today announced the book, which will be written by Schmidt and co-author Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas. The publishing date will be April 23rd.

Schmidt’s and Cohen’s book will be about the future of technology and will be called “The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business”.

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How non-SEO Books Have Taught me to be a Better SEO

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I really enjoy reading books that aren’t strictly related to my job as an SEO but can be applied in some way.  The truth is that we’re often overwhelmed with the amount of SEO content that is thrown at us everyday, I purposely try to avoid a lot of it and try to do catchups at certain points of my week rather than getting distracted from the task I’m on.  Although that is easier said than done!  I do wish that there were more posts from SEOs about non-SEO elements of their job, I’m talking about things like:

  • Managing people
  • Managing projects
  • Working with clients
  • Selling projects
  • Influencing change

There are more but I’m sure you get the idea.  It is this side of the industry that I wish people wrote about more, so in the spirit of this I wanted to share some of my learnings on non-SEO issues and introduce you to the books that gave me those learnings.  This is a good time to point out this list that Sam wrote not too long ago which talks about business and marketing books that SEOs have found useful. (more…)

Five Tips for Five Star Reviews

review

So you’ve done the hard work of getting someone to review something. Job done? Not at all.

‘This jar of honey may be in a revolting looking pot, but it’s scrumptious”, contains the same information, worded differently, as ‘This jar of honey is scrumptious, but the pot it’s in is revolting”.  There’s little to choose between the semantics and the facts. But whilst Google may not differentiate between the two, potential customers can.

And a good review is likely to be placed and promoted more prominently than a bad one. So here are five PR tips for getting to honeypot one. (more…)

Book Review: 500 Social Media Marketing Tips

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“500 Social Media Marketing Tips” is a plain paper guide that will, I understand, be sold online for $2.99. At that price, I had low expectations. These expectations were, unfortunately, met!

The first thing the book does is take us out to the writer’s social networking sites. Twitter was one of the first mentioned, so I felt warmer to Andrew having ‘met’ him. There’s nothing in the guide to offer an introductory context, so until that point he was a faceless person who I had never heard of, suggesting 500 tips to me. (more…)

What Baby Books Can Teach Us About SEO

8 months ago by Agnete Tøien Pedersen 4 Comments
baby-books

Being a new mom, just finishing off my maternity leave, I have done my fair share of baby book reading over the last months. Baby books are made to organize the world`s things for brand new people with no pre-knowledge. Babies and search engines are on the same level of naivety, experiencing things for the very first time every time they crawl, and therefore they can remind us of the most important basics of SEO.

As a website owner, it is not unusual to lose the perspective of your own content. Maybe you have worked for years to create unique, great content to rank better in the search engines. You have read about SEO and you have done everything by the book. And somewhere along the way, you lost your focus. The website is now about everything and nothing, and the rankings are not improving. Why? You have lost sight of the most basic element of SEO.

I see this many times every week when meeting (potential) clients. People over-complicate things in their desperation to rank better. And somewhere along the way, they lose both the rankings and the usability of their site. This is where the baby books can help us; to go back to the absolute basics of communication, and therefore also the very core of SEO. (more…)

Awesome Marketing and Business Books – Recommended by the State of Search Team

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Over the past couple of years I have been to a number of conferences and always come away with a list of books that have been recommended by the speakers. This got me thinking about the types of books that people in the industry read, whether they are directly related to online marketing, SEO or business in general so I spoke to the State of Search team and have compiled this amazing list.

I hope you find some of these useful and would love to hear what books you would recommend so if you have anything to add, please leave a comment at the end of the post to share with all the State of Search readers.

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Book Review: Global Search Engine Marketing by Kristjan Hauksson and Anne Kennedy

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At SES New York a few weeks back I got a copy of the book “Global Search Engine Marketing” from Kristjan Mar Hauksson. His co-author Anne Kennedy wasn’t there, but I have known both of them for quite a few years now and I can tell you that these two know their international stuff. They travel the world, do business around the globe and have done global work, including some voluntary work at SEMPO. You can trust these two to write a book about International Search allright!

The moment that Kristjan gave me the book was nice, because you could see how proud he was with the book. He had been working really hard on it and it had paid off. So off course I started reading the book with anticipation. Not just because I personally like Kristjan and Anne, but also because I am someone who has an ‘international hat’ on. I am Dutch, but focussed on search world wide. So this book might just be made for me! Find below my review of the book with an overview of what you can expect from it. (more…)

Friday Talk: Lawrence Lessig at Google

In this Friday Talk we enter the Google Plex, where many authors come and visit and talk about their books. One of these authors was Lawrence Lessig, who wrote “Republic, Lost”.

Lessig vividly champions the idea that we can succeed if we accept that corruption is our common enemy and that we must find a way to fight against it. In Republic, Lost, he not only makes this need palpable and clear-he gives us the practical and intellectual tools to do something about it.

Critical Thinking for the Discerning SEO – an ebook by Doc Sheldon

Critical thinking

I’m a total sucker for marketing ebooks, having downloaded my fair share of corkers (and stinkers) in my time.

There’s definitely something to be said for the format of the ebook given the propensity for fast paced change in the field of digital marketing.  Additionally, the absence of lengthy lead in times for publishing means the content can be completely ‘up to the minute’, and this combined with low production costs, and no minimum runs makes it the format of choice for many writers looking to launch their content upon the world.

When I saw Barry Adam’s tweet announcing the launch of Doc Sheldon’s book I clicked straight through… (more…)

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