What is SEO? And Why Do I Need To Learn It?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines through search results. The higher a website appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users, resulting in more business or sales.
The majority of web traffic is driven by the major commercial search engines - Google, Bing and Yahoo!. If your site cannot be found by search engines or your content cannot be put into their databases, you miss out on the incredible opportunities available to websites provided via search - people who want what you have visiting your site. Whether your site provides content, services, products, or information, search engines are a primary method of navigation for almost all Internet users.
Experience has shown that search engine traffic can make (or break) an organization's success. Targeted visitors to a website can provide publicity, revenue, and exposure like no other. Investing in SEO, whether through time or finances, can have an exceptional rate of return., and this is why YOU need SEO.
The majority of web traffic is driven by the major commercial search engines - Google, Bing and Yahoo!. If your site cannot be found by search engines or your content cannot be put into their databases, you miss out on the incredible opportunities available to websites provided via search - people who want what you have visiting your site. Whether your site provides content, services, products, or information, search engines are a primary method of navigation for almost all Internet users.
Experience has shown that search engine traffic can make (or break) an organization's success. Targeted visitors to a website can provide publicity, revenue, and exposure like no other. Investing in SEO, whether through time or finances, can have an exceptional rate of return., and this is why YOU need SEO.
What is SEO? (Wikipedia)
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.
The acronym "SEOs" can refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site and site content, SEO tactics may be incorporated into website development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe website designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.
The acronym "SEOs" can refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site and site content, SEO tactics may be incorporated into website development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe website designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.
Who These SEO Books Are For
These books are for the SEO who already knows the basics of SEO and wants to take this knowledge to the next level so that they can make more money. In the SEO industry, the best way I have found to do this is to do SEO consulting. These books are written as guides to becoming an SEO consultant or for those who want to use the strategies of professional SEO consultants. It clearly lays out the processes and perspectives I have used at SEOmoz when I did consulting for some of the most well-known websites on the Internet. It is intended for those who love the Internet and strive to influence how it operates.Why This Lens Is Better Than Other SEO Book Lens
Modern SEO is complicated, fast moving, and rife with misconceptions. This makes it extremely difficult to learn. When I began researching for these books, I read all of the major SEO books that were available. I quickly found that they were full of theory and lacked actionable steps to really help the reader master the subject.
I wrote this Squidoo lens with the goal of building the bridge between theory and action by bringing together all of the best sources of information I have found and putting them in a format that makes it easy to understand and, more importantly, do SEO like a professional. This emphasis on action follows the steps I originally used to learn SEO. I believe this focus on process followed by explanation is unique among SEO books on the market, and I believe it will make the difference that allows you to out rank your competition.
5 More Reasons For SEO
1. Search Engines can help you achieve your business goals
The Internet is a huge market place and people have lost their fear of buying things via web. Search engines become a starting place for a product search. The majority of internet users search at least once a day and E-commerce is booming. Do you want to take advantage of this situation? Then you need to dominate the search results.
2. SEO can help you save a lot of money
If a company is not able to attract search engine visitors what they normally do is to buy sponsored listings in search engines. With increased competition in PPC campaigns these days you have to offer bigger click per rate to show your ad at the top of the listings. If you are not able to convert this paid traffic in to customers you are losing a lot of money. At the same time if you know SEO then you will be able to top the search results and can save a lot of money otherwise you may spend in PPC campaigns.
3. Remove negative information
If you have a very successful website on a particular niche then we can never deny the fact that there will be negative information about your company is posted somewhere in the internet. They may in the form is dissatisfied clients, people who don't like your views, negative comments purposefully posted by your rivals etc. SEO will help you improve your rankings and push your placement up while downplaying pages that contain negative comments about you.
4. Competitor Activity
Your competitors most likely already do SEO. Unless you start quickly and compete with them they will start dominating search results and force you down. In order to regain your position back you have to analyze their website and find the details like the number of backlinks they have, sites from which they got link backs, selection of keywords, linking patterns etc. Only an in depth knowledge in SEO can help you with this.
5. You can build a brand
Your website is like a brand that you are trying to market. If you have more visitors then you get perceived as a trusted brand by your audience. SEO will help to increase your brand visibility. For example if you are able to top the search results for keywords like 'health insurance' (I know it is bit hard to top the search results for such hot keywords), then visitors begin to think that you are one of the best health insurance providers in the world and thus you will begin to considered as a brand.
The Internet is a huge market place and people have lost their fear of buying things via web. Search engines become a starting place for a product search. The majority of internet users search at least once a day and E-commerce is booming. Do you want to take advantage of this situation? Then you need to dominate the search results.
2. SEO can help you save a lot of money
If a company is not able to attract search engine visitors what they normally do is to buy sponsored listings in search engines. With increased competition in PPC campaigns these days you have to offer bigger click per rate to show your ad at the top of the listings. If you are not able to convert this paid traffic in to customers you are losing a lot of money. At the same time if you know SEO then you will be able to top the search results and can save a lot of money otherwise you may spend in PPC campaigns.
3. Remove negative information
If you have a very successful website on a particular niche then we can never deny the fact that there will be negative information about your company is posted somewhere in the internet. They may in the form is dissatisfied clients, people who don't like your views, negative comments purposefully posted by your rivals etc. SEO will help you improve your rankings and push your placement up while downplaying pages that contain negative comments about you.
4. Competitor Activity
Your competitors most likely already do SEO. Unless you start quickly and compete with them they will start dominating search results and force you down. In order to regain your position back you have to analyze their website and find the details like the number of backlinks they have, sites from which they got link backs, selection of keywords, linking patterns etc. Only an in depth knowledge in SEO can help you with this.
5. You can build a brand
Your website is like a brand that you are trying to market. If you have more visitors then you get perceived as a trusted brand by your audience. SEO will help to increase your brand visibility. For example if you are able to top the search results for keywords like 'health insurance' (I know it is bit hard to top the search results for such hot keywords), then visitors begin to think that you are one of the best health insurance providers in the world and thus you will begin to considered as a brand.
SEO eBooks for Beginners
(don't worry, take it slow)
Search Engine Optimization For Dummies
Amazon Price: $16.29 (as of 01/28/2012) 
SEO Made Simple (Second Edition): Strategies For Dominating The World's Largest Search Engine
Amazon Price: $14.60 (as of 01/28/2012)
Taking SEO to The Next Level
There is no single definition of advanced SEO. There are a few of attempts to describe what it might mean or consist of and what not but there is no entity or authority that could define such a broad term like advanced SEO. I can't define advanced SEO either.But what you can do is read ebooks by professional SEOs, to study and learn their advanced SEO tactics, techniques and resources.
Below are some of the top and most up-to-date SEO books on the market. Written by professional SEO gurus, these will surely enhance your knowledge of SEO.
What Is The Best Way to Learn SEO?
Whenever someone asks me how to learn SEO, I always recommend they read a book. Some SEOs I know will thrash me for this, but SEO has a lot of pieces and without having a foundational knowledge, none of the pieces will have any context.
What's Missing?
To me, the ideal way to learn SEO is 3-fold:
1. Gain a foundational knowledge of SEO
2. Apply the principles to a website with monetary goals
3. Stay current by testing and reading industry literature
One of the biggest barriers to entry right now in SEO is the technical challenge of building a site worth optimizing. Many SEOs cut their teeth on a WordPress site or blog, but there's nothing to optimize, so it's really not the ideal workshop for learning and testing SEO. The big gap right now is that the skill disparity between building a good-looking, functional site (especially an ecommerce site) and doing SEO on that site is HUGE.
What the industry is missing is a turnkey e-commerce platform with the simplicity of many third party blogging platforms that comes pre-populated with good looking category and product pages and the ability to customize all of the SEO-critical information. Most of the "internet-business-in-a-box" solutions right now are either scams or too inflexible to be valuable.
eRetailers like Amazon.com have put a lot of resources into helping their affiliates sell products and have provided all of the functionality to embed products and code onto existing sites. Why not go a step further and create the actual platforms that would enable affiliates to sell products right out of the gate? Amazon could even partner with WordPress to create a basic hybrid system that would smooth entry into the ecommerce world and make them that much more money.
I know it's wrong to hope for more competition, but I feel like having an ecommerce site that can go up as quickly as a blog (and look as normal) would be awesome for the industry.
* Good SEOs would get even better.
* New SEOs would get up-to-speed more quickly.
* Search results would become more relevant (assuming an increase in unique content).
What's Missing?
To me, the ideal way to learn SEO is 3-fold:
1. Gain a foundational knowledge of SEO
2. Apply the principles to a website with monetary goals
3. Stay current by testing and reading industry literature
One of the biggest barriers to entry right now in SEO is the technical challenge of building a site worth optimizing. Many SEOs cut their teeth on a WordPress site or blog, but there's nothing to optimize, so it's really not the ideal workshop for learning and testing SEO. The big gap right now is that the skill disparity between building a good-looking, functional site (especially an ecommerce site) and doing SEO on that site is HUGE.
What the industry is missing is a turnkey e-commerce platform with the simplicity of many third party blogging platforms that comes pre-populated with good looking category and product pages and the ability to customize all of the SEO-critical information. Most of the "internet-business-in-a-box" solutions right now are either scams or too inflexible to be valuable.
eRetailers like Amazon.com have put a lot of resources into helping their affiliates sell products and have provided all of the functionality to embed products and code onto existing sites. Why not go a step further and create the actual platforms that would enable affiliates to sell products right out of the gate? Amazon could even partner with WordPress to create a basic hybrid system that would smooth entry into the ecommerce world and make them that much more money.
I know it's wrong to hope for more competition, but I feel like having an ecommerce site that can go up as quickly as a blog (and look as normal) would be awesome for the industry.
* Good SEOs would get even better.
* New SEOs would get up-to-speed more quickly.
* Search results would become more relevant (assuming an increase in unique content).
SEO Secrets and Advanced SEO eBooks
Search Engine Optimization Secrets: SEO for 2011 (Search Engine Optimization Kindle Bestseller)
Amazon Price: (as of 01/28/2012)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Secrets
Amazon Price: $18.64 (as of 01/28/2012)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): An Hour a Day
Amazon Price: $11.99 (as of 01/28/2012)
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