Technology, Strategy, People and Projects

Website Optimization

by Eric D. Brown on August 27, 2008 · View Comments

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

In July, I was approached by Andy King to see if I’d be interested in reviewing his new book from O’Reilly titled “Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets“.

If you don’t know who Andy is, go read his resume….I’ll wait….OK…you back? Great pedigree right? Been involved in the web since 1993. Founded WebReference.com and Javascript.com in 1997. It’s safe to say he knows his stuff.

When Andy approached me, I was skeptical initially….could I do this book justice? I’ve got a technical background and have been around the web since 1995 but I know very little about Search Engine Optimization…then I look at the synopsis of the book and realized that this is about much more than SEO.

This book does more than talk about the basics of SEO. It dives into topics that go well beyond the ‘technical’ aspects (e.g., keywords, titles, etc) and talks about persuasive language, fast load times and engaging websites. Once I saw this, I was very intrigued and told Andy that I’d be happy to review the book.

I’m glad I said yes. The book is excellent…and from what I’ve seen, it is THE book on Website Optimization. Gone are the days of scouring the web for bits and pieces of info on how to optimize….this book contains it all.

Unlike most other books in this genre, this book is much more than just an overview of the concepts of website optimization. Detailed descriptions, case studies and in-depth discussions of the ‘why, what and how’ of optimization are provided to allow the reader to immediately take action with their own websites.

For those of you interested in the entire spectrum of website optimization (i.e., page load times, search engine friendliness, optimization techniques etc), this is the book for you. I expect that this book will be THE website optimization book for years to come.

Now….I need to start using the recommendations from the book on my blog!

NOTE: This book was provided by the author for review.

Written By Eric D. Brown

Eric is a Consultant, Entrepreneur and Doctoral Student focused on helping organizations cross the chasm that exists between Business & IT. Eric writes extensively about technology, strategy, people and projects at http://ericbrown.com. In addition to this blog and his consulting work, Eric is an avid & passionate photographer and writes about photography, shares photographs and reviews products at Photography Minute.

Search Engine Optimization

I got a hold of a copy of this book some time ago and I loved it. Although I'm a professional SEO, I did find some useful nuggets in this book. That's more than what I can say for a lot of other SEO books I've read. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to know a more about SEO. Thanks for the review.

Lvyouji

This is a really good book. I have recently considered is to use WP or ZBLOG to build my blog, like this article shows that resources are indeed helpful to me, I think I should do a good job site before take a look at this book.

autodirektversicherung

I could use some lessons in Seo because Seo is still a "book of secrets" for me and if this book is as good as I expect it will be one of my favorits. By the way I have already some books from O´Reilly and they are written very well.

fat heads web design

I have been a web designer for many years now and have only just started to look at the minefield that is off page seo. I am really confident with on page factors but have been looking at a book for the whole spectrum of SEO, I will certainly look this one up and have a read. I like that this book has specific case studies to explain the process of these techniques too.

ericbrown

Thanks for stopping by. As you said, it is a great book for looking at all areas of website optimization.

Gadget Review

This book does more than talk about the basics of SEO. It dives into topics that go well beyond the ‘technical’ aspects (e.g., keywords, titles, etc) and talks about persuasive language, fast load times and engaging websites
that is completely true i have gone through this work myself i will recomend it to everyone.

ericbrown

Thanks for stopping in. This is a great book and is highly recommended.

Tieteen Kuvalehti

Thank you for your review. I think I'll get one from Amazon.

NYC

What template are you running on this site ? I really like it. Could you post where you got it from ?

Jenny SEO

Hey Eric,

Interesting book, I'm going to give it a read and see if there is anything i haven't picked up on before. I will give you my feedback when i finish :)

Jenny x

Shinn

Thanks, Eric! I would probably get this book at the nearest bookstore. How much does it cost?

Internet Marketing

I am a firm beliver in organic seo, put in the leg work...nice article...I will link out to this.

Web design

Hi Eric,

I've heard about Andy king as I use www.websiteoptimization.com for speed optimization currently. Thanks for reviewing his book, I guess it's worth buying a copy if only for his an insight into his experience.

Just for interest sake, how does this book compare to other recent SEO books that you've read?

Web Design

Thanks for the information covering this book. I have recently read the book and thought it was a really good book if you are a beginner to SEO, but if you have done a lot of research on SEO, you might already know most of the information presented in the book. I will admit that SEO is very tough to explain and to learn, so overall I think the book does a good job on the general topics of SEO. thanks.

Address Search

Thanks for the info on this book. It sounds pretty good in the sense that it tied everything together regarding optimizing websites...not just SEO. Very important! I'll be sure to check it out on Amazon...cheers!