2nd Edition (12 May 2006)

Amazon review:

I have been reading a lot about SEO on the Internet and thought I would buy a book to see if I was missing anything.

I dont normally like Dummies guides, the attempts at humor are often irrelevant and tedious, I prefer books that cut to the chase.

I was really impressed with this book, I knew a lot of the stuff already, but this book really helped consolidate what I knew, and taught me a lot more on top.

I found this book really helped me get into an "SEO Mindset" as it is so comprehensive. I now understand why I am doing things as opposed to just doing them, and have a much better overview of the subject.

I have the second edition from 2006 and was pleased to see more recently released google tools covered (which I was already using).

The author does plug a couple of paid services, but takes time to explain his motives and relationship with these companies and suggests free alternatives, thus maintaining his integrity.

I mentioned earlier that I am normally irritated by attempts at humor in Dummies books, however humor is used to make valid points in this book, as opposed to padding it out with rubbish.

The book is practical as opposed to technical and should be accessible to a broad readership.

The first few chapters cover all the "common knowledge" you can find easily with google (frames, flash, images vs text, links, keywords.....)

There is a very good chapter on content, stuff on advertising, available tools, a chapter on grey / black hat techniques and an explanation of the risks (of attempting to cheat search engines) and a lot more ........

This book is an absolute must for a beginner, and for the price well worth the money for the intermediate designer / customer.

If you are about to pay someone to build and SEO a site for you, you really want to read this, it will give you a good overview of what you are about to pay for, realistically what you can expect in terms of results, and have enough knowledge to see if the work has been done properly, or whether any work has been done at all!