I was thrilled with the opportunity to review Get to the Top on Google by David Viney. I don’t consider myself an SEO expert by any means, so I figured that I could give a layperson’s view of a book covering this technical topic. Since SEO results can take months to come to fruition, I can’t tell you whether the strategies in the book work or not, but I can tell you that I found the information easy to read. Not an easy task for such complex subject matter. There are a few instances where the author goes into intricate detail more fit for an experienced web designer than a newbie just learning about SEO, but he also typically prefaces that material with a warning of what’s to come and a suggestion to skip the section if it doesn’t apply to you. Users of website templates who are using What You See is What You Get software, which doesn’t require HTML coding, will do best to heed his advice and skip these small sections.

In the beginning of the book, Viney lays out an example of two brothers who own a printing company and are looking to expand their business. Of course, they start researching SEO to drive more traffic to their website. As Viney makes his way through various SEO methods, he applies them to the printing company, showing detailed examples of how to put the techniques into action. These explanations helped me to better understand the subject at hand and how I could apply it to my website. In addition, Viney provides plenty of resources throughout the book, most of which are either free or inexpensive.

Viney walks readers through three phases of SEO: phase one is planning and preparation, which involves finding appropriate keywords and “courting the crawl,” or, in other words, helping Google find and index your site; phase two is the SEO campaign, which includes optimizing your content and images, getting links to your site, paying for search engine advertising, and “making the map,” which shows you how to optimize your site for local searches; phase three is all about ongoing maintenance to help keep your rankings high.

At the end of the book, Viney summarizes the steps of his three phases with seven easy steps that can be taken to keep your site at the top of Google. Hint: it’s not as complicated as you may think. In fact, Viney notes that if you consistently create fresh, interesting content, viewers will keep coming back for more. He says, “If you do only this and nothing else, your site will rank well without any specific optimization activity.” You can check out the first step in his book for detailed information on creating search engine-friendly content.

This book left me hopeful about my chances of higher rankings and excited to get online and start implementing his many strategies.

The paperback version of Get to the Top on Google was released in May of 2008, contains 250 pages and is available through Amazon.com for $19.80.

Click here to buy the book!

Do you have any thoughts, queries, or feedback on Get to the Top on Google? Share your comments or questions by replying directly to this thread!

Thaknks for this title. I'm learning about SEO, and I'm sure this will help a lot.

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VirtuallyDee

Another fabulous review Tammi!!

That sounds like a great book.

Thanks for this great review, Tammi. Another tempting read, for sure.

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

Tammi, this is a great review - thank you so much!
It sounds like you got a lot out of the book - I enjoyed browsing through it as well. It has a great foundation of solid information. The important thing to remember about SEO is that the logic behind many theories changes often so my best recommendation is DO read this book to learn more, but don't stop there. Keep up your research and practice what you've learned on a live website with Google Analytics installed so you can see the results of your work.

Thanks for the input, Tess! It's great to hear from someone with SEO expertise. This is such a complex subject that it's hard for laypersons to determine what information is useful and what isn't.

Thanks for the review. I saw this book advertised and wondered if it would easy to follow.

Thank you for the review. I am just trying to learn about SEO and this looks promising.

Thanks for the review! It is so helpful having people like you review books for me because I would have no idea where to start if I were on my own.

I agree. It is great to have someone else give their review of these books. Especially someone who is in the same industry.

Heather