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The ABC of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Introduction

I don't know about you but I've got a stack of technical books sitting on my shelves. Guides, Teach Yourselves, Howtos, more literature than my local public library. They are all useful, especially as reference but I doubt I've read more than a fifth of the pages. Normally it is just the introduction and a few chapters to get up to speed on the subject. Paradoxically I've got books on all sorts of Internet related subjects when the emergence of the World Wide Web was supposed to do away with dead tree publishing.

Still there is something convenient in being able to grab a book or printout to take on a flight or train journey. Unlike a laptop or palm pilot they are robust and don't tend to get stolen. At least not the tomes I normally read. They are also functional, easy to scan and randomly dip into. How long do we normally get to sit down with a book? Maybe a couple of hours in the day snatched on the commute into the office or once the kids are put to bed. For that you don't want a 500 page doorstop complete with listings, code samples and interactive CD-ROM - all for the great value price of $32.79 saving you $7.99 on the normal Amazon retail price. What you need is a concise guide you can read in a few days. The kind of things that the propeller heads at consultancy firms put together for the suits so they can understand and talk with authority on a subject.

The world of Search Engine Optimization is fast changing. Complicated recipes for SEO success are bound to go out of date quicker than those for Tofu. What is needed is a broad understanding of the issues and techniques and a set of tools for analyzing strategies. After that, any reader wanting to know the current state of the art is best served by discussion forums, web resources and magazines. Re-heating a 12 month old dish is not the best formula for success and might actually be counterproductive, a bit like a case of SEO food poisoning! After a brief introduction this document is arranged as an A to Z, it is its own glossary and serves up the topics in bite size chunks with no preference to current importance in SEO thinking.

The ABC of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Introduction

See Also