The latest and greatest version of the SEO Fitness Workbook, 2016 edition, is now up on Amazon. And, like any author, I attempt to stay abreast of the competition. There are some glorious books on search engine optimization, such as the Art of SEO by Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, and Jessie Stricchiola or SEO for Dummies by the venerable Bruce Clay. I don’t look at these books as competitors to the SEO Fitness Workbook so much as complementary books: the former is a very academic, very detailed analysis of SEO, a sort of experts’ guide to SEO by experts, whereas the latter is a very technical guide to SEO. I do not consider myself a practitioner of technical SEO per se, but rather approach SEO from a marketing and content perspective. So, if you’re in the market for books on SEO, I’d recommend you purchase all three.
Start with mine as it’s the most practical and basic, move up to Bruce Clay’s, and then finish your education with the tome by Eric Enge and company as it’s the most esoteric of all.
All of these are good, serious, meaty books!
The “Other” Books on SEO on Amazon
Which brings us to the “other” books on SEO on Amazon, which shall remain nameless. I am a huge fan of Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and Createspace (Amazon’s print partner), as both have made publishing books easier than ever. But the ease of publishing comes at the cost of quality – Amazon has allowed a blur of low quality fluff to be published on nearly every topic, and SEO is no exception. Many books seem to have been thrown up in less than a weekend, and are little more than shameless plugs for the author’s consulting service. To make matters more ridiculous, many of these authors have no presence of their own on Google, Bing, or Yahoo, making one wonder exactly what skillset in SEO is meant to bolster their credibility? Finally, many of these books have not only innocent nonsense but advice that is downright dangerous for you to implement on your website.
So as you peruse the available books on SEO on Amazon, pay attention not only to the customer reviews but to the quality of the work contained insider, and to the credibility of the author. Any author worth his or her salt in SEO should be easily findable on Google, and should have some obvious keywords that substantiate some level of expertise in the subject. The fact that a book is cheap or that it has a high quantity of reviews does not mean it’s a good book. Amazon can be easily gamed, so any reader should be skeptical of what goes on on Amazon and do some due diligence. Your SEO is a big investment for you and your company in time, if not in money. Some clear thinking and good guidance will go far towards your success!
To this end, check out our list of the best SEO books 2016.
