Product Description

There's having a website and there's having a website that works. It's all very well having a Flash intro and lots of features and functionality that can 'wow' your audience on every single page. But what if they can't find you? What if you're not visible on the search engines, and on Google in particular? Making your site 'Google Friendly' or employing Search Engine Optimisation techniques (or SEO as it's known in the trade) at your earliest convenience, should be a priority - if you don't rank on those results you may as well not have a website at all - it's that serious...But how do you get yourself started so you can make the most of your online presence? Let "Get into Bed with Google" help.Dip in and dip out, read it from start to finish - it really doesn't matter. The 52 brilliant ideas contained within are canny and quick fixes that should result in immediate benefits to your site; even implementing just a handful of ideas will improve your website rankings and will help you realise your ambitions and the ambitions of your company. "Get into Bed with Google" will help readers get their websites at the top of search results pages so their customers can find them easily and quickly, which in Google terms is the gold at the end of the rainbow. It is simply brilliant.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11512 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-21
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 180 pages

Review
... you should try the advice in this book. --Mac User, January 2008

About the Author
Jon Smith was part of the start-up team for Amazon.co.uk, Kitbag.com and The Florist Exchange. As a consultant for the venture capital firm Chase Episode 1, he was tasked with improving and researching business plans submitted by companies looking for investment. Since 2003 Jon has been managing director of Inpress, an organisation set up to provide sales, marketing and technical support to independent publishers for which he received three years funding from Arts Council England. Jon is also the author of Smarter business start-ups and Web sites that work both available in the 52 Brilliant Ideas series.

Customer Reviews

A really excellent little book
This book is packed full with tips on how to improve your website's success at being found by Google.

It's worth reading it before you register your domain and build your site, because there are useful tips regarding domain names, page titles, images, content, and even where your host servers are in the world.

I have read it cover-to-cover and found it to be really useful. I can now proceed to build a website in the best way to ensure that it does well on Google. The author does take the time to mention throughout the book that Google is not the only search engine, and that it is definitely worth putting some effort into succeeding with those alternatives too.

I am entirely confident that this little book will become well-thumbed. It is not written only for those folk building new websites. You need to keep working on your site to ensure continued search success and I'm sure that I'll keep dipping back into this book and following the tips to improve my site's rating.

It is important to note that, at the time of writing, this book is newly published, and therefore that all of the tips are current and valid to the way that Google's algorithms work right now. Also, that all of the wider references are contemporary and relevant. And, of course, it is important to note that the author has 'got the T-shirt', he has built (and sold) a successful web-based business, and worked on/with many others.

The book is well written in a humorous style which makes what might otherwise be a bit of a dry techie subject very understandable and easy to read.

Short, to the point and easy to understand
This book helps to demystify SEO to a degree. You don't have to be a programmer to understand it. It doesn't get bogged down in technicality. It just gives 52 easy to follow tips on how to make the best on the search engines. It is very quick to read but that doesn't detract on the thoroughness. If you want an in depth book on SEO, this isn't it. But if you want to grasp what it is all about and gain some valuable tips quickly, then this book is fantastic.

Some out of date information
This small book is broken down into 52 sections. I'm writing this review after section 6 (I got the book 2 days ago).

I know SEO is moving fast, and that book publishing has a lead-time, but given that this book was only published 5 months ago, in Jan 2008, a lot of the information is already looking dated.

Section 1 illustrates the popularity of Google by quoting Hitwise Search Results figures from December 2005. On their website the current research date is May 2008 - it appears to be updated monthly, so surely they could have included a figure that is a little more current?

Section 5 advises readers to go to a link for the Overture Keyword Assistant. Instead you get Yahoo's welcome page for their sponsored listings.

Also, Section 6 discusses & recommends Wordtracker and Nichebot without reference to the fact these are subscription services (and the cost is not insignificant - Wordtracker is around £29 per month).

The book is okay, but based on early impressions I think I'll be better served by following some of the SEO blogs.