I’ve just old (young?) enough to say that I have spent the majority of my life online. I remember when search engines were ‘new’ and a time where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was not even a thought. So I’ve seen SEO be born and enter its unruly teenage years and so far I can say pretty confidently that companies offering SEO services for high dollar per hour amounts are a scam.

SEO is however a reality. The internet is so vast that discoverability is getting harder and harder even if you write content that people want. And because it is a reality, it is yet another thing that testers need to keep in mind when testing web properties.

The Art of SEO is the new tome from four SEO ‘experts’. The fact that experts is in quotes highlights one of my main objections to any book on SEO: there are no experts and it is a constantly moving target. The rub is that none of the major search engines provide their full algorithms for search discoverability or indexing so how can anyone claim to be an expert in it? Also, these algorithms are constantly evolving — often in a direct response to things happening in the SEO realm. That said though, if you are going to have someone write a book on such a subject, these four seem like a good choice.

I’m not going to even try to hide the bias I have towards the SEO industry as a whole, so why on earth would I get a 575 page book on the subject? Simple. I wanted to make sure my ‘SEO is a scam’ claim was correct — and I maintain that it is. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy this book. While SEO itself is a scam, ‘The Art Of SEO’ is not one. Especially if you are new to the area.

There is nothing in this book that could not be found online, but the ironic value in the book is that you don’t have to search for it. If you test an internet based web application, here are thing things I think you need to know about SEO — all of which are covered in the book.

  • Spidering – How spiders work, how to control their access to your site, and how to make their job easier
  • Structure – There are ways to structure content to legitimately enhance its searchability without being scammy
  • Redirects – How to deal with moved or removed content in such a way as to inherit prior page value
  • Rich Media – Flash, images and audio all present challenges
  • Types of Search – Horizontal, Vertical and Local search all have different needs

What is also important is the couple pages about ‘Grey / Black Hat’ techniques. These are the tricks that raise your search ranking for a bit, but are often frowned upon by the search engines themselves and could get your delisted. The less that reputable SEO outsourcing companies often employ these techniques so people need to know what they are and stay away.

There are a few things I don’t agree with in the book (of course). Primarily, the notion that runs through the book is that SEO should be first and foremost when planning a website. That is suits the needs of the users almost seems secondary. Being a book on SEO though from people who make their living on SEO, this bias is understandable. I would counter that if you forget the user experience though then it doesn’t matter that people found your site as they won’t use it.

‘The Art Of SEO’ is not really a read-cover-to-cover book. Instead I would recommend picking a topic (like redirects), skimming the places where it is discussed and then see if your site needs tweaking. It is not exactly a heavy read so you should be able to get maximum value from it pretty quickly — I knew 97% of the content already and went through it in 2 swimming lessons and a snowboarding lesson.

Do I recommend ‘The Art of SEO’? That depends on your prior knowledge in the area. If you have been creating content online for awhile and have picked up how to do SEO naturally then probably not. But if you are new to testing web applications or management of them, then there is a decent amount of value in the book and it would be a good addition to your bookshelf. Especially when you compare the $56.99 Canadian price tag to what so called SEO experts charge to do stuff to your website that you are more than capable of doing for yourself.