SEO Secrets ebook Review

SEO Secrets Overview

SEO Secrets is a book about search engine optimisation by Glenn Murray, a SEO Copywriter based just North of Sydney, Australia. The ebook takes the reader through the various aspects of search marketing, including such broad topics as site structure, keyword usage, copywriting for SEO, and preferred marketing strategies by many SEO experts, and even hiring a SEO company.

About the Author, Glenn Murray

Glenn Murray is the Director of Divine Write, a copywriting company based in Sydney, Australia.  Glenn’s reputation for copywriting has led him into writing for global blue-chip companies, and in more recent years, online copywriting and SEO.  Here’s the review…

eBook Structure

SEO Secrets is 213 pages of which are very well structured and written.  For me, this is something that adds a great deal of value to the learning process and something that is too frequently underestimated. There is a logical flow of content helping you build your understanding of search marketing matters from an early stage in the book.

Who is this ebook for?

Many of the typical do’s and do not’s are covered in the book, but there is also explanations of the value of such social media / search marketing decisions…this is what directly has an impact your online marketing and website presence. A book to put me out of business! But really, it does offer a comprehensive online marketing model that is very versatile and could very well be adopted by marketers from a wide variety of industries.

You can pick this book up and, regardless of whether you are a newbie or an expert in the field, you will certainly come away with more ideas about where to focus your online marketing efforts.  Like with all books, it will not provide bespoke answers to your website issues/opportunities/problems, but it will provide a ton of guidance that you can apply in every which way you like.

SEO Secrets’ Negatives

I feel that there could have been a little more coverage on keyword competitiveness – this is, after all, what designates what resources need to be thrown into the SEO mix to rank for those terms.  For me, keyword research, analysis and competitiveness on a deep level is amongst the most important parts of search marketing.  But knowing the depths and complexities of the topic, for someone new to the field, keyword competitiveness could well scare them off!

SEO Secrets could have included a little more emphasis on the quality of the inbound links as opposed to the sheer volume. Low value links are something that was mentioned, but maybe something explaining in more detail why they are bad quality links, and conversely something on what makes the perfect links would be excellent too.

SEO Secrets’ Positives

Apart from lacking in the surface on keyword competitiveness, it focuses clearly on return on investment, prompting great decisions that add value to your operations online. These decisions are bite-size and not overly complicated, and it is this that essentially makes this book an excellent educational resource, tutoring you in concise areas of the field.

SEO Secrets is beyond search engine optimisation techniques though and well into the realms of the strategic delivery of search marketing. You could do a lot worse than spend a few dollars on this book. Quite a lot indeed!

To summarise SEO Secrets

SEO Secrets effortlessly covers the topics of search engine optimisation in an easy to grasp way, covering a wide range of technicalities, including a variety of SEO tips, tricks and ’secrets’!  It is heavily influenced by the premise that content is king, not a bad thing at all…and what better source to learn that from, than a top Australian copywriter.  This book therefore bridges the unnecessary gap of copywriting skills and SEO – something we could all take note of.

SEO Secrets is not a deep look into search engine algorithmic models or the scientific aspects of SEO, but it does provide a wealth of practical and implementable information on optimising websites for improved rankings, and I’m guessing that’s what you’re looking for, right?!

Disclaimer: I have not been asked to write this review, nor received any financial gain / incentive. Now go out and buy it! (p.s. it’s also my first ever book review so be kind in the comments!)

Ben McKay is famous, and some!

Being a search marketer you would think that I was used to my name and work being up in the SERPs limelight, but today has borne a new benchmark…

Well, lucky for you guys it’s only going to be a short post because I have to go to Poland for my Birthday early tomorrow morning, but otherwise this would have been a thesis on my new found fame…

I gladly signed-up to a competition to become a famous SEO overnight, and was asked to write the first post for DaveN’s blog…what an honour.  If you’re a little out the loop on the importance of this, Dave Naylor is essentially the original UK SEO.  He was a SEO, before there was an alphabet to give us the title.  Here’s a little bit more about Dave Naylor to fill you in on why I am so pleased…

Read the full, light-hearted post on OfGoog and the SEO industries’ options regarding regulations, accreditation and representation.  Signatures will be sold via my tuck shop.

SEO Alignment…

When I talk to clients, I talk a lot about SEO alignment. This refers to the functional aspects of on and offline marketing activity integrating.  Essentially it’s how the direct and indirect marketing channels pull together to market the website, avoid SEO being a stand-alone activity, and provide an informed picture to search engines.

SEO Alignment

This needn’t be excessively pushy or spammy, nor need it be a search engine marketers headache, but provided the search consultant asks the right questions and are provided with the business and marketing information then plans can be put in place.

SEO Planning

The analysis and marketing plan is one of my favourite aspects of working in search marketing, for good reasons. The analysis is the detective work: highlighting the current situation, trouble areas and the very best opportunities to market the website online. The search marketing plan is essentially building this into a road-map of activity, and on a micro-level, creating a to-do list that will improve the site’s performance.

The IT and Marketing Case

Search engine optimisation is a fascinating merger of technical I.T. skills and marketing prowess. What we tend to see from successful SEO specialists is that the more effective the SEO’s marketing approach is, the better the return on investment from the technical input. This essentially means that optimising websites is not simply about engineering them for search engines, but rather that a sprinkle of marketing flare can go a long way.

Although, don’t let marketing flare and technical aspects of web dev or SEO collide by treating them as independent functions.  Let them run in a way that helps them act as a catalyst for progress for one another by providing them with overlapping agendas.  An example of this would be challenging them to work on creating the optimal, accessible website structure for users and bots.

So day-to-day, how can this be applied?

To integrate SEO, marketing and IT, it’s really a case of each area of the business (if unique) knowing the what’s and the how’s of everything. Sometimes an SEO specialist can help simply by integrating and capitalising on what is already there. It’s vital to draw marketing information from as many parts of the business as possible, maybe start by asking:

• What is the website’s purpose as part of the business or organisation? Brand-building, sales, social media / newsletter-sign-ups, educational, post-sale support, cross-selling, affiliate, etc…?
• Who are the ideal visitors? Ideal customer behaviour?
• Access to the current market research and plan?
• Are there other websites that the company owns?
• Does the company have other business partnerships, affiliates?
• SEO project team – company integration as opposed to simply the SEO consultant?

Integrating the technical and analytical activity, along with marketing flare and planning, become the new, qualitative ranking factors, where rankings can be shown to increase exponentially if all items are pulled together…SEO alignment.