Comments on: Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond

By: L. W. Dandan

L. W. Dandan — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:58:32 +0000

beautiful which actuall talks about the whole point of view of building a website and tackling all the angles. . . i just got it last week . . am in the middle of it. . . seems to be a great book . . .

W. D.
http://www. lebseodesign. com
Rating: 5 / 5

By: Garrett H. Winder

Garrett H. Winder — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:42:27 +0000

I’ve read dozens of books on design, xhtml/css, programming, seo, etc. and this is by far the top book on my shelf and I highly recommend it to anyone trying to get serious about web standards and website findability. It’s written in an easy to read way that can get anyone excited about web development.
Rating: 5 / 5

By: Spencer Rose

Spencer Rose — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:07:10 +0000

When I first ordered this book my developers and I had created a large website and application, and been running the site for almost a year. Over twelve months we had not received a page rank and did not show up in any search results for our keywords. We were freaking out. We knew a lot about development and nothing about SEO.
I found Aaron’s book on Amazon and read it in about two days. Then I spent a month implementing all the changes. Within weeks we had a Google page rank and we were starting to show up in search results.
The book does a good job of separating Web Standards and SEO. They are distinct and important to understand the difference. I continue to reference this book and find more little valuable tweaks to make on the site. The book also helped me to gain a foundation for SEO and web standards so I could read other material and understand it better.
Rating: 5 / 5

By: Divya Manian

Divya Manian — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:08:34 +0000

I have always wanted to know more about SEO tips and strategies – but this book completely flips that thought on its head. Findable websites do not just try to optimize for search engines but are accessible, usable; and value informative, pertinent content before anything else. There are lots of tips and tricks for people who like them and also insights into how to use Google Analytics (or other web statistics software) for tweaking your design based on the implicit feedback of the users (actions users take on your web page).

I find this book standing in stark contrast to most other “SEO” books, in that it actually clearly states what it takes to build findable websites without resorting to jargon or marketing gimmicks.

I hope Aarron Walter would write more books for web designers!
Rating: 5 / 5

By: Ron Mertens

Ron Mertens — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:33:43 +0000

I’m not so happy with this book. The idea is good – talking about ‘Findability’, which is more than SEO. He defines the findability of a web site as

the way to attract visitors (who can find you on search engines)
the way people find content on your site
making people return to your site
My main problem is that I wanted an SEO book, and there’s not much SEO discussions in it. . . I would have wanted more (maybe my fault – I should have got a real SEO book). Another thing is that there are some code example in the book that are quite irrelevant. For example he devotes many pages to build an Ajax search engine in your site, or building a mailing list. . . but this book is not about coding, so I think it’s just a way to write more pages.

So it might be a good book to start and learn about SEO plus get some more tips on writing blogs and sites. But if you want a book dedicated for SEO, look for something else (I know I will – and I’ll update you when I find something).
Rating: 2 / 5