Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond, by Aarron Walter

July 24, 2009 by Nekkidblogger · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, Non-fiction, recommendation, SEO

SEO is important. But there is more to getting traffic to your web pages than just SEO. You want people to be able to find your sites, partly via search engines. However, once there, you also want users to find the content of interest to them on your sites. To achieve this, you need to know how people use your site and to organize your site smartly. Furthermore, you want to encourage people to revisit your site, hopefully many times. And, if you also consider that over time you many want other sites and blogs to link to your sites – thus giving you extra traffic and at the same time increased ranking in the search engines – then it becomes clear that driving traffic entails much, much more than “just” SEO.

But the alternative approach – which more or less says that content is king and the answer to your prayers – will most likely not cut it either. The reason is that you need content people can find, you need traffic from search engines, you need content that is organized well so that the right content is easily available to as many users as possible, and you need a web site that is alive – where things happen, where new content is added – so that users have a reason to return.

Walter’s approach encompasses both SEO and the more content focused approach. Thus this is not another SEO book written for marketing professionals. Building Findable Websites is a book full of practical advice and examples for people who build websites aiming to reach their target audience. Chapters introduce best practices and fresh perspectives on how to accomplish the goals I outlined above in the first paragraph of this review.

The book discusses Web standards, accessibility, and technologies like Ajax, APIs, Flash, and microformats, focusing on the larger ideas behind these technologies. Aarron’s book shows you how a website built semantically using XHTML, CSS and javascript can make your web site findable for your users and for the search engines. . It emphasizes building attractive content first, then removing any roadblocks that would prevent search engines from finding it.

Building Findable Websites is an interesting blend of high-level strategy and low-level techie tools and techniques. It is a book that lays out a sound philosophy, provides tools consistent with that philosophy, and show how to use them. So it’s a useful book. It is also a very well-written book. Building Findable Websites is, to my mind, a very worthwhile read for anybody concerned with web site traffic!

Links to Building Findable Websites by Aarron Walter at amazon US and amazon UK.

Tags: Aarron Walter, Building Findable Websites, Non-fiction, SEO, Web Standards

Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML, by Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Freeman

April 30, 2009 by Nekkidblogger · Leave a Comment
Filed under: book review, International bestseller, Non-fiction, web design

This is currently the #1 book on the amazon bestseller list for computer and internet books under the headings CSS and HTML. And deservedly so! The “Head First” series by O’Reilly has a lot of good books. And with this books, they have managed yet again to create a great book for people wanting to learn CSS, Web design and HTML the right way!

Head First HTML with CSS & XHTM breaks down elements of HTML, XHTML, and CSS so that it beomes possible figure out what is going on and what needs to be done in web page design using these technologies. Also, this is a great choice for a textbook if you need to upgrade your skills!

This book covers the basics of HTML, putting your webpage on the Internet and linking to other web resources. It also tackles XHTML. Next, it introduces CSS along with the properties that can be controlled via CSS. And it does it all in a plain, nice way with lots of illustrations.

The authors show you how to do pretty advanced layouts using the tools available to you without you even noticing that you’ve been “studying”.

The book’s final chapter is appropriately entitled “The Top Ten Topics We Didn’t Cover”, and thus acknowledges that this is not an advanced book on webpage design.

Links to this book at Amazon US and amazon UK.

Tags: book review, Eric Freeman and Elisabeth Freeman, Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML, Non-fiction, web design

Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds for Dummies, by Ellen Finkelstein

March 23, 2009 by Nekkidblogger · Leave a Comment
Filed under: blogging, book review, Non-fiction, web design

RSS or “Real Simple Syndication” is a great way to publizise content from Web sites and blogs. Syndicating Web Sites with RSS Feeds for Dummies by Ellen Finkelstein tells you how to do it and how to use it to stay informed about what’s going on on the net. Find out how to:

Use RSS to drive traffic to your Web site and build brand awareness
Choose and install the right software, set up RSS feeds, and decide on the format that meets your needs
Create RSS feeds from scratch, or put a news reader on your Web site
Improve your site’s ranking in search engines and build customer loyalty
Enable your customers to choose when and how they receive updated information
Tailor information for your audience and publish all your updates quickly and easily
Promote your RSS feed and explain to your customers how to use it
Provide added value for your customers

Making the most of RSS can make life easier for both you and those who do business with you. Syndicating Web Sites With RSS Feeds For Dummies will help you maintain fresh content for your Web site, blog, or e-zine, promote your site and establish links to it, and even update vital documents like employee guides, price lists, and procedures manuals, quickly and easily.

Tags: blogging, feed, Non-fiction, RSS, syndicate

Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Your Business, by DL Byron & Steve Broback

February 20, 2009 by Nekkidblogger · 3 Comments
Filed under: blogging, book review, Non-fiction

Blogs have come to stay. There are now millions of blogs on the net, about every possible subject you can imagine. Some blogs are extremely informal, reporting on the everyday lives of their authors, while others are corporate ones, run by companies that try to establish new, more conversational types of communication with their customers.

Here at this site we have started a couple of blogs too, and found blogging to be an interesting medium for communication. Blogs are more informal by nature, and most blog software provide for easy communication between bloggers and readers.

Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Your Business is a little gold mine about blogging. It is short, only about 180 pages long, but it deals with most of the topics that are relevant to establishing and running a blog. It covers topics like blog design, tools you need for blogging, writing and launching your blog, as well as managing and monitoring your blog. The tone is informal and conversational. And the authors have a solid background as bloggers and as corporate advisors to corporations that have established blogs aimed at customers (like Boing or Bluefly).

Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Your Business is a well written, very informative book that covers a wide range of topics about blogs and blogging. Recommended!

A few other books about blogs and blogging that may be of interest to you: