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Is this book stil worth the read?

There is a 2012 and a 2015 version. Big book, 700 pages. If I am going to invest that time, it's better be worth it
#art #seo
  • Originally Posted by IamJeez View Post

    Is this book stil worth the read?

    There is a 2012 and a 2015 version. Big book, 700 pages. If I am going to invest that time, it's better be worth it
    Check out the 2015 version and then write a review on it. I'm sure it would help everyone on the forum out.


    I've never read it, I just downloaded a bunch of pdf;s from searches.
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
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      Originally Posted by ProfitFromMyDomain View Post

      Check out the 2015 version and then write a review on it. I'm sure it would help everyone on the forum out.
      How would it help If he doesn't already know SEO? What If the book is junk or outdated?

      I haven't read the book but I glanced at the preview via Amazon & there's some outdated screenshots of Google SERPs. Just saying it's impossible to legitimately review a book If someone can't distinguish between good & bad.

      It's like the folks buying fiverr backlink gigs, they don't know any better but leave positive reviews based on their credit card or Paypal transaction clearing. Says nothing about the low quality spammy link blast.
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      • Originally Posted by yukon View Post

        How would it help If he doesn't already know SEO? What If the book is junk or outdated?

        I haven't read the book but I glanced at the preview via Amazon & there's some outdated screenshots of Google SERPs. Just saying it's impossible to legitimately review a book If someone can't distinguish between good & bad.
        The word I used is review, not sales pitch. His/Her experience is irrelevant. Writing a review gives you feedback. Come on now....
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        • Profile picture of the author yukon
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          Originally Posted by ProfitFromMyDomain View Post

          The word I used is review, not sales pitch. His/Her experience is irrelevant. Writing a review gives you feedback. Come on now....
          Wrong.

          The opinion of someone that doesn't know the difference between good & bad is worthless.

          No offense to OP.
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          • Originally Posted by yukon View Post

            Wrong.

            The opinion of someone that doesn't know the difference between good & bad is worthless.

            No offense to OP.

            Are you telling me that if this person wrote a review on his/her thoughts of the book and what it taught. You wouldn't give feedback on whether what they outline is false or correct?

            It's called a review, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
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            • Profile picture of the author yukon
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              Originally Posted by ProfitFromMyDomain View Post

              Are you telling me that if this person wrote a review on his/her thoughts of the book and what it taught. You wouldn't give feedback on whether what they outline is false or correct?

              It's called a review, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
              I already gave feedback, a review would be worthless from someone that doesn't already know SEO.

              If you had never seen a good apple in your life & I hand you a rotten apple & tell you it's the best apple in the world. You would assume it was a damn good apple because you didn't now any better.

              Same here... If a guy doesn't know good SEO, he'll consider any book to have all good SEO even If it's crap.

              He can quote me on that in the review.
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  • Search this in google

    The Art of SEO pdf
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  • Anyway's OP. Apparently to Yukon, it isn't worth it (he does have a good rep on the forum. I would personally take his word for it.). But then again he hasn't read the book either. Their might be some useful stuff in their, their may not. Read the comments and reviews of everything you search before make a buying decision.

    Or just skim through the 2012 version to get an idea of what it possibly teaches. You'll find it for if you just search this

    The Art of SEO pdf
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Yukon's point is that the OP does not really know SEO. In order to leave a valuable review, they would have to read the book and implement what they learned for a year or two in order to provide a review that had any worth to it whatsoever.

    If the OP just read the book, how could they give a review of the material when they do not have any experience with what was presented in the book?

    That's what Yukon is trying to say, and I agree with his point.
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    • Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

      Yukon's point is that the OP does not really know SEO. In order to leave a valuable review, they would have to read the book and implement what they learned for a year or two in order to provide a review that had any worth to it whatsoever.

      If the OP just read the book, how could they give a review of the material when they do not have any experience with what was presented in the book?

      That's what Yukon is trying to say, and I agree with his point.
      So do I. I'm using review loosely, i'm not telling him to sell the product. You don't write an outline to yourself on what you learned and ask people for insight?
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
        Originally Posted by ProfitFromMyDomain View Post

        So do I. I'm using review loosely, i'm not telling him to sell the product. You don't write an outline to yourself on what you learned and ask people for insight?
        If somebody knows nothing about SEO and read a book about it but never implemented any of the tactics themselves, then no, I really could not possibly care less about what they have to say about the book.

        I know nothing about how to fly a single engine plane. If I read a book about it, the book might be full of crap and misinformation. I would not know any better and might say the book was great. Then anyone who reads my opinion of the book and buys it based on that is probably going to crash and die.

        Pretty much what will happen with following bad SEO advice.
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  • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
    Originally Posted by IamJeez View Post

    There is a 2012 and a 2015 version. Big book, 700 pages. If I am going to invest that time, it's better be worth it
    2015 version (3rd edition) isn't out yet. There's the 2nd edition that people here are talking about. If you want reviews, there's some on the product page.

    I've read some of the original years ago, and don't really remember that much of it. I took a quick browse through to the newer one (2nd edition) earlier this year and second time now that it got mentioned.

    There's somewhat troubling stuff and omissions in there. For example:
    • They're just endorsing Alexa and Compete as a site comparison tools without any caveats.
    • They apparently brush off all SERP trackers for being inherently inconsistent, and because you should not obsess over rankings. Still, they talk about monitoring the positions when doing site changes.
    • They're big believers in social signals, and while the chapter is reasonably well sourced it soon gets muddy. They're basically talking about several topics and angles as if they were the same (social signals, social proof, ranking, CTR...).
    • Quite often the example situations and example analyses are more simplistic than they need to be.
    • Fishkin is one of the writers, and Moz gets mentioned quite a lot.

    On the positive side the chapters about strategic thinking, planning, keyword research, and getting backlinks seem pretty solid. Please note that I've not gone through them word by word, so there might be something weird in them too. And please note that I'm dismissing minor things and one chapter in a book that's got 14 chapters.

    In my estimation it's mostly a decent book. If 700 pages seems daunting, keep in mind that you don't need to read every one. It's likely that there's a lot of stuff that you already knew, and you're likely not reading everything about the nth keyword research tool they included.

    O'Reilly's books tend to be good value especially if you get them from their sales. They aggressively advertise those in Twitter and to their customers.
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  • Profile picture of the author 03navneetkumar
    Reading 700 Pages E-Book about SEO is Quiet Tough and i don't think that you must read this..

    Either you may go for "Read & Implement Yourself" - First of all, clear 1 module then cross check with search on google and after that implement that for your website.

    Do like this with every module will be better option or else - go with some SEO Youtube videos. Try to cover from basics to advance by implementing it not by only reading.
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