Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Search Engine Optimization for Dummies
Comment: I have read multiple books on the subject of SEO but have found this one, hands down, to be the very best. Very nicely put together and is continually pulled off my bookshelf for reference purposes.
Super selection of key tools, tips and web links.
Thanks Peter Kent for a super book! Kudos.
SEM Professional
Louisville, KY
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not Necessarily for Dummies
Comment: I suppose with an average of 5-Stars my review ranking makes me the curmudgeon since I offer only 3-Stars. Dummies books many times become complicated because they flounder around instead of getting straight to the subject matter, this book is no exception. While offering a plethora of important and valuable information the writings start, stop and go back and forth too often. I was armed with a highlighter and notepad but found myself constantly referencing back and forth, forced to re-read passages to collect all the data important to optimize according to the authors recommendations.
An example is discussing topics, which engage the readers interest only to suddenly stop with, "More on this subject in Chapter X." Ok, so I put my highlighter down until later. This becomes frustrating. Discuss highlights in the book with an introduction and get to the point in one place, not later in several places. The checklist offered on the inside cover is a nice highlight and covering the topics once again in an introduction should be enough and will lead to less confusion.
As with all tech books, without any fault to the author, the subject matter becomes dated quickly. This is the case with SEO for Dummies but the basics offered are valuable as a starting point in optimizing your web site. Although keywords, content and reciprocal linking are stressed heavily, my own inadvertent experiment has shown content to actually be at least as valuable if not more important than incoming links for high-ranking sites. As an example, I have two web-blogs with Google rankings of 2 and 3 respectively which have virtually no incoming links only a lot of content. In these cases content proves extremely valuable. These blogs are relatively young.
The author makes an attempt to explain Googles algorithm but fails miserably to make a point, and serves no purpose in advancing SEO knowledge and very little is mentioned about the Google "Sandbox" which is the initial purgatory new sites are sent to while Google decides a web sites worthiness. Understanding the sandbox in extremely important so the Webmaster pro or amateur realizes page ranking comes with sweat equity and patience.
My largest disappointment came when visiting the authors web site which was not up to date and had several "dead links." At this writing his Google site ranking is 5/10, which is very good but one must practice what they preach and these instances were glaring errors. Another problem is the author spends time discounting the use of "Frames/Frameset" but his site uses frames as viewed in the source code. If they should be avoided why does his site contain them?
I recommend this book if purchased with a deep discount. Next thoroughly read and digest the research information at www.marketingexperiments.com and incorporate all your information and experience into a business plan using their template. In combination with SEO for Dummies your site will be enhanced for SEO and you'll have a deeper understanding of Google and other methods of SEO to increase site traffic as well as page ranking.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good SEO!
Comment: Great advice for the web owner newbie. This book allowed me to significantly increase my hit count and search engine placement.
One warning, however: SEO seems to be more of an art than a science -- please every web site is different -- so don't expect this book to make you #1 on every search engine. However, it will point you in the right direction and help you figure out where best to spend your time and your money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Best Book On SEO Out There
Comment: I looked over four to five books that were available to me and spent about an hour trying to find something that touched all my needs for search engine optimization. Peter Kent's Dummies series was by far the most comprehensive book covering all the material associated with SEO and blew away some of the more "technical savvy" book companies that I would usually go to first. It is a must-read for anyone wanting to compete in the search engine placement game.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Holy Grail of Search Engine Optimization
Comment: Search Engine Optimization can be a pretty overwhelming subject. Based on the fees that SEO companies charge, I assumed that SEO was right up there with rocket science. However, I would compare reading Peter Kent's book to pulling away the curtain and seeing a little old man acting as the great and powerful Oz. Peter Kent does an excellent job brushing aside all of the complex notions of SEO and revealing the rather simplistic, yet precise, concepts behind each of the techniques. This book will explain SEO, tell you exactly which techniques to implement, and guide you safely through all of the SEO landmines.
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