Search Engine

Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing
$29.99
As a former print journalist, I understand and appreciate the important (and often difficult) balance between being comprehensive and being succinct. This book strikes the perfect balance. The chapters are extremely well-organized. The strategies are explained and illustrated with step-by-step diagrams with each strategy only taking a couple of pages. The author also differentiates between those strategies that are critical and those that are helpful, so you can get the most bang for your buck, whether that buck is your limited time or money for your SEO campaign. He also provides references to a truckload of available SEO resources, many of which are free (and many others of which are inexpensive). Some of the strategies can be put into play almost immediately, and others are for the long haul. My girlfriend has an online business that generates some traffic, but not nearly as much as she would like. With the help of this book, we were able to improve the site's searchability literally immediately, and also learn techniques to put to use in the future. I have a side business that I would like to develop and expand with an internet presence, but I found the notion of competing for market share in a competitive industry online against established businesses daunting. This book has shown me very simply how I can pick my spots to fight for business, and has me very encouraged for bringing my business plan online. Moreover, he has saved me a ton of work, as I can do it right the first time. I wish I could give this book a 6th star.

Building Search Applications: Lucene, LingPipe, and Gate
$44.95
As a computer science graduate student who took a course in Information Retrieval, I found this book to be a very clear and concise introduction to Lucene, whose explanations parallel some of the more general concepts of inverted index search engines.

Google's PageRank and Beyond: The Science of Search Engine Rankings
$39.50
The book is good at explaining the Google's pageRanking, and it try to present rigorious math proof to demonstrate the idea. It is good, however, the math part is not well organized, and it is not easy for people without linear algebra knowledge to follow it. Anyway, it is still good book to demonstrate Markov chain in pageRank.

The Truth About Search Engine Optimization
$18.99
Because I have been doing Internet Marketing for a Fortune 1000 company for over a decade, friends often ask for recommendations they can use for their businesses. They know they need to pay attention to search engines but don't know what to do. It's always been a difficult question because there are so many bad sources of information on search engine marketing. It's a business that is full of charlatans and well-meaning but poorly informed "experts." The same bad ideas are passed around so often that they start to sound valid.

I've always wished for a book that was practical, understandable, and most of all, true. For years, I thought I should write the book. Now, I don't have to -- because Rebecca Lieb has done it!

I recommend this book to business owners because it tells you what you really need to know. It doesn't dig too deeply into the nuts and bolts. It tells you what the business owner, manager, and strategizer must know. It's well written and a very easy read. I was amazed again and again at how she explained each concept in just a page or two. But the best thing about it is that it's all true -- she tells you what you need and what to avoid and talks about the myths so you will know if someone is feeding you questionable ideas.

This is the perfect book to read before you hire someone to do your search engine marketing. And if you want to do it yourself, there is enough here that you'll know what to do next.