Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: Getting Noticed on Google In Easy Steps
Want to improve your position in Google's listings? Ian Waugh goes in search of relevance
| Product | Getting Noticed on Google In Easy Steps |
|---|---|
| Company | Computer Step |
| Web | www.ineasysteps.com |
| Price | £10.99/$14.99 US |
| We like | Packed with hints and tips, covers all the basics |
| We don't like | Impossible to cover some topics in any depth |
| Rating | 9/10 |
| Requirements |
Google handles over 40% of all online searches and most website owners know how important it is to appear in Google's top listings to attract visitors. But it's not easy or straightforward.
Google ranks websites according to relevance. It wants searchers to have confidence in their search results.
Google uses secret algorithms to determine relevance and, just to make it more interesting, the algorithms change every so-often as Google tries to make its results even more relevant! Trying to play catch-up can be a full-time job.
If you find the process of web site optimization daunting but want to improve your website's position in Google, Getting Noticed on Google In Easy Steps could be just what you need.
The book is in full colour, very well laid out, extremely concise and very easy to read. It covers a massive amount of material and there's rarely a page that isn't packed with useful and essential information.
It's totally white hat (ethical) in the optimization methods it suggests and covers all the basics - keywords, getting to know your competition, setting up your website, optimizing your website, writing effective articles and promoting them, linking (much under-used but Google places great importance on this), and monitoring your results. The latter is also very important. If you don't monitor your optimization results you've no way of knowing how successful - or otherwise - your efforts have been. Many webmasters don't do this.
The book also contains sections on Google's AdWords and Froogle. The few pages it devotes to AdWords aren't enough to cover it in any detail and you might argue that the pages could have been better used to expand other topics. And AdWords cost money, of course, so will mainly appeal to people with something to sell.
Froogle is Google's shopping search engine and, again, mainly of interest to people selling something. Again, the few pages devoted to it barely scratch the surface but if you are promoting a product it's worth exploring.
Optimization need not be expensive, however, and the book lists several pieces of free software to help, and shows you how to use them.
Conclusion
The book assumes a small amount of knowledge about web design such as a nodding acquaintance with Meta tags and html, but even a beginner should be able to work through it to good effect. In fact, if you bear in mind the lessons in the book before you build your website you'll have a much better chance of hitting Google's top listings than most.
