Book Review: The Truth About Search Engine Optimization
Ian Lurie Mar 24 2009
I just finished reading The Truth About Search Engine Optimization. In short, it rocks. I only have one bone to pick with Rebecca Lieb, the author, but I’ll get to that in a second.
The book is divided up into short, neat sections. Each section is a ‘truth’, such as:
- Wag the long tail. A reference to ‘long tail’ keywords.
- You don’t have a homepage any more. Amen!!!
- SEO is not an afterthought. Amen, sister!!!!!!
Rebecca’s book is a fantastic introduction to SEO. It’s great for total marketing beginners and novices, as well as savvy marketers who don’t know SEO just yet.
One Teeny Issue
The author implies, in a few places, that link trading still works. I’m not a link ninja, so I don’t know for certain, but I suspect that link trades went out with Donald Rumsfeld. I apologize if I’m wrong. Nothing’s a sure thing in the linking world, so don’t let this stop you from reading the book.
Buy it
If you need an intro to SEO, this is the book. It serves up the subject in little bites – you can easily read a few sections in 15 minutes, then put the book aside for a few days and start again later.
This one gets two thumbs up.
And of course, there’s always my ebook:

Ian Lurie
CEO & Founder
Ian Lurie is CEO and founder of Portent Inc. He's recorded training for Lynda.com, writes regularly for the Portent Blog and has been published on AllThingsD, Forbes.com and TechCrunch. Ian speaks at conferences around the world, including SearchLove, MozCon, SIC and ad:Tech. Follow him on Twitter at portentint. He also just published a book about strategy for services businesses: One Trick Ponies Get Shot, available on Kindle. Read More
Ian,
So very glad you liked it, and thanks so much for the props. You made my day!
All my best,
Rebecca