The latest version of the SEO Book for WordPress 2.5 eBook is now available in pdf format for free. Feel free to download it and send me your questions, feedback and comments at mig@pamil-visions.com
The article below is my modest attempt to explain why SEO is still important for any site, not just for blogs.
Why SEO?
There is still a lot people don’t understand about SEO. Most of them expect overnight revenue, overnight search engine placements and all magic answers to their expectations.
Then we have the online debates, where some say SEO is ethical, others dispute it as a way to manipulate the search engines in the detriment of the competition.
You can find many definitions of “SEO” online, but none of them satisfies the real need of information that puzzles the minds of the Webtrepreneurs.
Let me give you my own definition.
When you take a book in your hands, what you hold is the result of the hard work of many: the author, the editor, the proofreader, the typographer, the cover designer, the illustrator…
When you read, you don’t focus on the author, you focus on the story. But the author is there, of course. Sometimes there is a short biography, especially when we deal with a classic, but most of times the book is all about the story and the way the story flows.
The way the story flows… now that’s an interesting aspect. The author is the main actor in this. Because it is his/her story. But the editor takes care that this story doesn’t lose itself in irrelevant rambles, avoids redundancy and it meets the requirements of the public.
Because the editor knows what the readers really want and the editor will make suggestions that prepare the book for the bookshelves of the libraries and will lead the book to market domination. This is how a bestseller is born.
Then the book has a title and it is structured in chapters. Sometimes they have their own titles, sometimes they don’t. But the structure is there.
The book has a table of contents too, to help you find faster what you are interested in.
The book has an index of terms if it is a specialty book. Near each term the editors will list the number of the page on which you can find more information related to that term.
The book will have a glossary of terms too, if its purpose is didactic.
When you read it you will notice correct grammar, proper spelling and punctuation. A proofreader took care of that.
You will also see that the layout of the pages is consistent throughout the book. The typographer did his job. Unless the book is an atlas or needs emphasis with pictures and graphics, unless the book is a kids’ book, there will not be many graphics. Images will not distract from the content. Nothing will break the rhythm.
The cover will have a nice, appealing design. The title will be there too, as well as the name of the author. There will always be a copyright notice somewhere on the first pages.
So how does all of the above relate with SEO?
Simple: SEOs are the editors.
SEO is editing a site, optimizing it, preparing it for the market.
The Internet is a huge library and the search engines are the bookshelves. You go there, look for your virtual book, and pick by title.
But first you have a term in mind, a “keyword”. Something you want more information about and you type it in the search query box.
The search engines will deliver, in a matter of seconds, thousands of pages that offer information related to that term. You will pick some of them, one by one. Usually you will pick the ones that answer to your question from the first glance. Because you know that a title that says “Luxury Villas in Madrid” will lead you to information about Luxury villas in Madrid and not about fish. You will pick that one over a title that says “Where to live in Madrid” because you want specific information about the residence of your dreams and not some random information on life style. But you will probably pay attention to the site with general information too, if you are a foreigner who wants to relocate in Madrid. And if none of the two sites answers your questions, you will go on surfing, searching, picking up other titles from the Internet’s bookshelves.
In real life when the content of a book doesn’t satisfy your need of knowledge, you look for another book, and another, and another. You go at the library and search. You ask the librarian and she will do the search for you. No matter how you look at it: you’ll search.
Online… you do the same thing: when one website doesn’t offer all the answers you look for another.
Now you understand why, as a website owner, it is in your best interest to optimize your site. Learn how to do it yourself, or hire an SEO.
A standard misconception is that SEO prepares a site to rank high for the keywords that have the most relevance. Yes, this is one of the reasons to do SEO. One of the less important reasons.
The most important reason for SEO, as I said, is to prepare the site for the public – to make it accessible, useful and easy to use. Because hiring an SEO is often expensive for the newbie, here you have it: my attempt to help you deal with at least the basics of SEO when you publish content using WordPress 2.5. So feel free to download your free copy of the SEO Book for WordPress 2.5 ebook (pdf). I would also like to thank Yvonne Russell for proofreading and editing this material and Phil Butler for his constant support.
Congratulations on your new book, Mig. And thanks for the great explanation of SEO.
Thank you, Lillie. I hope this new version will help more than the last.
About SEO… well, this is my vision and it is a topic open to discussion.
Well done, Mig! Your e-book is a great resource for those wanting a basic grasp of the why and how of SEO.
Congratulations on a great book Mig and on the Search Engine Journal review. I see it is getting some well deserved publicity around the web.
I certainly picked up some great tips from it. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Thank you Shari and Yvonne for your warm words. Yvonne… again special thanks to you, for the fine editing work you did. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time from your busy schedule to proofread the book.
Mig
I wonder what Mr Wall thinks of your SEO Book?
You should ask him yourself. Try not to sign “A mountain View SEO” though… he might delete your comment or consider it spam.
Thank you – ebook is a great piece of content
Best regards prom Poland,
Typy
I am downloading your book now, thanks to sharing it!!
I read it already like it seo book is a sign of quality
A more simplified explanation about SEO, thanks for sharing your ebook and Congratulations.
Congrats. I will be reading this for sure. Thanks for the freebie!
Mig,
Thanks for sharing your ebook with us! I am looking forward to reading it and learning more about SEO.
I hope all is well with you!
Lisa
I use SEOBook with Firefox and it’s a great tool. I highly recommend people get it for free.
Congratulations on your new book. And thanks for the great explanation of SEO!
Pleased to see you here, Lisa. It’s been a while.
I’ll rush to your blog now to see what’s new with you. About myself… I’ll send an email. There’s a lot to say, besides I’ll need your help with something. 
Dominic, you probably mean that you use Aaron Wall’s SEO for Firefox which is indeed a great tool, but has nothing to do with WordPress. For the ones who wonder about what Mr. Wall would have to say about my book, I suggest that you don’t even compare the two. Mr. Wall’s book is by far the most complete SEO resource available, but it has nothing about optimizing WordPress blogs, because its target audience is general. Mine is specific and although the SEO tips enclosed can also apply to static websites (like writing titles, meta descriptions, etc) you’ll find that there are differences. So, to make a long story short… if you are a blogger and all you need are some basic tips, download my book. If you want to go “in-depth” download Mr. Wall’s book. They are both free after all.
Thank you, Adams, I hope you enjoy the book as much as you enjoyed this article.
Hi Mihaela
Just wanted to say thank you for a very useful book
Thanks for your information on SEO. I am a newbie, who is old, but learning day by day marketing online. I have alot of information from my daughter who is quite successful marketing online but researching on my own is bennificial.
While I have been posting links on certain blogs I have steadily been picking up more and more information about SEO. It is definately noit the easiest thing to do for a newbie and thankful I have a friend with a relatively succesful site. All in all when your new to online marketing, having someone with the knowledge to guide you is beyond pricelsss.
I cannot download the file… can you save it also in *.zip format?
Thank you very much!
Thanks a lot for the book! This would be very useful.
@Simone – I just emailed you the zip file.
Thanks a lot for the free eBook ! This would be very useful for me.
thank’s for sharing.
I like it
I have paid real money for other ebooks that have been of far, far less value than “The SEO Book for WordPress 2.5 Blogs.” Having just read it, I see where I have done many things wrong and will now go back and fix them all. Further, I now understand the reasons behind many things that previously I was doing for no other reason than I was told to by other SEO publications.
Thank you very much for such a high quality ebook.
I am very glad you enjoyed the book, Dave. I should probably write an update for WordPress 2.6 – though not many things have changed. Some media embed adds more functionality to the dashboard – the way users insert images for example is a little bit different, somewhat confusing. But the basics remain…
Thanks Mihaela !
I am very glad that you are providing this ebook for free. you should not do this at least you should take some price for this. LOL
Thanks dear I am stumbling this http://lindsayhogan.stumbleupon.com/ page here so that my SEO Group at stumbleupon can take benefit of this ebook.
Lindsay, I feel it is unfair to charge for information that is available for free online anyway. Yes, it took me some time to put this up together, but WordPress offers us free tools as well. I just felt the need to give something back to the community.
I have to update the content to WordPress 2.6 anyway.
Please feel free to share the information with anyone you’d like. It means a lot to me to be able to help people. Just keep in mind that this is not for experienced SEOs, just for bloggers who need some help to improve their online presence.
Thanks for the SEO explanation and congrats on the new book. The way you describe SEO puts it in a different light for me. As though I am just doing what I should be doing to my site. Most people think of SEO as something shady that you are doing to your site. Thanks again.
Thank you Hayden. The way I describe SEO is the way I practice SEO – there are other tactics that could be described as “shady.” I’ll probably write an article about shady techniques, to help people better understand what to avoid.
Thanks for sharing your ebook with us. Great work indeed.
10x nice ebook
Thanks !.. your e-book gives valuable information for me, I like it !..
seems like a nice book. can i mount this e-book on my site?
It’s everybody’s dream for their website to be on the top rank and it is really possible by using different SEO techniques.
Thanks for sharing your ebook.
Congratulation for this launching this great book and offering for free download. I have downloaded and will go through it. i will send you my feedback at your given email id.
Congratulations on your new e-book it looks like its filled with lots of helpful information.
hi, nice share! although wp2.5 might be outdated, i still love it and hackers attack now 2.7. i still have 2.5 online on internet-marketing.net63.net, quite funny i think to see that it’s still working fine…
thank you for you book!
thanks for the freebie, cant wait to read it.
I got your eBook from a friend; I must say it is great for newbie’s, keep up the good work, can’t wait for your next freebie.
Have you people forgot that WP 2.7 came out already heh? Author thanks for sharing, currently reading your book, so far I like it.
@CashMakers – I know, I am working on the update – I just haven’t had the time. This is a free product, you know. Paid business needs to come first.
However, some tips are timeless…
You really had a nice and creative concept about SEO, we are the air beneath the wings of other companies for we are the ones who are enhancing their website and turning their traffic into sales and leads..
dang, you have some really good points about SEO. It really is all about making your site more accessible to users/readers. Good SEO should facilitate that and not just focus on manipulating the system for keywords.
Mike’s last blog post..Visible
Brilliant analogy – wish I’d thought of that Mig. Analogies are great – I used one on my blog about how a Web Designer is like a Architect/Project Manager – but not as good as your analogy. Keep up the good work, I will have a read of your SEO Book for WordPress pdf as we have WordPress on our site http://www.roxbourne.com/blog
Alex
Good job Mig this is a great SEObook…sharing this is a great help in for those who haven’t yet understand SEO..
gilbert’s last blog post..Mets Tickets Available
I downloaded your SEO book and had a chance to read it. It’s very complete. It really covers all the main topics one would expect for dealing with WordPress SEO. Will you be releasing an updated version for WordPress 2.8? The concepts will stay the same mostly, but the screen shots from 2.5 should be changed because of the massive overhaul to the admin area.
Good book, full of useful information about SEO. Now i have a reliable source about SEO. Thanks.