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“Left Brain” Book Review: Professional Search Engine Optimization with…

  • May 8, 2008
  • by Gradiva Couzin

Gradiva Couzin, our resident “left brain” SEO, takes a read on Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer’s Guide to SEO by Jaimie Sirovich and Cristian Darie.

I was very aware, when Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP arrived on my doorstep, that I reside somewhere in the fringe of their target audience. Written by a computer programmer-turned-search-engine-marketer (Jaimie Sirovich) and software engineer (Cristian Darie), this book should prove very satisfying to “left brain” readers looking for a book that gets down and dirty in the code.

What’s exciting about this book is that it covers some of the important, and often-overlooked, technical aspects of SEO that can stop a website dead in its tracks before it even gets a chance to rise up the search engine ranks.  Of particular interest to me: duplicate content, problems with Javascript, AJAX, and Flash, web feeds and social bookmarking, and search-engine-friendly URLs. The book touches on every red flag I’m aware of, explaining with a minimum of fluff how to solve the problems, and offering “roll-up-your-sleeves” exercises to help programmers learn how best to tackle technical challenges in SEO.

While there is a less-technical introductory discussion in each chapter, the marketing, research, and strategy side of SEO is not explored deeply.  In Chapter 2: A Primer in Basic SEO, the authors offer a short introduction to SEO fundamentals that touches on the major considerations of SEO. A programmer who wants to understand what marketers are talking about, but probably isn’t going to be the person implementing those elements of SEO, will appreciate the no-frills approach.  Non-programmers would do well to couple this book with a less technical introduction to SEO such as our book.

Here are a few examples of people who should run, not walk, to order this book:

  • Web developers who want to expand their knowledge base to include SEO
  • Programmers who have been tasked with building a “search friendly” website and want to make sure all technical bases are covered
  • Marketers with some tech skill or interest, who want to be able to speak intelligently to their programmers
  • Advanced SEOs who need a good handle on technical aspects of the service

And one last group that should buy this book:  Marketers who want to skim it and then walk it down to the IT department and hand it off to the web development team.

This is a highly recommended read, especially if seeing “$qs_array[urldecode($pair[0])] = urldecode($pair[1]); ” in a book doesn’t freak you out.

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Who We Are
Gravity Search Marketing was formed in 2006 as a partnership between Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin. Gravity’s clients include Fortune 500 companies, global entertainment brands, niche B2Bs, large and small retailers, and non-profits.
As SEO industry veterans, Couzin and Grappone co-wrote Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day (Wiley, 2006, 2008, 2011) and Five Stars: Putting Online Reviews to Work for Your Business (Wiley, 2014), and enjoy sharing their expertise in speaking engagements and press interviews. 
Gravity's small, talented team has expertise in analytics, paid search, social media and technical SEO. Gravity team members are located throughout California, in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

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