The very term “SEO books” may seem weird. Is it possible to gain knowledge in such a dynamic field using static manuals that sometimes take years to publish? Actually, yes! The best SEO books teach you not so much effective tactics as the general strategy of promoting your business online and the SEO philosophy.
In this sense, SEO is similar to martial arts. Knowing the concept and strategy, you will understand your current position and predict the next step of the enemy, i.e. the competitor. And these decisions will be matched with appropriate tactics and techniques. Top SEO books will turn you into a guru who can defeat beginners with a minimum of movements and effort. Are you ready to become a true SEO master? Read the following books on SEO!
1. Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies
This book by By Bruce Clay is one of the oldest SEO books and the first book on our list.
Who wouldn’t love the classic learning book for dummies? When just starting a new venture, it’s hard not to feel like one! Bruce Clay explains Search Engine Optimization in non-technical terms. You’ll learn the methods, principles, and tools you need to be successful.
Become knowledgeable about keywords, content, web design, and linking strategies in easy-to-read language that positions you higher in rankings and makes your business appealing to visitors.
Clay also discusses optimizing your site for mobile devices, learning from your competitors, and how to create compelling content, build your brand, and use analytics to monitor the success of your efforts.
Additionally, in his SEO books for beginners, he explains the ever-changing algorithms and new technologies so you stay well informed. You can progress one step at a time or focus on one particular area. It’s up to you!
This is a great book for beginners or anyone wanting to sharpen their understanding of this topic.
2. SEO Fitness Workbook
Jason McDonald is a search engine guru. His book contains detailed steps covering how to increase your Google and Bing rankings. Though the writing is clear and easy to understand, its content is so useful that the book is used as a guide at Stanford Continuing Studies. The steps covered are:
- Defining your goals
- Learning about keywords and phrases
- Optimizing web pages
- Creating content readers like
- Building links
- Mastering Google analytics to improve marketing
As a bonus, the book provides additional resources, free tools, worksheets, video guides, and access to the Marketing Almanac. McDonald’s book makes ranking a more graspable subject for everyone.
3. The SEO Blueprint
Ryan Stewart is rightfully considered one of the best SEO practitioners. While other authors of SEO books try to combine hundreds of different theories, techniques, and assumptions under one cover, he writes a complete story. His book is characterized by a systematic approach that allows you to clearly understand how search algorithms work, what you need to do to optimize your site, and how to keep it in the top positions for a long time.
Like all the authors of the best SEO books, Ryan Stewart destroys common myths, changing readers’ perceptions of the SEO field. After reading The SEO Blueprint, you will learn:
- Why startups and small agencies can do most of their work in Google Spreadsheets and Microsoft Excel. Ryan explains that specialized software provides a significant boost in productivity only at a large scale.
- Why the traditional structure of SEO teams is outdated. Linkbuilders, copywriters, and optimizers are a thing of the past. Today, a specialist must be able to build systems and workflows — and for everything else, there are outsource specialists and artificial intelligence.
- Why you shouldn’t overstaff your agency. Contractors and freelancers often do their work faster and more efficiently. Therefore, the key figures in the team will be executives who build strategies and managers who communicate with clients.
4. Product-Led SEO
Eli Schwartz is another revolutionary figure in modern digital marketing. The author of the best books on SEO says that search engine optimization is about people, not robots. In his opinion, the priority should be a quality product, and its promotion will always come second.
Eli says that the focus of website optimization should be on user experience rather than purely synthetic metrics such as milliseconds of website loading and thousands of backlinks. It is UX that generates conversions that directly affect the company’s financial results.
Authors of other SEO marketing books often argue with Schwartz, but practice shows that the truth is still on his side. His portfolio includes about a dozen successful SaaS services that have become leaders in their segments or even gone international.
In his book, Eli Schwartz also shares several SEO secrets that significantly improve the results of online business promotion:
- How to work with high- and low-frequency keywords correctly — when to combine them in one article and when to divide them into several pages.
- Why user-generated content will always come first for Google — how it works now and how it will work in the future era of AI dominance.
- Why content quality is more important than technical parameters — how to bring websites to the top on low-cost platforms and develop business from scratch.
5. The Executive SEO Playbook
The problem with most SEO marketing books is that they are aimed at ordinary specialists who are directly involved in the execution of work. In such circumstances, managers must learn how to build business development strategies independently. They go through trial and error, which is far from perfect and highly unreliable.
If you are also not satisfied with this situation, The Executive SEO Playbook by Jessica Bowman will be the best book on SEO for you. From it, you will learn:
- Why effective SEO is not about the website, sales, or digital team but about the entire company.
- Why 80% of success in SEO depends on successful planning and recruitment, and only 20% — on the direct implementation of plans
- Why catching up with search algorithms is ineffective — to grow your business online, you should be proactive and always be one step ahead.
It is one of the best books for SEO for executives of large companies. However, it will also be useful for small businesses and middle managers. Its advice on building strategies and planning is universal and can be applied in most real-world scenarios.
6. Local SEO Secrets: 20 Local SEO Strategies You Should Be Using NOW
You won’t find many local SEO books, so it would be a huge mistake to skip them, especially when it comes to invaluable information from real professionals in their field. The author of the book is Roger Bryan, an SEO expert who has launched more than 1,000 local marketing campaigns. His work has brought hundreds of millions of dollars to hundreds of companies of various scales — from a ground-floor grocery store to a giant corporation.
This book was included in the list of best books for SEO due to its multifaceted approach. Along with Roger Bryan, other authors share their experiences, each of them covering a different topic:
- Mark Luckenbaugh — setting up a Google My Business profile, promotion in local directories, and increasing visibility on Google Maps.
- Allison Lee — optimization of commercial pages of online stores to get ahead of competitors in terms of impressions of trendy new products and then popular ones.
- Richard Lorenzen — the use of PR in local SEO to increase brand reputation, increase organic traffic, and improve conversion rates.
- Justin Sanger — an overview of specialized Google programs for local business, secrets of using the relevant platforms.
7. 3 Months to No. 1
Will Coombe runs a successful London marketing agency. You can save thousands of dollars by reading his book and handling the optimization of your business yourself.
Coombe’s book includes a 14-part free video series full of tutorials to strengthen your knowledge. It also contains a clear SEO blueprint and checklist to make sure you’re staying on track.
The author shares his best secrets, and also helps you find profitable keywords, create effective backlinks, and learn how to use search engine protocols in WordPress, along with other technological elements you may struggle with on your site.
The search engine optimization book also covers social media marketing and how to avoid Google penalties for using optimization techniques the wrong way!
Coombe declares that if you follow his step-by-step guide, your website will rise to the top of Google searches in just three months. That’s an exciting prospect that makes this book worth checking out.
8. The Comic Guide to SEO
Why not add a little humor to your learning?
It sounds like a fun way to gain invaluable know-how by reading best SEO books. Amit Bhavnani’s book has 55 pages of packed SEO information presented hilariously and interestingly.
The frustration of trying to understand a new subject is calmed by the laughter provided on every page.
This is a great SEO book for newbies with a sense of humor who enjoy cartoons. It’s a popular choice on Amazon and don’t you worry, it covers all the intricacies of improving your ranking and how to do it successfully.
9. Ultimate Guide to Link Building
Eric Ward is one of the world’s leading pioneers and experts on backlink building. This SEO book teaches you how to design a link-building campaign from scratch. You’ll learn link acquisition strategies like:
- How to find effective backlinks
- Qualify backlink prospects
- Use tools that track your progress
You’ll become skilled at competitor backlink opportunities, as well as learn how to build relationships with other websites and businesses.
Link building can get complicated and sometimes watching a YouTube video just isn’t enough to adequately understand how to harness the power of links for your business.
This marketing book is an excellent choice to deepen your comprehension of a very valuable tool from one of the great leaders in this field. Master the craft of link-building.
10. Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content
Compelling content is the cornerstone of moving your business up in Google searches.
Ann Handley explains the art of content writing beautifully and effectively in this comprehensive book. She discusses style, voice, flair, humor, emotional connection, along with proper grammar and publishing rules to remember. This read will help you express your ideas through writing with confidence.
Handley takes the “hate” out of writing with fun, encouraging strategies. She helps you put the heart back in your writing, in turn invoking trust from the reader. Genuine writing is a sure way to gain clients or customers that want to come back for more.
Whether you’re new to content creation or need to brush up on your skills, Handley delivers on how to create “ridiculously good content” making this a must-read for anyone serious about increasing their business visibility.
11. SEO Like I’m 5
This title is enough to sell anyone! Often it’s exactly what you feel like when trying to learn something new. “Please pretend I’m a 5-year-old so I can keep up!”
Matthew Capala’s book does just that. This is the ultimate guide for beginners. It gives you hands-on strategies to put into action.
One of the important things Capala reminds us is that even though Google algorithms change all the time, one thing remains the same—the need to write for your reader, not for the search engines. That’s the best way to ensure they’ll come back to your website, again and again, trust you, and eventually become a customer.
The SEO-focused book has excellent examples and asks crucial questions for you to consider like:
- What value are you providing?
- Does your content convey what that is?
- How do you build a reputation online?
- How will you measure your content performance?
- How will your content and business become the go-to destination?
You’ll begin to understand the value of authentic writing as part of your marketing campaign and be glad to have read this gem.
12. The Art of SEO
This SEO book is one of the most popular best-selling ones available today. You’ll receive the expertise of three experienced practitioners who understand the current landscape and the advanced tactics necessary to navigate your business online.
You’ll get a history of search engine optimization. You’ll also learn how to evaluate your content and how to do keyword research, optimize website development, and get a lesson in algorithm elements such as panda, penguin, and search engine penalties.
This SEO-related book goes into great depth necessary for the novice and the advanced marketer. This is where you’ll learn about the intricacies and complexities of the subject, the underlying workings, and theories of search engines, an understanding of how social media, links, and user data to factor in, as well as mobile, local, and vertical SEO.
If this sounds confusing, all the more reason to get this book! You’ll get a detailed education on the best practices, and also many references to support you as you move forward. You’ll learn how to build a marketing team if you need one and even get a glimpse into the future and where the market trends are heading.
It’s easy to understand why this SEO book is an essential one for your library!
13. SEO 2020: Actionable, Hands-on SEO, Including a Full Site Audit
If you worry that the methods you’re using may ruin your rankings because they are wrong or outdated, then this is the book for you. What you learn will alleviate your fears of Google penalties in the future, as well.
This is an advanced guide if you’re ready for it. Williams teaches you tested techniques that will prevail well into the future. Among these:
- How to build valuable backlinks
- Write high-quality content
- Build site authority
All of these factors help you stay on top of rankings despite any algorithmic changes ahead.
You’ll get full-site audit methods to keep your website strong and popular with Google. These strategies are safe and effective, not fleeting or damaging to you in the long run. Following the wrong advice or out-of-date information can be deadly for your business.
That’s why this SEO book is imperative for peace of mind and lasting through the long haul necessary for success. Shortcuts and trying to fool Google is too risky. The strategies in this book are tried and true, and will always be successful because they’re based on authenticity, value, and quality.
With all the effort you’re making to successfully market your business, placing it in the hands of people who may not be as knowledgeable as they claim is a huge gamble. Trust a well-versed professional like Williams with something so important instead.
14. How to Get to The Top of Google in 2020
This book by Cameron-Kitchen is packed with valuable information to get your website on the first page of Google searches. The strategies in this book have taken businesses from $2000 to over $900,00 per month and taken new leads from 35 to over 100 a day. That’s a pretty strong selling point!
You’ll read about the best up-to-date practices to use that avoid the usual pitfalls that happen when you first begin. Also included are the exact processes to generate thousands of leads, such as backlinking from other sites and social media platforms.
Cameron-Kitchen shares the secrets behind the world’s most effective campaigns. Learn how to spot weaknesses in your campaign, and know if your team is giving you good value.
Your isolated blog can become a main traffic spot and sale generator. You’ll learn how to lock in continual long-term improvement and secure a place in the future. This is one of the most comprehensive guides to successful SEO and is worth the investment.
15. Content Machine: Use Content Marketing to Build a 7-Figure Business With Zero Advertising
Content marketing is the crux of this SEO book. Dan Norris covers the fundamentals involved in strong writing that will help your business in this book.
You’ll learn how to:
- Become highly visible online
- Achieve a connection with the reader
- Build relationships with your visitors
- Create trust and authority that makes you a Google favorite
This book provides downloads and models to assist with every part of content marketing you need to know. You’ll learn how to come up with ideas, how to write them, and even how to hire the right content team. You’ll stand out from the crowd and have the challenge of great writing simplified into doable steps.
Norris grew his WordPress support business from scratch to an annual 1 million dollars in only 2 years spending only 181.23 dollars on advertising. He prevents you from making the biggest mistake when it comes to content marketing and instead shows you how to build a faithful audience that will come to love you and what you provide.
For a small price, the Content Machine will give you a much larger ROI for all your time and work, something you have to appreciate.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve taken a closer look at the books available for you to gain a deeper understanding of how search engine optimization works and how you can implement it across several online mediums, I hope you take advantage of the cost-effective education they provide. You’ll receive a substantial return on your investment.
Reading a book may be the last option people choose these days, but books still provide one of the most thorough ways of learning a subject. There is no better way to increase traffic to your business than using the techniques covered extensively in these SEO books.
Written by experts and professionals, you can’t go wrong. I wish I had started reading them a lot sooner!
