I have to admit that this was a very difficult book for me to read, not because it isn’t an absolutely great resource or an all-inclusive textbook fore building a search engine marketing campaign from the ground up within your organization, but precisely because it was exactly those things. Because I have the attention span of a gnat, reading anything that doesn’t have a plot is hard for me (some of the most recent John Grisham books are the exception… that guy can make a phone book interesting!).

SEM, Inc is a very dense 500 pages, written out in a small 10 point font. Don’t pick this up looking for some light SEM fluff reading or some easy quick tips. SEM, Inc takes you all the way through the search engine marketing process from start to finish, leaving nothing out. Written more for larger corporations than the mom and pop small business, the information is solid and actionable for businesses of all types, shapes and sizes. Everything from how to get a campaign off the ground (if multiple departments must be involved) to communicating with your team effectively is covered.

If you are serious about understanding search marketing and how to implement a campaign throughout your site, or simply better understand what your search marketing team is doing, this book is a valuable resource and a textbook worthy of the marketing resource shelf.

With the ever-increasing attention paid to the search engine space, it pays to know how best to design your web site and plan your marketing campaigns to optimize this resource. A recent book I received fills that space nicely… Search Engine Marking, Inc. – Driving Search Traffic to Your Company’s Web Site by Mike Moran and Bill Hunt.

Content:
Part 1 – The Basics of Search Marketing: Why Search Marketing Is Important… And Difficult; How Search Engines Work; How Search Marketing Works; How Searchers Work
Part 2 – Develop Your Search Marketing Program: Identify Your Web Site’s Goals; Measure Your Web Site’s Success; Measure Your Search Marketing Success; Define Your Search Marketing Strategy; Sell Your Search Marketing Proposal
Part 3 – Execute Your Search Marketing Program: Get Your Site Indexed; Choose Your Target Keywords; Optimize Your Content; Attract Links To Your Site; Optimize Your Paid Search Program; Make Search Marketing Operational; What’s Next?
Glossary; Index

First off, this book is really well done. Using a writing style that’s more conversational and readable than I expected from the cover, they go into solid detail about everything related to search engines. This includes how they work, what people are looking for when they search, and how best to understand the types of visitors you’ll get in order to turn them into potential customers. They also spend plenty of time telling you what to avoid in the way of spammy and sleazy tricks to get better rankings (which will probably also get you banned from the engines). As a result, you can read the information with confidence that you’re being useful and ethical information related to improving your visibility on the web.

While most any size business could benefit from this information, I kept thinking of larger organizations during my reading. Marketing Communication (MarCom) departments, at least those who understand the web, absolutely need to know this information and formalize their organizational approach to search engine optimization. A single person business looking to advertise on the web, especially if this is their first foray into the cyberworld, might find themselves a bit overwhelmed by over 500 pages of information. Conversely, a MarCom department would have the time and resources to commit to a focused and planned approach to their search engine results. Both businesses would benefit, but I think the larger companies would benefit more…

Regardless of your organizational size and structure, it’s worth the read. You’ll come away with a much more complete understanding of how you need to position yourself to get noticed in the increasingly crowded world of search…