All of the book and product reviews I do are totally unsolicited… spontaneous …and without affiliate links. These are books and products I share with close friends. So all of the reviews you find here will be about things I highly recommend.
But this one is slightly different…
The author DID contact me first and asked me to read his book. I answered that I only like writing reviews of books that I would recommend to close friends. I feel strongly about giving any sort of publicity to things I do not like.
As it turns out, even if Andy had not asked me to read his book, I would have done so anyway.
- After 8 months of blogging and an online business, the non-geek that I was then is now ready for a closer look at some serious website optimization.
- His publisher, O’Reilly, is one I like a lot.
So I read Website Optimization because I was actually excited at the prospect getting something I wanted out of it.
First, let me say the author is not a family member. King is a fairly common name. And there are even quite a few Cindy King’s out there. That is one of the reasons why I use online visibility enhancement techniques.
Who Should Read This Book
This is a book to read if you want to take your knowledge of website optimization above just about everyone else out there.
Website Optimization is not a book for an internet novice.
It is for website designers with knowledge of how a website should be designed and who want to improve the speed of their website.
It also targets website marketers who are interested in finding ways to improve their conversion rates.
Finally, it is for project and business managers who may not know all the ins and outs of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) but are at least familiar with the concepts and already understand their value.
I recommend you read this book if you:
- Already have a website,
- Work closely on one,
- Have any responsibility or interest in improving online results
Website Optimization gives you information you can use.
The book is in 2 parts.
Part 1 – Search Engine Marketing Optimization
The first part is “Search Engine Marketing Optimization”. This explains how to increase website visibility and boost conversion rates.
King clearly explains the steps you need to improve natural SEO. A major part of natural SEO is using your keywords in the most effective manner.
King breaks natural SEO into 10 easy to follow steps that can be posted next to your computer as a to-do list for each page that you create.
Pay Per Click
This section also includes two very descriptive and very useful chapters on Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. It includes a wonderful case study showing the results of one company in a small, competitive niche market that changed their PPC practices and had an immediate 100% improvement in their conversion. This conversion rate increased to 600% a short time later and eventually leveled off at 500% over their starting conversion rate.
These two chapters alone will make Website Optimization worthwhile for most readers.
Conversion Rate Optimization
The final part of the first section of Website Optimization covers Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).
King lists the top ten factors a site owner must know to maximize his conversion rate.
For a marketing expert, these 10 factors might be obvious. But all too often several, or at least one, of these factors are ignored or not given full consideration,
For example, you should give the most important content on your website the best placement on your website. Since readers begin scanning a page at the top left and consider the bottom right to be the least important, the most important content must be at the top left.
Many readers now associate the right side of a website to be associated with advertisements, so this area is best for testimonials or links to your products.
Again, for many readers, this chapter alone can dramatically increase conversion rates and is worth the cost of the book.
Part 2 – Website Performance Optimization
Part two of Website Optimization is about “Website Performance Optimization”.
Website performance is how to design your website at the early stages to deliver content as quickly and efficiently as possible.
A page that takes 10 seconds to load is one that your readers will not see. Readers will use their ‘back’ button and move on to your competition if your pages do not load fast enough.
King includes some tricks to combat this, such as using the best format for images and placing your slower loading pieces lower on your page and initially out of sight if possible. This gives your reader a better experience and increases the chance that he will remain on your site.
Let’s face it. Keeping people on your site increases the possibility of making a sale.
CSS Optimization And Ajax Optimization
Part two also as two chapters that are more complex and aimed at website designers.
These are two chapters are on CSS Optimization and Ajax Optimization. They cover optimizing the programming code to speed up your websites loading time. These chapters may be too difficult for a nonprogrammer to understand fully.
However, understanding the ideas, if not the actual practices, will help you decide if you need to work with a programmer to modify your site to deliver better performance. Website Optimization is often a team effort. This knowledge is useful for all team members.
From personal experience, I can say that you do not need to be an expert in CSS to put in some of the code. I am in the nonprogrammer category. Of course, I had an initial learning curve when first faced with HTML and CSS, but now I know the effort was well worth it.
In fact, when I first started using CSS on my website I did not even know I was using it. It was just a little bit of code I used to make my site look better.
Website Metrics
The final chapter covers website metrics. There is an old saying that “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”.
King divides metrics into four distinct groups:
- Volume – how many visitors, how many page views, how many downloads and so on.
- Content – helps understand how readers respond to presentation, layout and the persuasiveness of your pages.
- Objectives – are the readers doing what you want? Buying, signing up, commenting, voting or other objectives.
- Means – this is directly marketing. The paths the reader follows into, and away from your objectives.
As a marketer this is the section I hooked onto first.
Although not mentioned in Website Optimization, the two tools I use to measure metrics are Google Analytics and woopra. Both of these has its own strong points. And of course, there are many other tools to choose from.
Website Optimization gave me further insight into how I can use metrics to improve my own results.
For Serious Website Contenders
On top of King’s 15 years of experience, which comes through in his own book, King also references all the other books, studies and websites where he gathered information or verified his personal findings.
This is very useful information. It gives you the places to go for more in-depth information on any particular subject that interests you. A great bonus.
Anyone who takes website optimization seriously, and is committed to improving online results, should read Andy King’s Website Optimization.
It is not a lazy afternoon read. It delivers a bit more than thought provoking entertainment. You can, however, easily read this book section by section in the order they interest you.
This book has brought my own website optimization skills up several notches.
It is extremely useful. And it provides a depth of information I have not found in any other book.
In addition, it is a great reference tool to keep handy, with bullet point action lists and how-to guides to solve specific problems. My copy now sits in my “one meter away from me” personal reference section. Website Optimization is one book that has definitely earned its place in this group.
And yes, I have already recommended a close friend to read it.
Here are a few more Uniquely Cindy Sunday Book Reviews:
- Influencer: The Power To Change Anything
- How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders By Catherine Seda
- Mastering Online Marketing By Mitch Meyerson
- How The Internet Works By Preston Gralla
- Dotcomology The Science Of Making Money Online By Stone Evans
- Bit Literacy On Managing Your To Do’s
- Bit Literacy Tips On Managing Email
- Bit Literacy Tips on Managing Your Media Diet
- Bit Literacy Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload By Mark Hurst
- The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy By Ed Rivis
- The Culturally Customized Web Site By Nitish Singh And Arun Pereira
- Letting Go Of The Words – Writing Web Content That Works By Janice Redish
- Landing Page Optimization By Tim Ash
