Review – Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine and Conversion Rate Secrets

I currently maintain several websites but I never learned SEO. I did not find any need to completely learn the concepts as I mastered some of the techniques through experience. But recently I found that page rank of some of my websites has been dropped. I then made some attempts to master SEO with the help of online articles. To my surprise Andrew King, the author of website optimization from O’Reilly contacted me with a request to review his book, which I gladly accepted.

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 examines the benefits of SEO, its techniques, Pay per click and Conversion Rate optimization. The author has provided two case studies which analyzes the implementation of the above discussed concepts in different scenarios.

You will learn optimization techniques involved with web pages, CS and Ajax based sites in Part 2 including speeding up the loading of websites, JavaScript optimization, Minimizing HTTPRequests and much more. The author also examines server side optimization and client side performance techniques. The final chapter delves deep into website optimization metrics, various web analytics software, performance metrics and Search Engine marketing.







The author has presented the content in a lucid style with the help of relevant diagrams and screenshots. I myself learned few tips with the help of Andy’s book. I would prefer to view the coverage of optimizing those websites which are powered with WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, DotNetNuke, Community Server and other similar web applications in the next edition of the book.

A key advantage of the book is that you can not only learn SEO but also other optimization techniques to place your sites very well in search engines. I feel that author has outlined his personal experiences in various chapters of the book and I have no hesitation to give this book a five star (*****) rating. If you would like to learn the tricks to optimize a website then Andy’s book is waiting for you in the book store.

Author - Andrew King  | Publisher - O’Reilly | ISBN - 978-0596515089  | Pages - 394 | Price - $39.99