15 Best SEO Books [Top Recommended For 2020]

Looking for the best SEO books to help you enhance your SEO knowledge? Well then, you have come to the right place.

In this article, I will introduce you to the top 15 SEO books recommended for 2019 & 2020 which promised to help you boost your SEO knowledge.

Let’s get started. (Don’t want to read books? Check out my full SEO guide for beginners article to learn everything you need about SEO)

If you are a business owner looking for local SEO, check out my in-depth details of local SEO strategies.

Here Are The Best SEO Books For 2020:

1. SEO Step-by-Step – The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Getting Traffic from Google – By Caimin Jones

This book is a precious source on search engine optimization primarily because it’s written by a person who has been using all the featured SEO techniques for more than 15 years now keeping his own business flourish and constantly expands.

So you can be 100% sure the author knows what he’s talking about.

The book concentrates on explaining the specifics of SEO when dealing with the Google search engine and its regularly improving indexing algorithms.

The first thing you will learn is keywords, how to choose them, and how they should be used to make your website more valuable to search engine bots and your visitors.

Moreover, you will find useful tips on how to create high-quality content that would be actually interesting to see.

Apart from that, you’ll be shown various technical on-site optimization techniques to increase its load speed and provide complete user-friendliness, which will inevitably drive more traffic to your storefront.

2. SEO Like I’m 5: The Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization – By Matthew Capala

This is an excellent book, especially for anyone who is new to SEO. It’s not so much that the concepts are basic or scaled back for beginners, but it’s more about taking a different approach to making SEO understandable.

The author is a teacher, and he does a great job of explaining SEO in a way that is simple and easy to grasp.

The book is broken up into different sections for the 5 C’s of SEO: Content, Code, Credibility, Connections, and Cash.

There are a lot of colorful screenshots and images in this book, which makes it a bit more visual than some SEO books.

3. SEO for Growth – By John Jantsch and Phil Singleton

The two authors believe that SEO has already become an integral part of PR and advertising, which means it must be an obligatory practice for every entrepreneur aiming to boost their presence online.

And, as the name of their book suggests, they want not just to provide you with temporary relief in a form of random traffic flow to your website, but to really make your business grow and flourish.

As for the content of the book, it is divided into two parts. The first part sheds light on basic concepts of SEO,

including search engines and how they operate, ranking algorithms and website indexing, on-site optimization, and much more.

The second part provides an exhaustive overview of the most up-to-date SEO techniques that proved to be working throughout this year all across the industry.

More importantly, the strategies you need to use in your particular case will depend on which particular optimization stage you’re currently entering.

Thus, you can still be searching for a clear understanding of your customers’ needs or you have a problem of retaining existing customers by providing exactly the right incentives for your audience. 

4. SEO 2019: Learn search engine optimization with smart internet marketing strategies – By Adam Clarke

This book is probably one of the best SEO books you can read. If you know anything about search engines you most likely know that search engines are always changing, updating, optimizing and improving all the time.

Staying in the know when it comes to changes in the search engine algorithm is an important part of SEO.

This is because significant changes can mean certain SEO strategies that once worked won’t work as effectively.

This book is a good read because it’s up to date with the best SEO strategies to use today and it also explains the current state of search engines and how to optimize for the future.

5. SEO Expert Strategies – By Sam Adodra

Despite having been published in late 2014, this book is still considered a relevant source of effective SEO.

The author presents proven SEO tactics that are being used by experienced SEO experts and consultants all over the world.

Moreover, each of the covered tactics is claimed to be successfully adopted by any small business owner with ease.

The greatest motivation this book sets before its readers is one simple fact: people got busier but they also got smarter, so if you want your content to be found and appreciated, you’ll need to cooperate with a big gorilla called Google.

Once you make it possible for the search engine to find your website relevant, you will definitely make it fast to the front page of the search results list.

With the help of this comprehensive guide you will learn:

• how to distinguish organic search from paid one and what kind of traffic you are going to have by investing in each of them;
• specifics of search engine operation and how you can adapt them to legally optimize your website’s ranking;
• useful tips on making your website better but not too much;
• how to build authority on the web and make people talk about your products and services in the most natural way;
• different ways of analyzing your niche competitors and outperforming them by adapting the best of their marketing practices;
• how to use Google business online tools to get more visible in search engines;
• Google penalties troubleshooting.
• …and more.

6. Ultimate Guide to Link Building: How to Build Backlinks, Authority and Credibility for Your Website, and Increase Click Traffic and Search Ranking – By Eric Ward and Garrett French

Eric Ward was a link building pioneer who laid foundations for modern link building. As one of the industry’s greats, it makes sense that he would write a book on the Ultimate Guide to his craft.

In this book, Ward detailed his processes for finding effective links. Things like link opportunity analyses for your niche, how to manually qualify link prospects, and more.

He also talked about link acquisition strategies like:

• Designing your own link building campaign from scratch
• Conducting effective link opportunity analysis for your niche
• Diving deep into link prospecting
• Diving deep into competitor backlink prospecting
• How to qualify link prospects
• Relationship building
• Market analysis for creating highly linkable content
• Six link building lessons from the experts

And even more.

7. SEO Myths and Half-Truths – By David Hood

This book is unlike other SEO books listed above. The book discredits all the speculative theories regarding SEO and its power to get one’s business to the top of Internet awareness.

The author tries to prove that seeing search engine optimization is solely a doubtful practice with no obvious outcome for a business is never going to be any help for bringing you to success.

On the contrary, he is experienced enough to claim that SEO can indeed give good results but it requires things most people often miss from their focus – consistency and time.

Just like many other business-related practices aimed at steady growth and development, SEO is exactly the same kind of activity but having no universal formula for each particular case.

This is why you need to explore it thoroughly and from different angles – thus you’ll be able to build the strategy that will suit you best.

To help you stop being confused about certain SEO tactics, the author presents each of them as only one of the numerous ways of improving your website’s presence online.

How long it takes for your business to grow will only depend on how you use them. And, bearing in mind popular misconceptions about the topic, you will become better prepared for success than others.

8. The Link Building Book – By Paddy Moogan

Paddy Moogan is a well-known link building professional. He is responsible for writing one of the most comprehensive works of writing on link building I’ve ever seen.

From the basics to the history of link building, to planning and executing link building campaigns, to a wide variety of techniques to add to your link building arsenal, Moogan dives deep into a plethora of exciting techniques you can acquire.

While this book was written in 2015, purchasing the book will give you a significant edge with updates when you purchase the license.

9. The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization – By Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer and Jessie Stricchiola

The Art of SEO provides a comprehensive overview of all elements of SEO, from customizing a strategy, initial implementation and keyword research, to website development and technical insights.

It also has chapters that cover areas that are supplementary to SEO such as content marketing and the importance of social media integrations.

Furthermore, it is written in a way that caters to both SEO beginners and professionals, consultants and business owners.

You’ll find content that not only explores how search engines work but information on how to hire the right SEO person or building an SEO in-house team.

10. Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing – By Lee Odden

Optimize is designed to give readers a practical approach to integrating search and social media optimization with content marketing to boost relevance, visibility, and customer engagement.

Companies, large and small, will benefit from the practical planning and creative content marketing tactics in this book that has been proven to increase online performance across marketing, public relations, and customer service.

Learn to incorporate essential content optimization and social media engagement principles thereby increasing their ability to acquire and engage relevant customers online.

Optimize provides insights from Lee Odden, one of the leading authorities on Content and Online Marketing.

This book explains how to:

• Create a blueprint for integrated search, social media and content marketing strategy
• Determine which creative tactics will provide the best results for your company
• Implement search and social optimization holistically in the organization
• Measure the business value of optimized and socialized content marketing
• Develop guidelines, processes, and training to scale online marketing success

Optimize offers a tested approach for a customer-centric and adaptive online marketing strategy that incorporates the best of content, social media marketing, and search engine optimization tactics.

11. SEO: Marketing Strategies to Dominate the First Page – By Grant Kennedy

This book introduces you to the concepts of internet marketing by using search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. by providing guidelines and innovative techniques.

SEO: Marketing Strategies to Dominate the First Page provides comprehensive information you need to get on the road to professional quality Search Engine Optimization or SEO.

This book is all you need to know about Search Engine Optimization.

You’ll learn what is SEO and how it works, different types of SEO hats, difference between social media and content marketing, SEO obstacles, top 10 tips for marketing the startup/dominating the first page/how to avoid burns, role of google analytics and webmaster in SEO, how to measure traffic quality, using keywords, promoting website and many more..

So grab your copy of SEO: Marketing Strategies to Dominate the First Page right at this moment and become an SEO master!

When you read SEO: Marketing Strategies to Dominate the First Page, you’ll learn marketing tips and strategies to get your website on top:

• What is SEO and How Does it Work?
• PPC(pay per click) vs Organic SEO
• Different Types of SEO
• AdWords vs SEO
• Top 10 SEO Tips for Marketing Your Startup
• SEO secrets and scams
• Using SEO for Website Promotion

12. SEO Fitness Workbook – By Jason McDonald

SEO Fitness goes beyond teaching theories and ideas; it offers readers a host of tools to ensure that they internalize the information.

This book comes with worksheets and access to online SEO tools to help people put the information they learn through the text to good use.

SEO Fitness intended for marketing professionals, web design designers, small business owners, and anyone else who wants to learn and understand the latest SEO strategy. 

You will learn about keywords, links, and metrics you also receive worksheets and tips to put that knowledge to use for your business.

13. Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies – By Bruce Clay

In Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies, 3rd Edition, Bruce Clay—whose search engine consultancy predates Google—shares everything you need to know about SEO.

If SEO makes your head spin, this no-nonsense guide makes it easier. You’ll get the lowdown on how to use search engine optimization to improve the quality and volume of traffic on your website via search engine results.

Cutting through technical jargon, it gets you up to speed quickly on how to use SEO to get your website at the top of the rankings, target different kinds of searches, and win more industry-specific vertical search engine results!

• Includes new and updated material, featuring the latest on Bing!, Google instant search, image search, and much more
• Covers SEO and optimizing servers for SEO
• Provides important information on SEO web design
• Shows you how to use SEO to stay “above the fold”

If you’re a website owner, developer, marketer, or SEO consultant, Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies, Third Edition is the only resource you need to beat the competition.

14. Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions – By Tim Ash, Maura Ginty, Rich Page 

This book is the definitive guide to building landing pages that work. Tim and his co-authors leave no stone unturned, walking you step by step through the whys, whats, and hows of creating fully optimized and tested landing pages.

The author starts you off with helping you understand what landing page optimization is, why it’s important and some psychology behind it all.

From there he shows you how to find opportunities for making your landing pages even better by addressing common problems and using tools to diagnose issues.

Although it isn’t exactly an SEO specific book, it covers a lot of the same topics that are related to search engine optimization.

You’ll learn about how to have a better online presence as a business, how to get better results, and how to get more clients. 

15. SEO Made Easy: Everything You Need To Know About SEO And Nothing More – By Bradley Bailyn, Evan Bailyn

In his book, Bailyn contends that SEO is much simpler than the experts make it sound because they want people to pay good money for SEO trade secrets.

He uncovers all the secrets that you need to know in order to grab the top spots in any search engine.

The book covers such topics as building trust, what Google wants, link building opportunities, how keywords work, and how to leverage content.

The book also teaches you how to avoid black hat activity that could get you deindexed and mortally wound your business. SEO Made Easy is the perfect primer for anybody just beginning their SEO education.

Conclusion

And that’s all for the best 15 SEO books which are recommended for 2019 & 2020.

The books listed above are all packed with powerful insights and knowledge about SEO from start to end.

I hope you will benefit from at least any of the SEO books above and till then, let me know which book do you prefer in the comment section below.

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