Preface

I enjoyed doing an interview with Zac about search engine optimization (SEO) back in 2007. Not only did Zac ask great questions, but he has provided countless people with helpful, solid advice over the years. So when Zac asked me to write a forward for his book about SEO, I was happy to say yes.

I think learning about SEO can be good for anyone who works with the web. Not only designers and programmers, but also CEOs and regular users can benefit from knowing more about how search engines rank pages, and why some pages rank more highly than others. SEO can be done in a good way that keeps users’ needs in mind and create useful websites in alignment with search engine quality guidelines. So SEO can be a powerful tool that not only helps a website rank higher but also makes a website easier to use.

Some people think that SEO only means spam or deceptive techniques, and that’s not true. SEO can include designing a website or web page to be clear and easy for people and computers to discover new pages by following links. Attention to SEO can suggest phrases that people will type when looking for your products or pages, which you can then include on the page in a natural way. Learning SEO includes learning the lesson that people want to read high-quality information and that they appreciate useful services or resources. Students of SEO also learn ways to promote their site in a number of ways that can raise awareness and result in more links to a web page.

It turns out that the Chinese web is different from the English web or the German web. Different countries have different link structures, not to mention different keyword areas that are more or less popular. Countries also have different mixes between standalone domain names vs. content that appears on forums or bulletin boards. For that reason, it’s helpful to have an SEO book that is written specifically for the Chinese market. I’m glad that Zac has written that book.

Matt Cutts, head of webspam team for Google