SEO Books

Hi guys. Are there any SEO books you specifically recommend? I see a few of them out there and having perused a couple at local bookstores I am worried that I'll buy something that simply restates what I already know. Do any of you have positive learning experiences with any specific books?

One book would be these forums. You will get information on first hand experiences of strategies that have worked and are currently working. then the best learning practices would be to plan and implement some strategies yourself. The best way to learn is to try!

SEO books are often outdated because by the time they are written, edited, printed and published, search engines algorithms are modified a dozen times!

i posted something from Media College on my blog, i suggest reading it, it kinda covers from beginning to semi advance white hat seo
http://www.bkseo.com/2007/12/05/8/

I don't think books are advisable to learn SEO. Its better to interact in the forums because as bkseo said, those books you are reading might be outdated already because SEO is a continous learning process. the knowledge about it grows from time to time...

I've got "Search Engine Optimization - An hour a day" by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin sitting on my desk. I've perused it, and everything I've read so far has been common knowledge, but I think it would be helpful to those who have a problem organizing their SEO practices. I do it all day long, so that's not my problem. ;)

I agree with 'seomonkeymancp'. I started to look for a good book before joining this forum. I am sure I have learn't more from this forum than what I would of done from any book.

I got the SEO Book . Its really good and explains everything in easy to understand language. You can get it from the site as a PDF download so it very handy.

You guys have pretty much said what i was thinking. It seems that once you have the fundamentals down, it all boils down to small trends, nuances, updates, etc (oh, plus the hard work involved of course!). These trends move so fast it's difficult to imagine a published book that will be up-to-date. Of course, I have seen a couple that look worth at least looking into. I will definitely look into those links provided. Thanks for the advice.

Alot of the books that mention SEO tend to focus on the basics and often are more of an introduction to the concept rather than an indepth look at strategies and techniques requied. The forum is more suited to learning about SEO because it is dynamic and you can actually ask questions to clarify your knowledge.

A book from someone who knows what they are talking about is a great place to start though. You can pick up a lot of bad information from forum boards.

dont waste your money on a book

all you need to know is:

-relevant, quality, keyword rich content
-backlinks with relevant keyword anchor text
-search engine friendly URLS

You just mentioning 3 of the most important factors. There is alot more discussed in the book i read that will not be mentioned on here, including some great web marketing advice. Forums are always great for any topic when you have a good base to start off with but i always think you should read a good book on it first. Just my opinion though.

I tell you, it is much better to stick in a forum and be updated.SEO is a fast paced field with search engines especially Google constantly refining it's search results, which means having a book now may not be useful 3 months after if there is a major algorithm update.