I Asked 12 SEOs To Share Their Favorite SEO Books

Author: Ryan Stewart

First published: 26 February 2020

Recommended by: Joshua Hardwick

Here’s why Joshua recommended this book:

“My favorite thing about this book is how actionable it is. Ryan shows you how to actually manage an SEO project for clients (or your own website) and gives you the spreadsheets/processes he uses for free so you can follow along. It could probably use an update as it was last updated in 2020, but it’s still an amazing book for anyone wanting to learn how to actually do SEO and not just drown themselves in theory.”

Author: Chet Holmes

First published: 27 May 2008

Recommended by: Glen Allsopp

Here’s why Glen recommended this book:

“There’s lots to love about the book, but I particularly fell in love with a concept Chet calls the ‘Dream 100’. The idea is to build relationships with the Dream 100 people who could impact your business, whether that’s potential clients, people who could promote your creation, etc.

Giving value to people up front – even if they aren’t likely to have any impact on what I’m doing online – is something I’ve always tried to do and believed in so that’s why I related to it the most. 

Chet helped me think about systemizing that process and making it a proactive thing rather than reactive and in the moment. The relationships I’ve built have been key for a number of businesses I work on, and I love how the book gives a number of specific examples of how Chet himself used it on his journey.”

Author: Tim Soulo, Joshua Hardwick, Patrick Stox

First published: January 1, 2023

Recommended by: Patrick Stox

Here’s why Patrick recommended this book:

“The Ahrefs SEO book for beginners is the perfect read for new SEOs. It’s straightforward and has all the actionable information you need to be successful.”

Author: Tim Soulo, Sam Oh

First published: 2023

Recommended by: Theo Haines, age 3 ¼

Here’s why Theo recommended White Haired SEO:

“It’s a lovely book because it’s got the bluebirds in it—that’s my favorite. I like the bit where she’s scaring the bluebirds away…I like the book flying into the library!”

Author: Paddy Moogan

First published: 2013

Recommended by: Chris Haines

Here’s why I recommended this book:

“As a junior SEO, I found this book useful in 2013 to help me do my job. At the time, there wasn’t any book that told you everything you needed to know about link building, but this book filled the gap.

As it’s recently been updated and put online for free here, I found myself returning to the book over ten years later and still finding useful nuggets of information that got me thinking about link building in different ways again.”

Author: Dixon Jones

First published: 1st September 2021

Recommended by: Louise Linehan

Here’s why Louise recommended this book:

“Even though I have known (and written) about entities and semantic SEO for a number of years now, I still learned a lot from this book. Dixon Jones gives a thorough historical explanation of how search engines came to decipher entities, which must have taken a ton of time to research. One of the things I was especially surprised to learn was how much Google relies on Wikipedia data and human input to identify and categorize entities. I knew Wikipedia played a part in this, but I didn’t realize the full extent. 

The book also reminded me of the importance of entity SEO in building an authoritative brand, and I picked up some great practical tips, like using Google’s Knowledge Graph and Structured Data tools to research (and replicate) the entities of top competitors – a tactic I’d never considered before. The detailed historical context, paired with useful, practical advice, definitely made this a worthwhile read.”

Final thoughts

If you want to learn SEO from scratch, you can randomly pick from thousands of articles online, or you can pick a single book from this list—like our SEO book for beginners. Both ways will teach you about SEO, but in my opinion, an SEO book is usually the best place to start if you want a decent grounding in SEO or are looking for more depth of opinion on a particular topic.

Once you’ve grasped the basics, you can start absorbing the regular SEO updates online or read more specialized books from your favorite SEOs in this list.

Want to share what SEO books you’re reading? Let me know on LinkedIn.