5 No-Bullshit SEO Books to Read In 2023

People turn to books for wisdom and help. 

We believe they can make our lives better and solve our current challenges.

It’s a big disappointment if a book leaves readers with more questions than before reading it. It happened to me many times when I tried to find the best SEO books for reading.

There are many listicles on Google with the best books to learn SEO. However, most of them mention the same books. I doubt the authors of those articles actually read all those books before reviewing them. However, we won’t find it out. 

As an SEO specialist, I continuously search for new SEO books to read. 

I always want to learn from experts ahead of me and follow the latest trends, strategies, and ranking algorithms. 

I even have a list of criteria that define the top SEO books worth reading:

• Share up-to-date information
• Share proven-to-work strategies people can replicate
• Back up words with data

I don’t want to waste my time on old-school SEO strategies and “what you should do” guides that often confuse me. 

That’s why I created my own list of top SEO books for learning. 

You’ll find these recommendations helpful if you are looking for fluff-free SEO books to read. 

What are the best books on SEO in 2023?

My top SEO books to read for marketers, product managers, and content writers:

1. Product-led SEO
2. How to Write Blog Posts that Hit the Google Front Page
3. Ecommerce SEO Mastery
4. SEO Book for Beginners
5. SEO 2022

Product-Led SEO

Length: 264 pages

Author: Eli Schwartz 

Available on Amazon, GoodReads

I learned about product-led SEO when I joined a SaaS company, where my primary goal was to promote a 3D modeling software product in organic search. 

I did not start doing SEO with transactional, high-competitive keywords. Instead, I explored the challenges of the target audience that could effectively be solved with our product. 

I created a product-led growth SEO strategy focusing on the product, where the features, performance, and virality do much of the “selling.”

Whenever people had a problem and navigated to Google, they stumbled upon our software as a solution. 

This is what Eli Schwartz’s “Product-Led SEO: The Why Behind Building Your Organic Growth Strategy” book is about. 

I picked this book because the author’s professional experience is impressive. 

Eli Schwartz is a growth and SEO strategic consultant with over a decade of experience driving SEO for big companies like Quora, SurveyMonkey, Zendesk, and more.

The author states the goal of this search engine optimization book is to teach readers the theory and logic behind good SEO practices. 

He also mentions that this is not an SEO book with a step-by-step guide on how to do X, Y, and Z. 

Instead, this top-rated SEO book contains writers’ stories, SEO tactics, and “what you should do” tips.

As an SEO expert, I benefited from learning the following:

• An in-depth description of what an SEO audit should contain (You can implement the author’s recommendations. They are well-conveyed.)
• A good overview of the famous blue ocean strategy and where product-led SEO stands in it. 
• Project management for SEO (SEO requests are too often ignored or not assigned because of insufficient clarity on what is being requested.)
• Building the SEO product team (Helpful for advanced SEO specialists having experience working in product teams.)

This SEO book for beginners is a great starting point for learning the basics of product-led SEO. However, you won’t find step-by-step strategies and bulletproof tactics ready for implementation.

It’s an excellent resource for learning the basics and establishing the right SEO mindset.

How to Write Blog Posts that Hit the Google Front Page 

Publication date: April 14th, 2022

Updated: in February 2023

Length: 83 pages

Author: Victoria Kurichenko

Available on Gumroad

You are right! That’s my SEO copywriting book.

I’ve worked in marketing and SEO for five years, helping established brands like Shapr3D, UX studio, Digital Commerce Partners, and local businesses to improve organic search performance. 

Then, I launched Self Made Millennials, growing it from 0 to 3,000+ monthly views in one year with roughly 30 blog posts.

I owe my success to SEO writing, and here is the proof that it works:

Many people want to know how to write high-ranking blog posts, but no resources would show them a step-by-step process of doing it.

Most articles and courses discuss “why doing SEO,” but you rarely find actionable tips on “how” to do it.

I had to go through many online resources to figure out what worked.

So, I collected my learnings, findings, and experience and created an SEO writing book that explains how I research keywords with high potential, how I write and optimize content, and what tools (free and paid) I use.

Here is what the second edition updated for 2023 covers:

• 83 pages of fresh content with the latest SEO working strategies.
• Totally updated content writing process to create high-ranking blog posts.
• Added a case study on the impact of AI-generated content (how it ranks and performs on Google).
• Added a case study on the impact of the content update (how rankings and performance changed. Spoiler: my web page jumped to 1st Google page after the content update).
• Added insights about the Google helpful algorithm update 2022 and how to adjust your content creation strategy.
• Shared my exclusive content writing principles that helped me write articles that stood out from the competition.
• And more!

This short book about SEO covers everything you need to know to write content that hits the Google front page.

Here is a sneak peek for you.

I use the methods and strategies described in the book daily to write SEO articles, including this one. Therefore, I know they are effective if you apply them accordingly.

You can learn more about my SEO writing book, read the testimonials, and check the rating here. 

Ecommerce SEO Book Mastery

Publication date: unknown 

Length: 110 pages

Author: Kristina Azarenko

Available on Gumroad

Kristina Azarenko is an ecommerce SEO specialist who quit her full-time job in August 2019 to start her own SEO consultancy. 

Since then, she has worked with Fortune 500 companies, became an external contributor at HotJar and Semrush, and was a speaker at the Women in Tech SEO Festival, Brighton SEO eCommerce Summit, to name a few.

I’ve been following Kristina on Twitter for a while and learned a lot of practical SEO insights from her tweets.

Soon after, I learned that Kristina had written one of the best books on SEO for ecommerce, and now she sells it online for $69.

I believe the price is too high for an ebook, but I was lucky to buy it for only $7 during Black Friday.

In short, I loved the ebook!

It’s fluff-free and full of actionable tips that ecommerce specialists can immediately implement.

I wanted to highlight every sentence in that ebook to reread it later since everything seemed new and relevant to me.

If you work in ecommerce SEO, I highly recommend purchasing this SEO book by Kristina Azarenko.

In a nutshell, the book covers 10 technical and content ecommerce SEO wins that you can quickly implement to improve your online marketplace’s performance.

Let me give you an example of one SEO win for better understanding.

Kristina starts her ecommerce SEO book by explaining why it is important to optimize a product and a category page. Furthermore, she explains how to do it right and gives marketing examples from her experience.

She not only explains why you should do it but shows you how you can do it and what you can achieve in the end. Unlike many other experts, Kristina shows the impact of her work, which is rare nowadays.

I totally recommend this SEO ebook for beginners if you want to level up the performance of your online stores.

SEO Book for Beginners

Publication date: April 2023

Length: 140 pages

Author: Ahrefs marketing team 

Available on Ahrefs

I’ve been following Ahrefs since 2015, and I love their content. 

If you read their blog, you’ll feel how much work they do to maintain the high-quality standards of publishing content daily.

Their Ahrefs Academy and the SEO blog are among the top resources I can strongly recommend to advance your SEO skills. 

Besides, they’ve recently launched their handcover SEO book for beginners. 

The Ahrefs’ SEO book is hundreds of blog posts collated and turned into a book. Hypothetically, you can find the same information on the Ahrefs blog, but why do it if you have a beautifully designed handcover book you can read anywhere you go? 

I was among the lucky ones who got this search engine optimization book for free due to their social media giveaway. 

The book has 140 pages and 7 chapters covering:

• How search engines work
• SEO basics
• Keyword research
• SEO content
• On-page SEO
• Link building
• Technical SEO

It’s a good solution for beginners who don’t want to waste their time searching for proven-to-work SEO strategies.

After reading this book on SEO, you’ll be ready to start an SEO career. 

SEO 2022

Publication date: September 9th, 2014

Updated: June 2022

Length: 245 pages

Author: Adam Clarke

Available on Amazon

Adam Clarke is a successful entrepreneur and an SEO expert who generated more than $ 9,072,279 in online SEO sales for two startups over five years.

Clarke’s book on SEO 2022 grabbed my attention since I am always fascinated and motivated by people’s achievements. 

So, I dug deeper to check what this book can offer readers. 

After a short research, I noticed that the book’s rating on Amazon is 4.4 out of 5 based on 1,5322 reviews. It’s pretty impressive, isn’t it?

Furthermore, the author mentioned that this is the newest, up-to-date version for the current year. 

So, I purchased the Kindle version of this search engine optimization book without too much thinking. 

As an SEO specialist, I would say this book is ideal for beginners and those who want to deepen their general SEO knowledge. 

The author explains how Google works in detail, the basics of keyword research, on-page SEO, link building, why social media is essential for SEO, how to track your search rankings, how to fix common SEO mistakes, and do SEO for local businesses.

This SEO marketing book briefly touches on different aspects of SEO. You won’t find step-by-step guides on how to do X to achieve Y. Instead, the book will help you understand what SEO is and what you should focus on to improve your website’s performance. 

There are two more things that I particularly liked about this book about SEO.

The author lists robust tools for keyword research, link building, optimization, and website performance analysis. The author’s recommendations will be useful if you are new to SEO.

If you decide to purchase this book on SEO optimization, I strongly recommend reading one of the last chapters dedicated to Google algorithm updates. This will help you better understand how Google works and what SEO strategies are called a white and black hat.

Need help writing optimized content for your website?

As an SEO writer, I can help you with keyword research, on-page optimization, and technical SEO. 

I can write about general and niche topics, such as user experience design, search engine optimization, and web development, to name a few.

Learn more about my SEO blog post writing services.