The sys admin geek in me has always loved O’Reilly books and they’ve continued producing quality computer books as well as branching out into other areas, one of which is the Missing Manuals series. O’Reilly was good enough to send me a sample copy of one of their latest on attracting visitors to your website and given the subject material of our site thought it quite appropriate.

First off, this is an inexpensive book ($5) that clocks in around 50 pages. It is after all a “mini manual”. I should have known based on the size that this was not going to be an advanced set of tips, but rather geared to newbie website owners. However, let me not disparage this book – it is a pretty comprehensive set of guidelines on what to do when you set up a website for the 1st time.

It covers things like reciprocal links, web rings, promotion, meta elements, directories and getting noticed by the search engines as well as setting up Google Analytics. I would have liked to see more info on SEO, at least some basics. There are lots of disagreements on this subject, but reciprocal links don’t carry a great deal of weight with the likes of Google, and I would have liked to see a notation at least.

There was a terrible definition for Javascript that I trust they will improve in another edition:

“Note: Javascript is a type of mini-program that runs inside a browser. Virtually every Web browser in existence supports it.”

Lastly, this mini-manual would have benefited greatly from a “To Do” checklist, a.k.a. a summarized version of its steps, because who wants to poor through 50 pages the next time they need to set up a new site?

Overall, I quite liked the book, and at $5 is completely worth it. Of course, you will eventually want to get a more advanced book. We quite liked Kristopher Jones’ Search Engine Optimization book.

(Disclaimer: Untethered Dreams received a complimentary review copy of this product.)