If your goal is to promote your blog and/or sell your products effectively on the Internet, then Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must for you.

Search engines are the drivers of traffic and you need to rank well on them to get traffic to your blog as well as product centric web sites. It is not only that, people associate a certain amount of trust with your site if they see you high in the search results. This trust factor gives weight to your site/product and helps you achieve better conversion.

To achieve better conversion, you need good traffic, and to get good traffic you need to rank well on search engines. Ranking well on search engines can be done more effectively if you have SEO skills in your repository (or you can always employ Search Engine Optimizers).

For those who are still unsure, please read this article from CNN on How to scale Mt. Google - Getting your site on the first page can turn a hobby into a thriving business.

I have joined a new company and SEO is an integral part of the software offered. I decided it was high time for me to be at least SEO aware if not SEO Maniac.

The first thing I did, which was recommended by most SEO experts, is buy Aaron Wall’s SEO Book. The book is supposed to be the bible on SEO. It is available in the form of e-book and can be downloaded from the site for $79. The book is worth much more the price you pay for it. Aaron keeps updating the book and you get the update versions for free.

I started reading it - am on the 5th chapter - and find it a very easy read with lot of interesting concepts and techniques. I have decided to open the book for discussion by talking at a high level about the book (chapter by chapter basis).

You are welcome to share your experiences, insights and gains through this series of posts where I will talk about each chapter of the book (as I go along reading it)