Cat Seda’s new book offers a blueprint for Web marketing success

We’ve known Catherine “Cat” Seda for some time. A local gal who’s made good here in the San Fernando Valley, Cat has been an ocassional adviser to Yahoo! She’s also a veteran search marketer, author, columnist for Entrepreneur magazine, one-time skeleton racer and self professed “speed freak” whose ready smile can be seen just about anywhere search marketers, web publishers and other Internet entrepreneurs gather.

In her first book, Search Engine Advertising: Buying Your Way to the Top to Increase Sales (New Rider, 2004; $22.99), Cat detailed the ins and outs of paid search advertising, a work that, three years later, still stands the test of Internet time. In her new book, How to Win Sales and Influence Spiders: Boosting your Business & Buzz on the Web, Cat takes on the whole gamut of Web marketing and PR, from optimizing your pages for organic search to using social media to re-invent yourself as a guru in whatever field you choose to delve.

Pithily written and with copious, real-world examples (not anonymous case studies) How to Win Sales and Influence Spiders is a fast-paced yet comprehensive jaunt into the art of business promotion on the Web. Tightly organized and accessible, the book offers actionable information on every one of the book’s 240 pages.

I found Chapter 4, “Networking in Social Media” most intriguing, perhaps because it’s so new a phenomenon, but also because of the way Seda uses it to strengthen her main thesis. Namely, that every expression you make online or off should be a marketing expression that promotes your business or brand. Even something as simple an online profile created for a social media site like del.icio.us or MySpace can and should be an integral part of your overall marketing effort, and Seda shows how to create an effective one: Choosing a marketable URL, customizing your profile page design, creating compelling content, setting a friendly tone and, not least, leaving a “link trail” and more.

True, some experienced search marketers and publishers may find some of the basics old hat. But these offer the necessary grounding and a springboard for the gems that come later. If you think SEO and paid search are the be-all and end-all strategies of getting noticed on the Web, you need to be set straight. And this is the book to do it.

—Michael Mattis, Blog Editor