A Spam Free Blog Search Engine Prepares for Full Launch

As the Internet continues to grow, users no longer face the problem of having access to nearly any type of information they could need. Now they must deal with the problem of finding the relevant information among the millions of sites, blogs, and multimedia files available online. Using a traditional search engine provides access to only a limited number of web sites, today's users require a more versatile tool. Strategicboard.com is a tool which may meet that need.

As the Internet continues to grow, users no longer face the problem of having access to nearly any type of information they could need. Now they must deal with the problem of finding the relevant information among the millions of sites, blogs, and multimedia files available online. Using a traditional search engine provides access to only a limited number of web sites, today's users require a more versatile tool. Strategicboard.com is a tool which may meet that need.

Strategicboard.com is a search engine specifically designed for the blogosphere. The engine is as easy to use as any traditional search engine and provides detailed results for search term. From the main page, users can explore top posts and blogs or explore discussions of hot topics with a single mouse click. Additionally, Strategicboard.com's search results are available as RSS or OPML feed and one-click bookmarking so they save their favorite blogs right from the results.

Strategicboard's seeks to provide the highest quality blogs and feeds for its users. One of the company's motto's is "real blogs by real people for real people." To achieve that goal, Strategicboard has in place editorial techniques and automated processes that exclude spammers from the search engine. Strategicboard also invites users to report suspicious blogs using the "Spam Free" report tool.

Of course, Strategicboard.com does not only benefit web users. Bloggers can add their blogs to Strategicboard.com's growing index for free. Doing so will give them access to an expanding group of users who would have little chance of finding them through traditional search engines.

Strategicboard.com is owned and operated by aggreg ltd., a web holding company operating a half dozen other sites, including King Ping which provide additional services for bloggers. In January 2006, Strategicboard was launched in a beta version and has been successfully tested for more than a year and is now being fully launched. The search engine not only provides blog results, but also images, videos, and podcasts within posts. With more than 300,000 quality feeds being tracked constantly and more than 2 million page views a month, Stategicboard.com is fulfilling a need for both Internet users and the blogging community.

Source : www.prweb.com

Leading SEO Training School Expands Into New Mexico and Arizona Search Engine Academy

Leading SEO industry educators Robin Nobles and John Alexander expand their SEO skill-building training schools to include New Mexico and Arizona State as they welcome new associate SEO educator, Emily Leach to their Search Engine Academy network.

SEO industry educators Robin Nobles and John Alexander recently announced more new localized Search Engine Academy classes are soon to be available in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Arizona in the ever expanding North American network of http://www.searchengineacademy.com training schools.

John Alexander, Director of the Search Engine Academy officially welcomed Emily Leach of http://www.WhiteHatWorkshops.com this month stating, "Robin Nobles and I are delighted to have Emily joining our network of licensed educators. Emily is an advanced SEO graduate who brings a strong SEO technical background to the Search Engine Academy. We anticipate hearing some wonderful SEO student success stories out of New Mexico and Arizona in the near future."

Alexander asked Emily if she would mind sharing a few her views on SEO and give people a brief overview on her SEO training plans for New Mexico and Arizona.

The interview followed with a question and answer period on SEO certification:

Q: "Emily, can you please describe what is unique or special about your workshops?

A: Absolutely! There is more than one aspect that makes this seminar unique. First is the fact that they are truly hands-on! The student brings their project to the class, instead of providing a canned project that works perfectly and then leaves the student having to translate what they learned when they get back to their office. Secondly, I do not teach anything that has not been tested and proven by the Search Engine Academy. And Third, the seminar is followed up with 6 months of mentoring.

Q: How would you identify the value of structured, SEO training in a personalized, hands-on workshop?

A: Personalized, hands-on SEO training is invaluable …this workshop takes the participant right into the actual tasks of SEO on the same project they will be working on after class. The opportunity for questions is far greater because of the students' interaction with the process, those types of questions usually don't come up until after the lecture and then they never get answered. But here, every question does get answered."

Q: Do you have any advice for those who would be interested in starting a successful SEO business?

A: I do! This is a field screaming for attention, and a person with the skill set, ethics and ability to communicate with clients can make a very good living and feel great when they go to sleep at night knowing they are helping companies grow.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the importance of SEO certification?

A: SEO has received a bad reputation over the years with submissions services, and all the changes in meta-tags. Certification creates a bar that the public can relate to and allow them to disseminate which optimizers know the latest information and which ones may be using strategies from 3 or 4 years ago. Until now anyone could say they are a search engine optimizer without any training, I am very happy to be offering a solution for companies to know they are getting what is being advertised if the SEO they are hiring is certified.

Q: Emily, how long have you been practicing search engine optimization or SEO?

A: Almost 6 years; I found the power of Search Engine Optimization in the fall of 2001.

Q: Do you offer any "industry specific" SEO courses for business owners that are in a highly competitive industry (for example like real estate?)

A: I am working with Search Engine Academy on defining specific industries that would benefit from a more directed training as well as working with the Department of Labor to offer certification classes through their program. There is a large need in the Real Estate industry to not just understand their options when it comes to Search Engine Optimization but also to teach them how to handle the process themselves.

Q: Tell us about the name of "White Hat" Workshops?

A: I chose the name WhiteHat Workshops because I feel it represents the tactics I agree to always adhere to, in my SEO Consulting and training; there is no need to attempt to 'trick' the search engines - there are far more benficial methods that have been proven to work over and over again.

Q: Well spoken! In one final question, do you have any last minute SEO tips or advice for us?

A: I provide a free Introduction to SEO workshop on the second Friday of every month, this is a great place to have your questions answered and get your toes wet. To expand your knowledge in SEO you can sign up online at http://www.whitehatworkshops.com for a free SEO Tip of the Day. I will send you a fresh SEO tip each and every day to keep you informed of updates, free tools and ideas you may not think of on your own.

Source : www.prweb.com

SEO of blog feeds powerful, easy: SES panel

By Daniel McMahon

As more companies add blogs to their marketing mix to get greater traction in the search engines and more traffic to their Web sites, it seems only natural that the search engine optimization pros would soon focus more closely on optimizing these blogs.

While not a new technology, RSS feeds have increasingly become subject to extensive optimization, according to panelists in a session titled “SEO Through Blogs and Feeds” here at the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo at the Hilton New York.

Many companies have adopted blogs to generate excitement about a product or service or to add clout or authority to their reputation or brands. Whether companies are looking start a new blog or to enhance an existing blog, optimizing them does not have to be an expensive or difficult endeavor.

“How easy is it?” asked Stephan Spencer, founder and president of interactive agency Netconcepts LLC, Madison, WI . “It’s pretty darn easy. My 15-year-old daughter, within two weeks, got her blog in the No. 10 position [on Google] and now she’s No. 3.”

There are many things bloggers can do to boost their prominence, the most important of which has to do with the way RSS feeds are customized.

To do that effectively, Mr. Spencer explained the importance on focusing on title tags and specifically mentioning the blog name at the end of the title and not at the beginning.

He said it also helps to put the tag name in the title on a tag page and to customize it with additional keywords for display on a home page. Overriding title tags with custom tags, also known as a title tag plugins, is also beneficial.

“There are things you can do to control how the search engines do or don’t access your feeds,” said Rick Klau, vice president of publisher services at FeedBurner, who spoke about the benefits of optimizing blog feeds.

“Redirects [from feeds] are increasingly important because search engines are paying more and more attention to feeds specifically,” Mr. Klau said. “Anecdotally, we’re hearing from a lot of publishers who are saying that their content is being discovered more quickly because of RSS feeds.”

Another important technical consideration has to do with URLs, according to Mr. Spencer, who told bloggers to rewrite URLs so they contain keywords, to use hyphens, not underscores, and maintain “legacy URLs” even after switching blog platforms to add traction to blogs in the search engines.

Beyond these optimization techniques, blogs can be enhanced with anchor text optimization. For instance, making the post’s title a link to a permalink page and looking for opportunities to request revisions to anchor texts on inbound links create greater prominence for a blog.

Mr. Spencer also suggested internally linking back to old, relevant posts within the body of a blog post and to avoid using the nondescript terms “here” or “previously” as the anchor text.

Additionally, heading tags were subject to optimization. Adding specific category names on category pages for post titles — not for dates — would improve a blog’s performance as well.

Source : www.dmnews.com

Google dominates the US search engine market with 64% market share

Google dominates the US search engine market with 64% market share

Internet giant Google continues to dominate in the search engine market in the United States. The latest reports would disappoint Microsoft massively considering the launch of Vista has not shown any improvement in the market share of their Live search engine.

Internet metrics firm Hitwise claims that Google powered just around 64% of U.S. searches. This is up from 58% in March 2006.

In comparison Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask.com had a disappointing market share of 22%, 9%, and 3% in the US market. Incidentally, all of these players have lost the market share compared to the results from last year.

Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise added in the report: “Google’s growth shows no signs of slowing. Despite capturing the majority of searches in the U.S., and in light of competitor’s improvements, Google’s market share of executed searches continues to grow, exceeding 10 percent growth year-over-year.”

The report further claimed that Google is growing faster as a source of revenue for sites in categories like shopping and classifieds.

Source : news.techwhack.com

Bookmark strategies for search engine optimization

Social bookmarking is getting to be an important part of search engine optimization strategies. Sites like del.icio.us impact search ranking. Read on to find out why and how you can benefit.

With broadband Internet access, the proliferation of laptop computers and mobile telephones turning into real computers, ubiquitous computing is a reality. And people surfing the web from any number of devices are going to need online bookmarks that are stored, not in your home PCs bookmark menu, but online.

Why bookmarking for search engine optimization?

Todd Malicoat aka Stuntdubl was one of three panelists to explain about social bookmarking and search engine optimization at Search Engine Strategies in New Yourk 2007.

His main focus was on del.icio.us, a Yahoo! property and the most popular social bookmarking site out there. He made clear that it’s all about links: If your site makes it to the Popular page, your link will be syndicated to a lot of services like PopURLs and OriginalSignal.

Even if you don’t hit the Popular page, there are still good reasons to pursue links from del.icio.us. Del.icio.us users are early adopters – smart, savvy people. And the links are real bookmarks which will get you repeat traffic.

Here are Malicoat’s tips for a del.icio.us campaign:

• Remember a good title – it will be the anchor text
• Coordinate the launch – 30-50 bookmarks within 24 hours is what it takes to make the Popular page
• Place an “Add” button after the article
• Concider adding a del.icio.us badge
• Use Feedburner to add a del.icio.us button to your RSS feed

See also: Stuntdubl’s recommended del.icio.us tools.

Where and how to bookmark

Lee Odden of TopRankResults recommended these services for bookmarking as a part of a link building strategy:

Del.icio.us: High traffic opportunity, quite high syndication opportunity.

Furl: Medium traffic opportunity, low syndication opportunity. Will cash the pages.

Ma.gnolia: Meduim traffic opportunity, low syndication, robust API, group oriented.

Google Bookmarks: Medium to low traffic, medium syndication, affects Google’s personalized search results.

To find out which service to choose for your campaign, become a user and get a feel for the community. Match tool to the audience.

There are different ways to display “add bookmark” links. If your audience will recognize the icons, go with them. Otherwise, use text or a combination of text and icons.

There are also plug-ins available that will display a drop down or fold out menu of bookmark services.

Share This is a WordPress plug-in that adds a customizable pop-up menu of bookmark services to your blog posts.

Add This lets you add a simple, customizable button to help your visitors save and promote your website or blog to the social bookmarking services.

More tips for link building with bookmark services:

It’s hard: Do your research to know what works. And use it for your very best articles, not all of them.

Use social bookmarking to get traffic to news stories, tools etc, but not to the home page.

Don’t create a voting block on Stumbleupon. If you have 30 people who are voted for you time and time again, you will be penalized

More of Pandia’s Search Engine Strategies coverage.

Source : www.pandia.com

New Search Engine Adds Fresh Idea To Existing Format

A hot new web personality is showing up on a new search engine. Her name is Ms. Dewey and she's the star of a new search engine launched by Microsoft.

The site is being promoted through viral marketing, word of mouth, forwarded e-mails, and media stories rather than outright advertising. Ms. Dewey, in reality actress Janina Gavankar, has over 600 video interactions that took three days to shoot.

She gets impatient when you take too long entering your search info and sometimes offers her own response to your searches like this one: "What is the meaning of life?"

She's so hot that sites are cropping up online about her.

And on YouTube, she's so popular that followers are swapping their favorite Ms. Dewey moments.

The search engine isn't as functional as the industry leaders, but many people go there just to see Ms. Dewey.

Source : www.wcsh6.com

AOL launches program to target Google search ads on AOL sites

By ANICK JESDANUN

NEW YORK (AP) _ Companies will be able to use Google's advertising system to purchase ads targeted to only AOL sites such as MapQuest, Moviefone and the AOL.com portal under a program AOL launched Monday.

Google Inc., which paid Time Warner Inc. $1 billion for a 5 percent stake in AOL LLC, powers AOL's search engine and provides the keyword ads that run alongside search results, targeted to a user's search terms.

Now AOL's new Search Marketplace will give marketers the ability to customize search ads to the AOL audience. Those ads could run alone or be part of broader campaigns with video and display ads throughout AOL sites.

The program stems from AOL's December 2005 agreement with Google, in which the search leader expanded its partnership with AOL and agreed to invest in the company.

It's the first time Google is offering the ability to target search ads on specific sites, and advertisers will be able to buy ads directly from AOL rather than through Google. Google would not say whether it would offer similar targeting for other companies upon request.

Mike Kelly, president of the AOL unit in charge of advertising sales, said many advertisers had been requesting the ability to target AOL users. AOL and other portals tend to get more repeat visitors than the typical Web site because they offer e-mail and others services people continually check.

Google has ''got an incredible list of publishers in their network, but they've got a lot of them,'' Kelly said. ''Whenever you focus on one targeted group or another, you're going to get better results.''

Until now, Google has made the same set of ads available to all third-party search sites that participate in Google's AdSense program. Marketers already have been able to specify the sites on which they don't want their ads to appear; the new program adds the ability to select the specific sites where ads would appear, in this case AOL's.

(A separate program, in which keyword ads are targeted to a site's content rather than a user's search terms, does allow advertisers to both select or reject specific sites.)

AOL is one of Google's largest ad partners, accounting for 7 percent of the search company's revenues last year.

AOL, which is increasingly relying on advertising revenues to make up for declines in its Internet access business, said it has been testing the service with about 30 advertisers over the past five months.

AOL's search service is roughly even with IAC/InteractiveCorp's Ask.com in usage in the United States, but far behind Google, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, according to comScore Media Metrix. Google has nearly half of the search market.

AOL also trails Google, Yahoo and Microsoft in monthly visitors, with 109 million U.S. users landing on an AOL site at least once in February, compared with more than 114 million each for Google and Microsoft and 129 million for Yahoo.

Source : www.freenewmexican.com

Yahoo Launches Alpha, Do It Yourself Metasearch Engine

Yahoo has quietly launched on Thursday a new search engine, called “Alpha”. Still in its Beta phase and currently hosted on its Yahoo Australian domain, the Metasearch engine allows users to customize their search engine results pulled from multiple websites via RSS, like Flickr Photos, Wikipedia, and YouTube. You can take it for a test drive by clicking here.

Alpha also displays all the web searched results onto one page using Ajax. For readers who are not familiar with the Ajax-Web 2.0 hype, click here to read all about it.

Under the hood

With its simple interface featuring only two tabs, the “change my layout” tab includes a feature that allows users the ability to rearrange search results box locations, using a simple drag-and-drop user interface.

The second tab “add custom info source”, includes three text boxes that allows users to enter the name of the website, RSS feed URL, and a query feature to filter the website searched source for specific keywords. This is a useful feature for anyone who is only interested, for example, in Bungee Jumping from a particular website that supports RSS.

Also on the second tab, it displays two privacy options, which asks users to choose whether they want their customized search engine to be shared with others, with two options public or private. Users can also choose how their web results should be displayed, choosing from web listing or image only display. Although unimpressed with its lack of new concepts and foresight, Yahoo still deserves a bronze medal for its effort.

However it’s slow in reacting to Google’s recently launched similar website, oh yes, you guessed it, another custom search engine called “Co-op”, which allows users to also customize their search results using the same method as Yahoo’s Alpha. Another social custom search engine that’s also worth mentioning, a website called Rollyo, also uses a very similar method.

Somehow Yahoo’s past successful ideas usually prevailed in competing with Google through acquisitions and not through innovations. With that said, the internet search engine giant is clearly aiming and trying very hard to capitalize on the latest craze of social networks, and custom search engines.

“Whilst aggregating feeds on one page is nothing new, we wanted to take a federated search concept one step further. With this beta, we have introduced personalisation elements that not only allow users to customise their view, but also to add their favourite search service”, said Brett Poole, Alpha Lead Developer and Member of Yahoo7 Search Team, Yahoo Australia.

Alpha uses search results presentation method, called OpenSearch format, a method that allows search engines to aggregate RSS and Atom, Metadata feeds into search results from any website that supports RSS as a minimum requirement for results to be pulled and filtered.

Trackback-URL

Source : caribjournal.com

Kes Phelps Launches Back Link Building Service

Kes Phelps, 33, from Norwich UK, adds Back Link Building to the range of SEO services provided by his consultancy - Kes Phelps SEO & SEM Services. The service is designed for businesses seeking to outsource all, or part of their off-page optimisation strategy.

In the words of Kes Phelps - "I always included link building as part of any search engine optimisation strategy, but have found recently that many clients just need help with this aspect of SEO."

Specifically the service includes content syndication, directory submissions, community participation, link partner procurement, asking for links, competitor link analysis and creation of link-worthy content.

As an increasing number of online businesses realise the importance and power of effective link building, Kes Phelps found he was being asked more and more about this kind of service. "The problem most online businesses face is that whilst link building is essential to build and maintain traffic and rankings, it's also one of the most time consuming and laborious disciplines in SEO."

It was this demand that prompted Kes Phelps to offer link building as a stand alone service to his clients in addition to his existing services. The service focuses on using ethical strategies and the latest link building techniques to increase traffic, search engine rankings and the return on his clients' investment. Clients can either hire Kes Phelps to handle their entire link building strategy, or use the service as a resource to compliment their existing campaign.

Additional services include SEO strategy management, code optimisation, content optimisation, analytics and reporting and consultancy.

Source : prweb.com

Search Mania: Search Engine Strategies (SES) to Offer Search Engine Marketing Training Workshops Throughout 2007 Conference Series

Incisive Media, parent company of the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference and expo series (http://www.searchenginestratgies.com/), today announced that it has expanded the content and focus of each SES event by offering an additional day dedicated to intensive training on search engine marketing and search engine optimization. Next up is SES New York, which runs April 10-13, 2007, at the Hilton New York, where six half–day classes will be conducted on Monday, April 9.

Incisive’s decision to expand search training and offer sessions with most every event comes after overwhelming response to the first ever search training classes at the San Jose and Chicago 2006 conferences. Created to provide attendees with guided, hands-on exposure that puts theory into practice in a highly interactive environment, the training sessions became an immediate hit with attendees, gaining Incisive a completely new source of revenue. Attendees — ranging from consultants, site designers, website owners, executive management and in-house marketing professionals ─ often realize that they cannot afford to miss the chance to work with experts in the field and experience firsthand the latest developments in search engine strategy.
During the New York training, search experts including Shari Thurow, Matt Bailey, Jennifer Laycock, Debra Mastaler, Amanda Watlington, Greg Jarboe, Nan Dawkins and Rob Key will demystify such topics as link building tactics, viral marketing and the use of analytics to increase search effectiveness, among others.

“We’ve truly tapped into a pent-up demand with our search training classes at SES events,” said Matt McGowan, VP Marketing with Incisive Media. “Marketers want to do more than get their feet wet. They want to — and in fact need to with the growing importance of search — get into the trenches with one-on-one advice and hands-on demonstration.”

The training classes can be taken in addition to the SES NY conference or independently. Visit http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sew/ny07/training.html to view the training class schedule. Full–day registration cost: $1,345. Half–day registration cost: $745. Seats are limited in order to provide personal training. To register or with questions, email the SES Registration Department at registration@incisivemedia.com, or call (203) 295-0050.

To learn more and to sign up for email alerts or RSS feed for Search Engine Strategies New York and other upcoming conferences in the series, visit http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/.

Source : businesswire.com

Boost Your SEM IQ: Advanced Search Engine Marketing Webinar Series and White Paper

Corvent LLC teams with Anvil Media, Inc. to host a free webinar series on Advanced PPC, SEO and Online Reputation Management Tactics.
Corvent, LLC, a premier provider of web conferencing services and event registration and reporting tools, today announced a series of marketing interest events entitled "Boost Your SEM IQ: Advanced Search Engine Marketing." Conducted jointly with Anvil Media, Inc., these three free webinars will feature the latest in SEO and PPC techniques, introduce the fundamentals of SMO and ORM, and give real-world insight via insightful customer case studies.

Learn More and Register at:
Boost Your SEM IQ: Advanced Search Engine Marketing

Kent Lewis, SEM expert and Anvil Media President, will present and take questions at each of these interactive 'mini-classes,' including:

Increase Online Awareness and Supercharge Sales with Advanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
April 18, 1PM Eastern / 10AM Pacific
Think you know SEO? Attend this web seminar to learn what keyword research tools work, find out about competitive benchmarking, local search and SEO PR, and hear specific challenges companies face in gaining search engine visibility.

Lower CPCs, Raise CTRs and Boost ROI with Advanced Pay-per-Click (PPC) Techniques
May 16, 1PM Eastern / 10AM Pacific
Learn to enhance the performance of your Google™, MSN or Yahoo PPC campaigns with tips on geographic and demographic targeting, custom ad text, multivariate testing and more.

Empower Your Marketing Efforts with Social Media Optimization & Online Reputation Management
June 13, 1PM Eastern / 10AM Pacific
Hear foundational SMO and ORM strategies, find out about tools and techniques for monitoring your online presence, and learn key tactics from actual case studies for effectively engaging in online communities.

As a thank you, all registrants will receive a complimentary copy of Anvil Media's "The Marketer's Guide to Optimizing Your Web Content for Search Engines," which offers tips for everything from the coding, to the writing, to the design of company websites.

"Corvent is happy to welcome back Kent Lewis for this very valuable collection of events. Kent's presentations have always been extremely engaging, well received and filled with exactly the type of relevant and timely information that online marketers need to stay ahead of the competition," said Robb Cason, Corvent CEO.

These events will be held on the Microsoft Live Meeting web conferencing platform and will include a Q&A session and interactive polling questions. On-demand recordings will be available to those who are unable to attend the live events. For more information call 503.594.1979.

About Corvent, LLC
Corvent delivers customized solutions to companies seeking to communicate more efficiently and more effectively through web conferencing technologies. Corvent specializes in producing top notch seminars on multiple web conferencing platforms while providing comprehensive event registration and reporting tools that supply aggregate attendee data and presentation-worthy reports. For more information on Corvent, LLC, please visit http://www.corventllc.com/ or call 877.217.5656.

About Anvil MediaHeadquartered in Portland, Oregon, Anvil Media, Inc. is a search engine marketing (SEM) company specializing in search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) management and online reputation management (ORM) services. Anvil helps clients, ranging from startups to Fortune 500s, generate a return-on-investment (ROI) on their online marketing programs by generating qualified leads or sales. Current clients include Attensa, Buena Vista Custom Homes, CreditReport.com, InFocus, Oregon State University, PC World Magazine, Pearson, Planar Systems and ReliableRemodeler.com

Source : emediawire.com

Should You Outsource Link Development in SEO?

If you have ever outsourced your link development then you probably have an answer to this question, and the good answer is probably NO. Additionally, you might know as well that this particular area is ripe with link abuse from those who either don't know what they are doing or wish to scam you only for your money. Make no mistake, the links you get are hardly the concern. So the talk these days is all about quality. What constitutes quality in a link and how can you ultimately measure it and be so good that you could tell a link development firm what you need?

This can be a difficult road for the regular website owner. There are a million questions that you might need to ask. In my experience I have rarely seen the value returned from outsourcing a link building campaign to be the same or more than the money I paid for it. There are a lot of metrics involved and ways to determine success but I am specifically talking about the low hanging fruit. One of the most successful link building campaigns I have seen recently was not done by an SEO, link builder, link baiter, or anyone of the sort but a single PR person who just knew who to talk to. So again the talk today is... who do I talk to and how can I get better quality links? Its like buying jewelry right, give me the best for the least amount of money!!

So what should you be concerned about when your outsource a link building campaing?
There is an excellent thread on Webmasterworld discussing this very topic. The thread starter starts about explaining his experience of hiring an Indian link building firm and his dismay at what resulted and the resulting things he did afterward.

He says about defining quality:

I defined very clearly my parameters in order to avoid directory spamming. Things like "no pages named links", "no pages with more than 25 links", "on topic sites only", "no reciprocal links will be given", "no bad neighbourhoods", "PR4 or higher sites only", etc. etc. My hope was to find someone who would go out there and truly "sell" the virtues of our site to real sites in order to have them link to us.

Some great comments from Martinibuster who said on the topic of quality:

First off, the above are poor metrics for quality. All of your above metrics have zero, absolutely nothing to do with quality. So your project was doomed from the beginning.

I feel like he just blew up my battleship after reading that, but he is 100% correct. Those metrics are extremely dated and ineffective at measuring the success or quality of a campaign. They mean nothing. He goes on to say "The requirement for PR 4 is a totally random metric, also with zero relevance to what constitutes a quality link. You mean to say that you won't accept a PR 3link from a .gov resource page called links that lists quality sites in your industry? Do you see how your metrics have nothing to do with metrics of quality?"

Some other people chime in an voice some opinions on outsourcing link development. I will summarize:

On the topic of Indian link building firms:

I would only recommend something like this to a competitor who had pissed me off at some point. In fact, I have a competitor who used an outfit from India. They wreaked havoc with the reputation of his site.

On the topic of PR:

One of the biggest mistake outsourcers make while defining Quality website is put up a minimum qualifying PR for linking to other website.

Continued discussion on WebmasterWorld

Source : seroundtable.com

Ranking The SEO Ranking Factors

Back in 2005, SEOmoz tried to assemble a list of all the possible search engine ranking factors out there and get various experts to rate them. I say tried to because while they had a list, and ratings, no one knows all the factors or exactly how each individual search engine chooses to use them. But I admired the determination. SEOmoz is back at it, with version two of the list now out. Some background about it here; the list is here, and some further observations by me are below.

There's a lot to digest here. A lot. That's why it's particularly useful to make use of the "Top 10 Positive Factors" section at the top of the report. In fact, I wish the report had been organized this way, with an alternative list showing everything and buried away from those new to SEO. Give them the most important basics; don't blind them with too much!

The most important factors based on expert voting are:

Keyword Use in Title Tag

Global Link Popularity of Site

Anchor Text of Inbound Links

Link Popularity within the Site's Internal Link Structure

Age of Site

Topical Relevance of Inbound Links To Site

Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community

Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots

Keyword Use in Body Text

Global Link Popularity of Linking Site

Notice number one -- that you have HTML title tags that reflect the key terms you want your page to be found for. That's been the advice since I first starting writing about SEO back in 1996. Eleven years later -- and even in the age of it's all about links -- it remains the top ranked tip by so many experts.

Now let's flip the list around into how hard it is to control these factors:

Easy

Keyword Use in Title Tag: Totally in your control. We continue to have sites that get ranking boost just for making this change. Remember that Jason Calacanis challenge where SEO already has gotten him a traffic increase of 21 percent? That's almost all down to title tag changes.

Link Popularity within the Site's Internal Link Structure: This is easy in that you can link to your own pages in however you'd like. So do think carefully about how you link. Point to your own articles and describe them using the terms you want them found for. That can contribute.

Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots: If you can't be indexed, you can't rank. Keep your server online. But don't freak. Being down on the odd occasion is unlikely to wipe you out.

Keyword Use in Body Text: This is basic. Want a page to be found for certain words? It continues to be good advice that you actually use those words on the page. Not 100 times in a row. Not for any particular "density." Just use them as it makes sense to use them.

Medium

Age of Site: Brand new site? Nothing you can do but get older, really, to control this. Some like to buy domains, but search engines can also detect transferred domains and count age from when the transfer happened. Google is the most noted for this. One thing you can do is register your domain for a long time, say five or ten years. That at least suggests you want to hold on to it more than the average person, so it might help.

Hard

Global Link Popularity of Site: You can't do much here easily beyond building up good quality links. Get good links, and you should be helping your site mature. Links take work, but they're worth it. See our link building and linkbait sections for some articles and advice on this.

Anchor Text of Inbound Links: Hard in that you can't control exactly how people link. But doing things like thinking about how you name your pages or articles (or site), or how you pitch a link request, can have an influence. Remember that Google will now tell you the most popular anchor text used to point at you. Google Now Reporting Anchor Text Phrases explains this in more detail.

Topical Relevance of Inbound Links To Site: Are the sites linking to you related to what you are about? Hard to control, other than to make sure you are requesting links from sites that cover similar topics to you. That's just good marketing, of course -- but time consuming.

Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community: Pretty similar to the above.

Global Link Popularity of Linking Site: Is the site linking to you important? Then it can transmit that importance to you more than other sites might. This has been a known factor for years. It's not about number of links. It's about the quality (importance) and context (link text or anchor text) of those links.

In the report, note that there are comments for each of the factors from many of the experts that rated them (I was one of the 34 involved). These are great to read. But you won't see all the comments unless you use the "Show the rest of the comments" links for each factor. So do it!

Source : searchengineland.com

Highest Paid Pay Per Click Search Engine

Neevie.com was launched december of last year and provides its visitors with a real-time search engine that produces the most up to date relevant search results. Neevie.com is inviting businesses, affiliates, advertisers and companies to submit their free directory listing in the Neevie.com database.

With the recent launch of Neevie.com, companies, businesses, affiliates and individuals can still target the traffic they want on their site with minimum bids. List your site in the neevie directory at no charge and you can begin your advertising campaign right away.

Set up your account on Neevie.com today and get your site the traffic you desire and need. Now is the time to drive potential customers and clients to your site with minimum bids on keywords and phrases that you select. Don’t pay $2.00 per click on major sites when you can have the same keyword on Neevie.com for pennies.You will have full access to adsense,search boxes,banners,toolbar and many other marketing tools.We have full support in case you run into any problem installing or monitoring your account.

For a limited time to get your ad campaign started, Neevie.com will match every dollar you deposit into your advertising account. By establishing an account today you can be sure of doubling your deposit amount thru the Neevie.com match your dollars program.

Carlos Cortez
Neevie.com
Phone:407-699-1277
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http://www.neevie.com

S.E.O. Friendly Directory Accepting Submissions

Ahmedabad 04/04/07 - We promise to keep the distribution of Webworld-directory data, and the submission process to this data, entirely free. We will support our data users who choose to add proprietary and revenue generating content, and other non-free value-added functionality upon versions of the Webworld-directory in which they download. In turn, data users agree to attribute use back to us per the free use license.

We Provide an Open Invitation to Join

We invited you to join our service . Our categories attempt to express the depth and breadth of human knowledge. We accept editors from all walks of life, and we attempt to represent all points of view. We will keep our application process open to anyone interested in joining. An absolutely free general inclusion web directory that is and search engine friendly. Get very good traffic to your website with improved rankings in all major search engines using Webworld-directory Link Exchange Service. Get valuable and quality traffic + link partners to your website and DAILY MORE with Webworld-directory link exchange! Almost all major search engines rank your web pages based on the number and the quality of links that point to your web site (Webworld-directory). Genuine & Quickest way to receive quality backlinks is to convience high quality website by offering them something helpful and free in exchange of credit link to your website.

WEBWORLD-DIRECTORY

A directory is the ultimate place to go if a business is seeking linking partners. Inclusion in the web directories can be both free and payment-based. Now-a-days, most business webmasters are well aware of widely used web directories as Yahoo! Directory and DMOZ (The Open Directory Project). Although the latter is a free option, the Yahoo! Directory offers paid inclusion for commercial websites. In addition, one may also consider other directories which are unequivocally worth checking out. In this article, both the merits and demerits of paid/free web directory inclusion will be discussed briefly. Please read on.

There is no final answer for any every business and website. The ultimate answer is what is truly ideal for an individual and his business. If one is not sure about picking a paid of free directory inclusion, then it is suggested that he assess his needs before anything else. He has to consider whether his business requires immediate exposure. If the waiting duration on the free directories proves to be too long, then one definitely needs to consider paid inclusion. Moreover, it should be considered that paid directory inclusion also saves one from the time consuming hassle of editing a directory category. A really good commercial directory service is usually featured by prestigious organizations and thus, it can offer credibility to one’s site in exchange of a good amount of money. On the contrary, one should go for free directory inclusion if his budget cannot handle the financial requirements of paid inclusion, especially the unknown totals of pay per click.

The directory reflects changes in Web promotion, advertising and marketing taking place today. Blog publishing is here to stay and has brought with it new directories, social networks and new types of search engines. Tagging and social book marking are the words associated with the Web promotion of today.

Our listings are sorted categorically to make it easier for people to find what they are looking for. If you cannot find an appropriate category for your listing, please e-mail us and suggest a new one. We will do our best to add any categories you suggest.

Source : pressrelease365.com