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I was never any good at link building, and looking at years of data, brief forays into outsourcing it never generated any worthwhile long term results.

Other than the odd forum sig, I no longer bother at all. But I've just got "free cv" to the top of google for our JobsVitae site, which we took over in Jan this year, with the only links coming from this forum and our directory (even resisted the temptation to do anchor text in this post ). So content does indeed count. Also interesting is that it's got a PR of 1, which proves that PR chasing is a waste of time and an out of date metric.

This is where it gets interesting. Directories get tarred with the same brush, from back bedroom web directory scripts to the likes of Yelp and Yell. So the approach then moves from old fashioned link building on web directories (hundreds of meaningless links on a page) to advertising and marketing on professional directories.

Now everyone has different opinions or favourites, especially if you mention the word Yell out loud, but the reality is, a directory that doesn't generate any traffic, is as much good as a chocolate teapot, and if you are paying for a listing, then should be getting targeted traffic and leads. I think the days of directories charging

Looks like Google is fighting back

Or a new competitor.... que the Facebook Search Engine

No doubt this will confuse all the SEO peeps.

Mention Penguin these days and everyone breaks out in a sweat and checks their web stats!

But Penguin is also that age old publisher that older members may remember as "books".

It looks like they need to merge to survive the growth of ebooks, as traditional publishers continue to struggle.
BBC News - Penguin and Random House owners agree joint venture

See I disagree, take today, I did the friday humour post, and credited the original author, so his content (actually a French marketing site) is obviously attracting links. Plus take this actual post, there is a link back to SEOmoz, plus I put this thread on Facebook earlier.

Our directory content gets linked to regularly (other than content scrapers!), it crops up all over the place, people passing on an address, a review etc.

As an accountant, there must be buckets of great info and content you have at your disposal. I have VAT calaculator bookmarked, because I'm lazy, ok not a link maybe, but I'm regularly on their site using their free tool. Maybe while I'm there something else will take my fancy?

I think a lot of us just need to reprogram our mindsets. If you have a great resource, cartoon, VAT calculator, theory on the meaning of life, then shout about it. Tweet it, FB it, blog it, and if it is any good, people will naturally link.

Downside is, it all takes time and effort, which is why the short cut gaming options have been so popular over the years. Spinning the same article 50 times or submitting to 500 directories for $10 was never part of a genuine marketing plan

This is definitely an important point, plus actual usage can be fluid rather than a fixed benchmark.

As soon as we saw mobile traffic substantially increase, we created a display which works well on smart phones and does what it needs for an average visitor searching for a business/service. Monetization caught up, and Google optimised the ad placement and it works very well.

But, and a huge but, usage is changing again, our second audience, ie business owners are now also wanting to list and edit business listings from mobile devices, something done traditionally on a larger screen.

So our mobile solution has now fallen behind again and needs re-addressing.

I think having an adaptable solution or a specifically tailored start to finish mobile solution is a must, rather trying to rehash your current website and content onto a smaller screen, with mountains of text that no one wants to read or keep enlarging

For anyone who has been living inside of a bubble for the last 12 months plus, Google is having a bit of a paddywack and is on a (sometimes questionable) mission to clean up it's search index.

Rand, the top man at SEOMoz, a respected SEO Resource and community has done a recent video explaining the death of links in his interpretation of Googles strategy.

The Death of Link Building and the Rebirth of Link Earning | SEOmoz

It's pretty interesting viewing if you have the time, but some key gems are references to article directories, which I know have been the subject of a few recent threads here on MLF. The short answer seems to be, don't do it!

Anchor text which has been well publicised for a while now is another that falls into the don't do it category. Directories also take a hammering, and by that I take it as traditional web directories, pages of hundreds of links, which have been hammered by Penguin updates.

The key message is actually an age old one, and harks back to the "content is king" cliche, ie display interesting or informative content, and people will naturally link to you.

Like I say, this is one persons view, but a very interesting one. Be nice to hear peoples views, do you agree, disagree, why or will this make you revise your current strategy?

So if you've ever asked the question, "does Google make much from Adwords" I think we can safely say yes

Google Bringing In More Than $100 Million Per Day Via AdWords

Wonder if they use Quickbooks for their accounts?

my favourite all time song

Don't think we've had this one before...

Credit to MARKETING DE RECHERCHE - SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING