I need to pay for some directories, but I don't know if BOTW, Business.com, Joe Ant and others are still worth it.  Anybody know if this is still viable?

http://www.seomoz.org/directories

All Mozzers, can you please give me a 'thumbs up' so I can get more MozPoints?

To optimze a webpage for my number one converting keyword in Google Adwords instead of purely going off Google Keyword Tool.

Here is the answer to all your problems! ENJOY!

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

I think a new list of the top 10 or 20 would suffice for the time being while the rest are being deteremined viable or not.

Tom, I use it in the SERPS to prove credibility. https://www.google.com/search?q=ship+overseas&pws=0

You can see that I wrote about my A+ rating right in the description. My competitors are too cheap to get it and don't see the value. Go to the website and you'll see it on nearly everypage. I use BBB for credibility. Once in a while I actually see that I make a sales from someone who came via BBB so it paid itself off.

It's not just a link; it's credibility.

The only time I think a ccTLD is worth it is if it's for marketing to a specific country. I don't think I have ever seen a .co. I have seen many .co.uk though. What country are you in and what countries are you marketing to?

Make your homepage the subject of your whole site.

Look at my site (I always use it as an example). Home page is about shipping. Categories are about types of shipping. The landing pages are for shipping to specific countries.

If I were marketing your site, I would stick to "Luxury Real Estate in Dallas" and possibly make category pages for different cities.

As far as I know it does NOT affect SEO. It does increase the likelyhood of someone linking to you though. "IF" you want to know if this is worth it, look at your Google Analytics and see if people are converting on your website. Measure your FB and Twitter visits and assign a value to it.

My point here is not to focus on "will Likes and Tweets increase rankings".  My point is "Do those Likes and Tweets turn into conversions".

Here is a secret of mine. Social Media does land me business, but not as much as Google Adwords. Adwords KILLS social media in my clients' industries. My clients only care about more money in the bank, not about FB Likes and Tweets.

LEARN how to use GA.

One $400 link from BBB will be better than all those put together! Spend some money on BBB, your local chamber of commerce, and Yahoo Directory. "REAL" businesses have those (well maybe not Yahoo Directory).

I think it helps. I link to my BBB page to show credibility to both Google and my users. I also link to government websites. Everything is followed.

The only links I would <nofollow>would be sites I don't particularly trust, like a new site. </nofollow>

I use the home page as a representation of all the landing pages.

regarding your Exact Match vs Brand domain, Matt Cutts already announced that he was going to lower the weight of Exact Match domains. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for. I'm in it for the long term so I always opt to get a memorable domain (brandable).

This is the approach I use: brandname.com/abc123/

Hi Matthew,

if you haven't heard of the Penguin update, you HAVE to learn about it. It was an algorithm change on April 24 2012 that hit sites like squidoo. Many people have abuse article marketing (spinning) to try and get more rankings.

What I would recommend is to make some friends in your industry be using Followerwonk. Post on YOUR site and perhaps they can link to you. There are many blog posts on how to do this.

Also i recommend you read chapter 7 http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

Matt Cutts says those are symbols and that they are looked at as spaces.

I recommend you read chapter 7 http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

Are those 21 micro sites selling the same things? I rank for many highly competitive keywords and to tell you the truth, I haven't built any links in 6 months! Create GREAT content and people will naturally link to you and give you Facebook likes.

Hey Zeph! Hope your company is doing great.

@Ben, screaming frog is good for this. You will need to get the paid version of it. There is a video on the site http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/. Use filters to get to your real URLs.