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We have been members of the BBB of Los Angeles (Southland Chapter) for many many years. Within the last few days, the chapter we belong to was expelled by the National BBB Council - this affected tens of thousands of businesses in the Los Angeles area.

It is unprecedented and quite honestly pathetic.  We put our trust into an organization that builds trust with consumers.  I don't believe this has ever happened in the history of the BBB.

The National BBB council has set up a temporary website with all Los Angeles area businesses registered with the BBB - although ratings for every single Los Angeles business is blanked out.

If a member of a search engine web spam team were sitting over your shoulder, would you still embark on your campaign?

Since you are specifically targeting .edu domains, to gain higher rankings - that in itself seems like manipulation on some level.  That's just my opinion.

Be wary of agencies offering Cookie Cutter services, chasing the latest search algorithms.

While the below method is not as easier as just hiring a seo firm - in the long run you will have more control over your entire campaign - content, links etc.

Find yourself a good writer -they can write guest blog posts, articles and even your press release for at least  1/2 of what an agency will charge you.  Use the writer when you need them.  Chances are you won't need them full-time.

Use a search engine's advanced operators to query and find relevant links related to your industry.  Can't do it to yourself? learn how to do it, than hire someone and teach them how to do it.

Find a company who specializes and video creation and have them do it for you.

I feel its better to do it yourself or in-house if you have employees/resources.  You will have more control and accountability.

Chris - Nicely said.

Thanks, that presentation was great.

Wordpress is a great platform.  We use the Yoast SEO plugin - among others.  We recently added  W3 total cache and integrated it with MaxCDN - site loads instantly.

This is a good start - read this book: http://www.ericward.com/book/

Take a look at this option: http://www.cloudflare.com/features-security

Hi Chandubaba -

This is probably a good start to learn SEO - http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo

Re-writing the content would perhaps be a good start.

I've often wondered if these designers inform their customers that random outbound links on their webpages may affect their search rankings.

Website designers who place hallmarks in the footer section of sites they create, in my opinion are taking advantage of non-tech savvy clients.  Years ago, it probably was a much bigger benefit to the designer, than it is today with the algo changes.  But, it probably still bears some weight.