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One would think so, but judge for yourself: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links.html?group=0&page=1&site=www.lgitransport.com&sort=page_authority

One of my client's leading competitors is well stacked in terms of rank/authority.  PA: 61, DA: 53.  However, in OSE I estimate that +/- of all links on the first page are from sites such as "http://www.shopp011.freedownloadhub.com/Link-Exchange/browse.php?id=17", "http://www.shopp002.freedownloadhub.com/Link-Exchange/browse.php?id=17", "http://www.shopp029.freedownloadhub.com/Link-Exchange/browse.php?id=17".

Personally, I would consider this to be a little spammy.  However, I admit that I could be wrong.

What's the best approach when trying to take on a competitor like this?  Wait it out and tell my client to keep blogging/selling as per the schedule until Google pics up on these links?

Is there any type of "best practice" for country level domains?

I run a TLD .com, and have a few country specific domains (.co.uk, .eu, ...).  Right now, I'm not doing anything with them.  Previously, I had them redirected to the main .com, but didn't want to anger the Google gods with any type of duplicate content, redirects, or anything of that nature.

Any suggestions on how to best utalize these domains?

My first, 10 second response -  I don't know where I'm supposed to look.

(and I waited and clicked to a few other pages, hopefully it might help your bounce rate )