Penalized

Be careful implemting your SEO techniques. Google is on the lookout to punish those that try to game the system. Sometimes the best advice is just to create content that users want to see. Then you will probably not get any beat downs from Google.

Some businesses are learning this lesson the hard way. Pay some black hats to move you up in the SERPs. Then Google changes the rules and your site is nowhere to be found. Better test the waters with a throwaway site first.

Goodbye SEOMoz?

Just heard that SEOMoz is rebranding itself as just plain Moz. WTF? Seems like taking a risk. Also doesn't Moz feel like a nickname for Mozilla? Sure I get that you don't want to be lumped in with other lackey companies that foolishly put SEO in their title and domain. But SEOMoz should be considered an exception.

Impact of Links

Seems like it used to be that you could increase the number of inbound links to your site and get some juice. Well Google has become more and more wise about that. These days some links will not count toward your site's authority. And extra links might even count against you. So webmasters beware.

Link exchanging used to be a cool trend. It did not seem to black hat. However now reciprocal links just cancel each other out. That is, unless you can get a swap from a site with more authority. I think that might just benefit you a little.

The more important thing to look out for is links from a scammy source. You can't just buy up a domain and point a bunch of links to you. You have to consider the history of that new domain. Was it a link farm before? Don't get associated with it. It may just bring you down.

Heheh. I can think of some black hat tricks to help you out. You could get ahold of a lot of these scammy sites. Then you could bulk link from them to your competitors. When they get penalized, you could rise up. Sounds pretty evil. I like it.