SEO Resources Updated
I just went though the Search Engine Optimization Resources section and updated it with all the really good bookmarks I have been collecting over the last couple months.
Some Good Reading – Top 25 SEO Blogs
DailyBlogTips.com recently posted a list of the Top 25 SEO Blogs.
“There are many ‘Top SEO Blogs’ lists around the web, but most of them are based on the preferences of the author.
The Top 25 SEO Blogs list, instead, ranks the blogs according to their Google Pagerank, Alexa rank, number of Bloglines subscribers and Technorati authority. Each factor has a score from 0 to 10, and the maximum score for each blog is 40.”
Aside from various ranking factors, these blogs are from some of the top SEO experts in the sector. In an industry where getting honest, accurate and up to date information is difficult; these sites are cutting edge. Good stuff for your news reader.
And if that is not enough, TopRankBlog.com has a “BigList” of SEO Blogs.
Effects of Bad Outbound Links
One of Rand Fishkin’s posts at SEOMoz.org, discussing some issues about Google with Matt Cutts, got me thinking.
A week ago, one of the sites I was working on promoting suddenly dropped in rank. It was rather… annoying, since things were just starting to get rolling. I couldn’t really figure out why. I had been out getting inbound links for the site. Why would it suddenly DROP, if inbound links were supposed to be GOOD for a site.
In Rand’s post, one of the issues discussed was the effects of bad outbound links. The question revolved around the usefulness of generic web directories. Including the ones designed just to help webmasters increase their rank and relevance.
Matt’s statement was that: Google still feels that directories are valuable. Even ones that are generally built for SEO purposes. Google treats all directories the same. If their authority/PageRank is high and content relevant, they can still pass a lot of link value.
But here is the kicker. Rand: “Directories (and all websites) that link out need to be very, very careful of who they link to, as this is a big way that Google’s algorithmically identifying and discounting paid and other types of links they don’t want to count.”.
Basiclly, if a site or directory is linking to lots of low quality or spammy sites, Google will consider that directory or site less authoritative. IE: Sites listed there get dinged. So, with my drop in rankings, I must have listed my site in a directory that Google considers “spammy”.
Bummer.
Directories that have an editorial process and keep those spammy sites out, can better maintain their level of authority with Google. So I guess you really have to watch WHERE your site gets listed.
Google Check No 1
Sweet! Today was a big day!
For the last couple months I’ve been building a couple sites. My small amount of traffic finally built up enough advertising revenue…
Well, I got my first check from Google today! It wasn’t huge, but for someone starting out, just getting your first check is huge! 
It’s more of a morale booster than anything. It’s like… OMG! This might actually work!
It took 5 months to build up enough with my little low traffic sites. I guess the low traffic problems was pretty much the reason I really started getting into SEO. And it must be working… The second check is coming a lot quicker. Wohoo!