1. JEMSU [ www.jemsu.com ]
2. Boulder SEO Company [ www.boulderseocompany.com ]
3. Highpoint SEO [www.highpointseo.com ]
4. Parker SEO [ www.parkerseo.com ]
5. Colorado Springs SEO [ www.coloradospringsseo.com ]
6. Colorado Website Design [ www.coloradowebsitedesign.com ]
7. Silver Droid [ www.silverdroid.net ]
8. …
9. …
10. …

On November 30, 2010 Yodle took a major blow by loosing what I considered a ‘key player.’ It was later announced that Mike DeLuca who at the time was Yodle’s Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing was packing his bags and heading off to AOL to head their sales efforts.

Since Mike’s departure not only my interest, but consumer interest alike has flat lined according to Google Insights.

Feb of 2010 I wrote a review titled “Yodle Organic Shows Promise for Small Business Owners,” and it did, but how about now?

Just as it is with my own business, I preach transparency. Over the next few weeks I am going to be evaluating 10 Yodle Organic clients at random to see how their organic or SEO stacks up. Based on what I’ve seen over the past two years I’ve yet to see any Yodle clients pop up in the top 10 rankings in Google, Yahoo and Bing for competitive keywords. So what’s the trick or lack-of?

Stay tuned, bookmark us and come back for the juicy details on how Yodle Organic really stacks up almost 2 years after its launch.

I’ve always been a fan of live chat even before ReachLocal announced the launch of TotalLiveChat.

Several years ago I formed iClick ChatBack – a testing environment for live chat that featured intelligent triggers based on users entry points, time on-site and exit points. During this testing period I quickly learned how incredibly powerful adding live chat to a website could influence it’s overall conversion rate, it was drastic.

Last year just before the launch of TotalLiveChat I decided to suspend iClick ChatBack and focus on growing the portion of our business that we do best: Search Engine Optimization.

Several months ago I decided to try TotalLiveChat as a live chat solution for SeanHakes.com and since it’s been live it’s proven to be a powerful marketing tool that well delivers a substantial ROI. A fine addition to our already powerful SEO services.

For those who are unfamiliar with the pricing structure it’s simple; $10/lead and the majority of the ‘sales leads’ tend to be very good.

Though this service has proven to be a great addition to our powerhouse organic services it’s like most, not perfect. We’ve seen a handful of bogus leads come through that were obvious unrelated or non-sales related inquires, but the good leads without a doubt out number the bogus ones and we’ve seen a great overall ROI.

TotalLiveChat: Recommended

As a veteran in the local internet marketing space, it’s been fun interviewing, researching and getting simply put; down and dirty with companies contributing to the internet marketing space. Over the past few years I’ve noticed there is still a very real need for a true local online marketing service that is dedicated and devoted to the success of their clients, the small business owner.

Here’s your official introduction to Jemsu!

First – don’t go to Jemsu.com, it’s still under construction but the brilliant minds behind the new brand are very much alive and have already helped thousands of small business owners (formally Denver SEO, Inc) maximize their success and ROI online with a near perfect customer service and delivery combination of excellent soon-to-be award winning search marketing solutions.

This post is sponsored by: Fort Collins SEO

Denver SEO LLC is currently seeking up to 10 sales team members to help promote and sell search engine optimization, pay per click management, and website design services. We have package offerings ranging from just $295/mo, all the way up to $10,000/mo or more. Our current rankings, branding, and client history make our services easy to sell and maintain for years to come. Sell an average of just two deals per week* and you could be making over $100,000 per year.

We will be offering basic SEO training to the selected candidates, along with extensive sales training from a 25 year sales training professional. Make your own hours and even work from home if you choose. This position is highly lucrative for those willing to put in hard work. Prior experience is a plus, but not required. This is a commission only, 1099 position.

If you would like to apply for this opportunity, please contact Robbie at FIVE ZERO THREE-949-8779 or email us your resume. Please put “SEO Sales Position” in the title of the email to help sort through spam inquiries.

Filed under: Denver SEO Jobs

Earlier today (about 10 hours ago from this post) I Tweeted a news tip to Search Engine Land with notification that RipOffReport.com was no longer indexed in Google verifiable by site:ripoffreport.com. My first thought was that RipOff Report had been penalized and/or perhaps asked to remove the website by a court order or something but thought I’d pass along the tip to Search Engine Land for verification and/or clarification.

Around 8:12PM EST Search Engine Land’s Matt McGee posted the article “Ripoff Report Not Banned, But Removes Itself From Google’s Index.”

You can read the entire story here.

Search Engine Optimization:

“Still more corrosive are attempts at so-called search engine optimization or SEO. Experts in this area promise companies that they can improve page rankings by doing everything from fixing keywords to reorganizing a Web site.

SEO firms argue strenuously that they are legitimate businesses, but in general much of what they do undermines Google’s original intent, namely to analyze the content of pages and Web sites, independently determine what those page are about, and deliver relevant results.

Attempts to change the content of what’s on a page to make it more appealing to the search engine in effect changes that information, often making it less relevant and in effect foiling the search engine’s endeavors to be accurate.

Our search results were just fine before SEO came along, thank you very much.

All of this is a result of the fact that Google is the world’s most popular search engine, which makes it a target. Google fights a daily cyberbattle to keep its results relevant, but it appears to be losing the war, drowning in a sea of SEO.

Perhaps the only way to make Google better is to make it less popular.

So the next time you go to Google something, don’t. Try a different search engine, such as WolframAlpha (for scientific topics), Omgili (for message boards and discussion groups), Lycos, DuckDuckGo, or Quintura. They may give you better results — and help save Google in the process.”

SEO firms argue strenuously that they are legitimate businesses

The SEO scene without a doubt has it’s problems as do most industries. If Quain considers SEO Firms who pay taxes, provide jobs, stimulate their local economy and provide a value added service to small business owners with very limited budgets the opportunity to compete illegitimate, then there’s either a screw loose or he has personal reasons for smacking the SEO Scene.

Our search results were just fine before SEO came along, thank you very much.

I’m not sure which rock Quain has been hiding under but SEO has has been around just about since the beginning of search engines. The only difference is there are more and more text book ‘SEO Experts’ popping up.

So the next time you go to Google something, don’t. Try a different search engine, such as WolframAlpha (for scientific topics), Omgili (for message boards and discussion groups), Lycos, DuckDuckGo, or Quintura. They may give you better results — and help save Google in the process.”

Don’t waste your breath – Google is by far too convenient and accessible. Oh and next time you have the urge to see what’s happening on Fox why not try a different news source (one that isn’t owned by News Corp) like CNN or MSNBC?

My final comment is this: In addition to SEO, Quain claims that Google’s Algorithm is faulty. This comment alone leaves me to believe that Quain at some point investment some time into trying to figure out Google’s Faulty Algorithm and failed.

Now that I’ve guess how about you give it a shot in the comments below.

At SEM Showdown we’re in the business of starting conversations. Recently a SEM Showdown reader submitted a call to us from Local Lighthouse out of Tustin, CA who in a sales call message identified themselves as a, “Data Service Provider for Google.”

According to the playable message below the pitch is simply this; Google is calling you and offering you some sort of 1st page placement as if some other advertiser dropped off and they are looking to your company as a fill in for a reasonable price.

If you’re a small business who’s heard of similar tactics – first Google won’t call you and second Google isn’t a paid directory and companies don’t simply fall off and replaced by your business for a $299/mo+ fee. Scam? I think so but you be the judge.

Here’s the message.

Start the conversation by leaving your thoughts below. Do you think sales tactics like this are ethical or unethical? Could this be considered trademark infringement by Google?

In the meantime be sure to post your Yodle Reviews at YodleReviews.net!

Posted on YouTube at: Denver SEO and more to come on Agent SEO.