Ok, we think that the Indian SEO industry gets a bit of a rough ride in general, and specifically with public perception. And while it is true that probably 50% of the stupid comment spamming attempts on our two  blogs do originate from there, there are spammers everywhere in the world, so the numbers probably just represent the amount of people involved in the industry there more than anything else.

So a while back we inserted an attempt at some humorous linkbait into the main site in the guise of an SEO services India page, and it’s had moderate success with a couple of bites and attracted a few natural forum links as well as a couple of blogrolls.

Now, as the page was partly experimental (directory structures, keyword placement, that kind of thing) and partly humorous, and never meant as a serious attempt to get any SEO work in India anyway, and has just gone toolbar PR3 in the latest internal update, we thought the best thing we can possibly do with this page now is..

..more experimentation of course

• Firstly it’s soon going to get a homepage link to let some of our surging Ibiza linkpower flow freely into it, we would expect a SERP rise from this.
• And secondly we’re offering some lucky up-and-coming Indian SEO company the chance to get a free, highly relevant, and soon-to-be even more powerful “SEO India” link.

We recently tested the strength of one of these type links from our resources page which is actually suffering from intermittent Google grey toolbar affliction and it was proven to be reasonably potent, just a change of link anchor text at it (link already existed)  pushed the target site up from #20 to #5 for “internet Marketing Forum” in the space of about 3 weeks, and there’s a lot more links leaving that page than there will be on this free winner’s link.

We’re estimating about a “10 or 11″ on our linkstrength-ometer which is usually significant to most SERPs and sites, you can see the forum thread showing the last time and link here and the trust that our SEO site (top 50ish for “SEO”) should bestow onto a newish site should be considerable. These are the kind of links you dream of boys..

The winner’s link..

• PR3 page, but is just about to get linked from our mighty index page and so real PR will soon be surging through it, forget about the toolbar nonsense..
• will be contextual (in body text) with anchor text “SEO India”
  
• page has currently 26 live links leaving it, and more being nofollowed shortly
• will be free and permanent to the winner.
• will be awarded to the best comment answers / website combination.

We must of course have total confidence in whoever we are recommending with this powerful editorial vote,  which is in effect your own unique, relevant and powerful link page, powered by us. We would expect that you will see a fairly significant jump in the SERP if past experience is anything to go by.

This one will be worth the effort, we are sure..

So…

Rules of engagement

• Judge’s decision is final, no appeals. we will appraise your answers for knowledge and your SEO related website for worthiness to be recommended at linked at.
• All you have to do is answer the question below in the comments here
• Leave your web address in your name box, and names not anchor text please
• Anyone can enter, you don’t have to be big, just good.
• Spammers will be disqualified and possibly outed if you’re stupid enough
• Closing date for entries is 30 June 2009, winner will be announced 10th July 2009.

The big question/s.

What does content is king mean to you? (avoid cliches if you want any chance ) ..is it true? how so? how do you apply this to a boring website?

What are the first 5 things you do to quickly assess a new potential client’s website SEO project. Include tools used and/or details as necessary.

NB There are not necessarily any “right” or “wrong” answers in this, we are looking for similar thought processes and ways of looking at things, along with original websites that we think are well put together and well “SEO’d”.

We will of course only link to good sites and so will investigate potential winners sites as we see fit (and will probably want a quick MSN convo on picking a winner too)

So come and wow us.  ..Good luck guys..

Ibiza out..

edit we’ve received emails already asking if you can put up your answers on your own blog posts instead of in our comments.

Ok, yes you can, but you must:

a) comment here to let us know youre in..
b) link to this post (dofollow trackbacks anyway )