SEO Newsletter, Excessive Link and Jason Calacanis Flakes

The SEO Newsletter is here! Sort of…

Just a quick heads up: We’re having a bit of trouble with our email provider at the moment (it should be fixed very soon), but just so you don’t miss out I wanted to let you know that the latest edition of the SEO Newsletter is now available via the Bruce Clay Web site. Head over to the newsletter page to get a glimpse of this month’s biggest search news, and devour two knowledge-filled search articles written by a couple of my fellow Bruce Clay team members.

Oh yeah, and while you’re on the newsletter page, feel free to subscribe if you haven’t already done so. You don’t want to miss out on the stuff we’re working on for the end of the month newsletter. :)

Google Warns Against Being Obsessive

Google has updated the link schemes portion of their Webmaster guidelines to say that excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging is against their guidelines (emphasis mine). Obviously, the question today is, well, what’s considered "excessive"?

Eh, don’t go there. I don’t think Google has a particular number in mind (the 42 joke getting old, right?), but I don’t think that’s how you should look at it either.

Instead, I say you follow Bob Massa’s advice:

"Don’t let your self get sucked into wasting your time judging linking opportunities with a yardstick of whether Google will think it is excessive or not. Approach each reciprocal link deal with a single thought. Will this link exchange bring me enough paying customers that I can justify recommending to my visitors to go to his site instead of staying at mine?

Well said, Bob.

Jason Calacanis Flakes Out of SES

Shoemoney was first to notice that Jason Calacanis’ name has been mysteriously withdrawn from the panels he was supposed to speak on. I’d love to get an answer on exactly what happened. Hopefully, it’s nothing serious (the dog is okay, right?), but at the same I hope he’s not just being a flake. Maybe he just didn’t have anymore insults to throw at the SEOs in attendance? Or maybe he was too embarrassed to talk about Mahalo?

Regardless, I’m totally disappointed. I was very much looking forward to hearing Jason state his case on SEO’s reputation problem. I was hoping after we got finished talking about SEO, we could talk about Jason’s reputation problem. Guess I won’t need to bring the popcorn and tar to this one after all. Lame.

Fun Finds

Skype is dead today. Now all that’s left to do at work is…work. How totally boring.

Search Engine Strategies is quickly approaching and with that Search Engine Roundtable has finally posted their session coverage schedule. They also have the dirt on all the after hours events, so make sure to check that out as well.

Speaking of SES events, it’s worth mentioning that Bruce Clay, Inc. will be co-sponsoring Wednesday night’s SearchBash 2007, so make sure to RSVP and let us know you’ll be coming. We can’t wait to see you!

Oh yeah, and happy birthday to the Compact Disc! Who knew we were born the same year. [Great, I’m younger than MTV but older than the CD. –Susan] Eat a cookie, you’ll feel better.

Lisa Barone is a writer, content marketer & VP of strategy at Overit Media. She's also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.

See Lisa's author page for links to connect on social media.