Red_Mud_Rookie - 2:24 pm on Apr 2, 2007 (gmt 0)

Outsourcing link development is risky business whichever way you look at it.
I know of recognised SEM agencies in the UK who offer this service to their SEO clients, but who, upon hearing you wish to terminate your SEO contract, claim they will have to remove all the inbound links they've been maintaining.
Now this may be calling your bluff to make you sign another 1 year extension, but the fact of the matter is that if these guys are doing it and doing it well, they probably own the network from whence your inbound links come.

Do you want to be held to ransom like this? I don't.

We need to be honest with ourselves here folks... sooner or later the engines will identify these "highly effective, yet 100% ethical" bought link networks. If you're paying someone to link their network of sites to you, you are effectively manipulating your listings by artificial means.... in other words the natural/orgaiic listing ain't so natural after-all.

Short term gains may be there for the taking, but long term we need to stop chasing algorithms and get on with developing great user content and websites that make other sites WANT to link to us.