whoisgregg - 9:58 pm on Nov 25, 2006 (gmt 0)

Analyze your competitors inbound links. Separate the "real" links from the paid, the scrapers, the DMOZ clones, etc. and get to work acquiring similar (if not the same) links.

...And if you have paid links, scrapers, or DMOZ clones pointing to your site, don't expect those to help you rank in Google. (Heck, the paid links can get you penalized if the network you buy in to is spammy enough.)

This is degrading to a "how to optimize for google" thread which isn't what the purpose is.

The only way to help you get Google to hate you less is by sharing "how to optimize for google." Anything more specific than what has already been posted and it'd be a site review, which we don't really do at WebmasterWorld. Although, if you ever have the chance to do a site review at Pubcon [pubcon.com], it's an amazingly worthwhile activity. :)