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Totally agree. I love it because it helps prepare me for questions that I haven't been asked yet. It's a great way to stay on your toes and continue to learn and grow in the space. SEOmoz is really cementing itself as one of the best SEO resources available and certainly with the best community.

I don't think KD can accomplish that on it's own. There is no doubt proper keyword placement plays a role in determining relevance, but isn't a powerful enough aspect to command rankings by themselves if there is any decent competition. Of course there are many variables...

I would definitely recommend getting listed in directories. Instead of doing the bare minimum on a bunch of them, pick several relevant, high authority ones and keep updating and optimizing your listings.

Great content can get some good attention through social bookmarking. As you probably know, most of the popular bookmarking services are no-follow until a link attains a certain level of "popularity".

EGOL is right. I think its only a matter of time before thinks built on/thru social media begin to have a greater effect on SEO, but for now it's a terrific way to share content and gain natural links. Google sees all.

Depending on how it's uploaded on to the page, the page can still build links to it and gain in authority and trust. The content of the PDF will likely not be able to be crawled by the engines though.

Likewise.

Double listing - all the way!

Alan is right on. Be transparent about this! Make sure they understand where the basis of SEO is formed and that your at a disadvantage by not being able to focus! Communication is key.

I was considering giving them a shot as well... I am a bit hesitant to invest in a static resource when SEOmoz has such a great, constantly evolving "database" of knowledge right on the site. The problem with SEO books and videos is they are time sensitive in a very fluid industry. I'll probably still give them a go (because I love SEOmoz) but I think staying up to date with all of the content on here is a sufficient way to stay informed. Hope this helps!

I try not to take that into account when choosing keywords to optimize for organic. The competition may correlate to organic efforts but you can't let that dictate your optimization. You have to optimize for what your audience/clients are searching for. IMO.

This morning I was redirected to https://encrypted.google.com. Thought it was interesting. Google making a play to get some trust back?

Awesome. Love seeing real world examples.

If it were me, I'd do it by city. If not already, I can see Google eventually diluting the listings for broad service areas. However this area is very grey.

Google Keyword tools are estimates at best. I would not rely on them as your sole source of traffic estimation. A lot of times Google will say that there are 1000's of searches for a particular keyword and even if you rank first you might only see a couple clicks. It's the nature of the beast. As nice as these tools are to have, it will always come down to some testing on your part.

No specific regard. Just in general. How well does quality SEO scale in the broadest of terms.

That isn't always a bad idea. I would just say to make sure you are dealing with trusted sites before trading for links. All links are not created equal. Too many untrusted links reflect poorly on your site, regardless of how they are built!

Don't forget to monitor links you earn "naturally" and request better anchor text. That can do wonders.

The directory submission might not be helping so much either... depending on where they are, of course.

Well, does it?