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I think Google will give a slight edge to big brands, as  Eric Schmidt of Google famously stated that the internet was a cesspool and needed brands.

That being said, I think there is room to disrupt the market with a lot of hard work. If you look at the third result, Tejani, they have less than 200 root domains propelling them to that position. A closer look at their link profile shows a link from glamour.com referencing the bride's earrings.

Dillards and Nordstrom have thousands, and thousands of links, but with less than 200 root domain links, they got up there. It can be done, just won't be easy

Also, just my PPC OCD but I would run a PPC campaign for that keyword first to determine how profitable it is first before undertaking any SEO. How that helps!

Scott,

You are right - the majority of directories don't really seem to provide much real value to actual users. I would suggest being extremely critical and conservative if you do decide to pursue 'general' web directory links.

There are niche directories out there such as directories that feature businesses that are green, and electrical contractor directories. These types of hyper relevant directories both add value and Google responds well to them. The more general type of directories are the ones that tend to attract the penguin's wrath. Hope that helps!

Alex,

I am definitely not a fan of charging by the hour and instead outline from the beginning what a person will get for a set price. Since SEO is an ongoing effort, the cost is recurring on a monthly basis with tasks broken down into the appropriate phases as you have described. The challenge is pricing this recurring cost and managing the expectations of the client upfront. I've never had a problem with clients who understand the value of my services at the start and also had the proper expectations. As for organizing yourself with the phases, I would highly suggest writing down everything you could possibly do for a client from A-Z, and really taking the time to examine the tasks and break them up into phases accordingly. Hope this helps!

Hi Sida,

Without knowing the exact search terms you are targeting, I would advise that you just monitor the serps closely to see which news results slowly slip. A lot of times these type of news outlets gets a temporary huge boost that slowly fades. Depending on the format and content of your site, I would suggest seeing if there is a way to capitalize on the recent news and tie Simon's divorce into a well written blog post or piece of content on your site. If you can't beat them, join them!

Hi Andy,

I would not waste your time trying to get them removed. In our experience it doesn't hurt to have these releases syndicated. I think google knows there a distinct difference between press release syndication and article syndication which is much worse. Press releases are meant to be distributed so I think there is more tolerance by big G. I would just be sure to not be too aggressive with anchor text links in the release.