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It looks like a product similar to ExpressUpdate or Localeze or Axiom.

I actually suspect that this site is simply reselling one or more of these products, which is fine.  These products are all meant to be resold.

These products are all good, effective ways to manage your local search data.  They take your data, sanitize it, and make sure it's exactly the same across hundreds of websites, which is exactly what you need for decent local search rankings, and a Google Map icon.

I agree, for the most part, but we're going to do 301 redirects to preserve most of that link juice.  I don't think the client is well enough informed for this to be the issue that he has.

If it were up to me, I'd dump the client, or at least wait until the new site is live.  It's not up to me.

I use GA, SEOmoz Pro, and OSE.  They receive most of the reports that these tools can provide, except for SERPs.  They also receive a comprehensive list of the links I have acquired for them, along with anchor text, domain rank of the linking site, etc.

The problem really isn't the reports they're getting.  The problem is that I've had to spend more time explaining what SEO and Link Building is to this client than I have gotten to spend doing real actual link building for him.

The site has goals.  There aren't specific landing pages that should be targeted with links for fulfilling these goals.

Frankly, the site is an SEO nightmare.  We're working on creating a new one for him.  One of the reasons I'm resistant to providing SERPs is that they don't have a page on the site that has Keyword #1 anywhere on it.  I can make them rank a little bit by pointing anchor text for Keyword #1 to it, but it's never going to rank like it should without that keyword there.

1. He receives this every month along with my reports.

2. He doesn't have any goals for specific pages.

3. I've been reluctant to provide SERPs because of some pressure from above me.  I understand why my superiors don't want to provide SERPs, because it can cause needless worry for the client.  In this clients case, it might be worth doing.

I wasn't involved in the initial planning period, sadly, as I hadn't been hired, yet.

None of the things you listed are statistical.  If you have good insights about statistical measurements that can and should be used for Link Building, I'd love to hear them.

I send monthly reports that have all of the links I've acquired.  They're all high quality links, not spam, not blog or forum comments.  They're all followed.  Many of them are on .edu domains.

He fundamentally does not understand link building.  He is not a smart client.

One of our account managers messaged me today.  Click here to see the conversation:  http://imgur.com/apZ9Z  Does anyone have any tips for dealing with really ignorant clients?

Agreed on all points.

Did my original reply make it seem like I was endorsing this tactic?  If so, that was not my intention.

It probably isn't illegal.  There might be some kind of fairly broad laws about sabotage that could cover it, but nothing specific to Search Engines.  So, it's probably not a crime that the government is going to choose to prosecute for.  However, you still might be able to put together a good civil lawsuit case about it.

It's almost certainly unethical.

Does it work?  Against a fairly weak website, I think it would.  There are niche websites that don't have a huge link profile, that I think would be vulnerable to this kind of attack.  It may be the strongest website in its niche, but it may be a very small niche.

I see people here recommending BOTW all the time.  I don't get it.  As far as I can tell, the one thing they have going for them is a high Domain Authority.  They don't send any referral traffic to my client's sites.  Their customer care is laughable.

I'm up for renewals for several of my clients on BOTW.  I don't want to oversee the decay of my client's back-links, but I also don't want to waste money on crappy directories like this one.

I'm really asking for someone to convince me that BOTW is worthwhile.

I'm probably not adding a lot to the discussion, but this just seems like an all-around terrible idea.

It would be nice if the directory list (http://www.seomoz.org/directories) had an area to discuss each individual directory.  Some of the directories like Internet Library have great domain authority, but have a large number of thumbs-down from users.  I would like to know why.

Personally, I'm very skeptical about directories.  I'd love to prove myself wrong, though.  The SEOmoz directory list in its current form isn't all that helpful.

Amazing answer!

One question, though.  How will this come across on GA?  Will it show as a referral from the site with the iFrame?

1.  I check if any of my other pages or clients pages are already listed on that directory.  I look for referral traffic.  If the directory isn't free, and has only sent a small handful of referrals, I won't list with them again.

2. If we haven't listed with a directory, I will look at their Domain Rank.  If it's 60+, I'll do a free listing.  If it's 70+, I will consider doing a paid listing.