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Dana, mind sharing what site you are referring to?

My first invitation to you would be to identify and subsequently throw out all your assumptions you seem to be quite commited to.

Google does't want you to pay to improve your rankings"

You know this to be true how? If you truly believe this and some of the other things you wrote in your post I can't help but get the impression that your definition of SEO is gaming (tricking) Google.

Instead maybe focus on creating high quality content worthy to be ranked and helping Google fullfil it's mission by providing relevant search results.

Hence why social activity is becoming the dominant factor as it is most likely a measure of quality than the back linking which over the years has grown completely out of control.

No point in doing anything until you maybe change the paradigm you are operating from. Take a breath, meditate a little and see if any of this makes sense.

The support here is out of the world.

Some really valuable insights on this thread and thx everybody for your generous sharing.

@Syed1  -  Your  link is not working. Please repost

I agree that this would be a great addition to SEOMoz.

Incidentally opened a threat dealing with the same question with some interesting insights:

http://www.seomoz.org/q/competitor-keyword-rankings#post-104610

My first invitation to you would be to identify and subsequently throw out all your assumptions you seem to be quite commited to.

Google does't want you to pay to improve your rankings"

You know this to be true how? If you truly believe this and some of the other things you wrote in your post I can't help but get the impression that your definition of SEO is gaming (tricking) Google.

Instead maybe focus on creating high quality content worthy to be ranked and helping Google fullfil it's mission by providing relevant search results.

Hence why social activity is becoming the dominant factor as it is most likely a measure of quality than the back linking which over the years has grown completely out of control.

No point in doing anything until you maybe change the paradigm you are operating from. Take a breath, meditate a little and see if any of this makes sense.

The support here is out of the world.