I had the good fortune of attending a BBB (Better Business Bureau) mixer here in San Diego the other night and I have nothing but good things to say about the quality of people you meet at these functions. I ran into people from all walks of life who wanted to know about what I did, what it was like, etc.
It was really nice to meet people who were genuinely interested in growing their business and were willing to meet people face to face if that's what it took to get a job.
Apparently it was not always this way, Sharon, CEO over at the BBB said that a couple of years back they couldn't get more than five people to show up at one of these functions. This year however, there must have been a hundred plus. She mentioned another interesting point - "if you link to the better business bureau, your personal company link on our website it will help your website move up the rankings on search engines."
While it is true that a link from the BBB means big page rank points, usually the difference between a PR0 and a PR1 - I doubt a reciprocal link helps you in the least. Granted, its still a reciprocal link to the BBB, but in terms of search engine optimization the word "meh" comes to mind.
But she touched a nerve with me, nothing bad, but I started thinking. Is this the trickle down effect of SEO knowledge? I think search marketing is starting to become mainstream enough that everyone has at least heard of rankings manipulation. The million dollar question however is "when will everyone jump into the search market?"
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