My $0.02 cents…
I’ve tried testing various SEO related ideas, at least as much as my time permits, and the only thing conclusive I’ve come up with is there is complete randomness as to whether or not some of these suspect tactics actually work.
I know this may not be the popular opinion, but thats the way I see it.
We’ve done blatant cross linking and had great success as well as miserable results. Done site wide link buys with the same mix of good and bad, tested supposed “beat the sandbox theories” with no success etc.
The only thing I feel confident in saying about the current state of SEO is, links are still the key. Go for quality if you can, but then again sheer volume of links works also if the quality is crap.
Nobody but the Search Engines know for sure what works and what doesnt, and even then I suspect they are somewhat in the dark about how their algo’s really work. Its merely speculation based on our own personal experiences, and my experiences tell me there’s a whole lot of ambiguity from one site to another, one technique to another and so forth.
There may not be a magic bullet, good or bad, in SEO, at least none that I have found. I wish there was…