It appears Google has gone far beyond stemming with their current algorithm update. They seem to be looking for semantic intent of the query as well as the page, and then returning a result based upon it. The resulting pages frequently may not even have the query on the page.

• If you search Google for whiplash injury (Google Search : whiplash injury) you will notice the Google results consist mostly information sites.

• If you search Google for whiplash injuries (Google Search : whiplash injuries) you will notice the Google results consist mostly of commercial sites.
• Some people (such as Peter D) are stating these updates relate to the invisible tabs idea that Danny Sullivan spoke of last year.

(original discussion in HighRankings Forums) Many local sites from Florida to Austin to NYC have taken a beating by the recent Google algorithm updates (Florida and Austin.) Is it any wonder they named these recent Google algorithm updates after locations?

Google still have some things to work out with the new algorithm though, as many search results are still a wee bit funky. If the relevancy only drops on commercial searches that is not so bad in the eyes of Google since other products such as Froogle will help in this area. Perhaps semantics are the way to separate the white pages from the yellow pages!

This is a list of Major Web Directories and reviewed web guides. Web Directories
Business.com charges a $299 annual listing fee. Business.com is a purchase more for direct traffic than link popularity.
DMOZ - also known as the Open Directory Project - provides free listings, but it may take a while to get your site listed.
Gimpsy verb based directory which charges a one time $40 fee or also list your site free if you are willing to wait 21 days.
GoGuides one time $40 fee or provides free listings for editors.
JoeANT one time $40 fee or provides free listings for editors (it is quick and easy to become an editor.)
Lycos Directory European based directory.
Skaffe one time $40 fee or provides free listings to editors. Originally Built from GoGuides core data.
Uncover the Net - Newer directory which has more link popularity than all but a couple directories on this list. My friend Shawn has done a fantastic job promoting Uncover the Net. $39 fee. Highly recommended
Web Beacon one time $40 fee or provides free listings to editors. Originally Built from GoGuides core data.
Wow Directory - Bruce Stone's directory. Offers free inclusion, paid inclusion, and sponsorship opportunities. Highly recommended
Yahoo $299 annual fee or free for non commercial websites.

Reviewed Web Guides

About
BBC Webguide
Lirarians' Index of the Internet
WWW Virtual Library

More Directory Information

the directory archives is my ongoing project which is to be a directory of directories. I also like a number of smaller directories like Rubber Stamped, and recently wrote a more up to date post on directories.

This is a list of the major world wide search engines. Major World Wide Search Engines

(Personal rankings) appear next to each search engine.
AllTheWeb - powers Lycos. Database created from Yahoo! Slurp spider. (4)
AltaVista - on its last leg. Database created from Yahoo! Slurp spider. (5)
InfoSpace - meta search engine which also powers many other meta search engines (6)
Google - powers AOL, Google...(1)
Teoma - powers Ask Jeeves (3)
Yahoo! - powers Yahoo! (2)

This is a somewhat comprehensive list of SEO forums. If you know of any SEO forums that are missing from this list, feel free to add them in the comments and I may eventually get around to adding them to the list.

Update:
Due to popular demand and numerous customer requests we added an exclusive private SEO community forum to our online SEO training program.

Forum Meta Information:
There are a ton of SEO forums and it is hard to keep up with all of the information that is put out in all of them. Fortunately there are a bunch of bloggers like me who try to point out some of the good stuff in them. ThreadWatch is a bit of a hybrid, sorta like a blog and a forum. It is ran by DaveN, many other friends, and I.

ThreadWatch also sports a good number of gossip column type entries that makes each visit enjoyable. ThreadWatch was created to help the mid to high level SEO professional. ... on with the list of forums.

Top Rated SEO Forums:

• SearchGuild - Chris Ridings SEO Forums. Very open and layback...good community feel to it, though activity has been a bit slow over the summer...I moderate at SearchGuild.

• V7N Web Dev Community - John Scott's SEO forum...John is known to challenge some of the "norms" and put out info that sometimes goes against the grain. I moderate at V7N.
• Search Engine Watch Forums - newer SEO forums where many long time / old school SEOs hang out. Lots of breaking news breaks at SEW forums.
• Digital Point - a newcomer on the forum scene, Digital Point has quickly grown to be the most active forum by combining a fairly hands off social policy with innovative forum features and cool SEO tools.
• SEO Guy Forums - newer SEO forum which has taken off well. SEO Guy is a longtime member of SEO Chat. When he made his own forums many of SEO Chat's best members went with him. I moderate at the SEO Guy SEO forums.

What I consider to be a top rated SEO forum is one where:

• it is ok to express various opinions (if you find an SEO technique effective it is ok to discuss it even if search engines do not particularly like that technique); &

• there is a high signal to noise ratio.

Largest SEO Forums:

• Digital Point - a newcomer on the forum scene, Digital Point has quickly grown to be the most active forum by combining a fairly hands off social policy with innovative forum features and cool SEO tools.

• Jimworld - Webmaster Forums. The late Jim Wilson created what I think was the first popular SEO / webmaster forum. From what I know the forum seems well past its brighter days.
• SitePoint Forums - webmaster coding forums. Many of the other forums have been primarily driven by the marketing angle. SitePoint places more focus on coding and site development than most of the other large forums.
• SEO Chat - It was originally started by Darrin Ward around the same time as SearchGuild. Darrin sold SEO Chat to the owner of the DevShed network. SEO Chat has a ton of ads on it and is advertised heavily on networks like O'Reilly.

  The link rentals mean their posts come up well in search results and also that they parse a good amount of link popularity out in post sig links. The heavy on site advertising (some pages have huge ads and even have sponsored text links for buying prescription drugs on them) coupled with the large # of "me too" type posts that their link popularity has makes SEO Chat appear unappealing to many experienced SEOs.

• Webmaster World - Webmaster Forums. Currently this is perhaps the largest SEO / Webmaster forum (although Digital Point might be getting more daily posts). It was created by Bret Tabke and a few other webmasters with the goal of beating out Jimworld. They appear successful in that goal, but now Webmaster World has strict posting guidelines and over time lost many of its best members. Many of the best old timers from Webmaster World now post at the Search Engine Watch Forums.

The volume of information in large SEO forums is immense...hence the fact I classify them as large ;-)

Large SEO forums tend to eventually lose some of their community feel. They are hard to scale without losing that community feel, and when that community feel goes away the forums become too hard to moderate as the signal to noise ratio makes them too hard to keep up with. Digital Point has done an amazing job of scaling out a forum that still has a good sense of community to it.

The Big SEO Forum List:

• Abakus Forums - SEO forums - smaller, but they have a larger German version too. Webby moderates at a good number of various SEO forums. Swell chap :)

• Anthony Parsons SEO Forum - Ran by ... Anthony Parsons. It is still rather quiet as I do not think he has promoted his forum much, but Anthony makes many thoughtful posts at many other SEO forums.
• AOSEP - newer smallish SEO forum started by some Searchguild moderators.
• Band of Gonzo's Webmasters Forums - A few of the lead posters at WebProWorld created their own SEO forums. Dodger tends to dig up a good number of interesting news pieces.
• Buscador Espa�ol - Small Spanish SEO forums.
• Cre8asite Forums - usability / design / webmaster forums - mid sized. Guys Like Peter D, Black Knight, and bragadocchio post many enlightening posts with lots of experience in business and marketing.
• Digital Point Forums - Shawn Hogan's mid sized SEO forum. Shawn is a programmer by trade and has created some of the coolest free SEO tools available. His forums tend to be rather liberal and many people who are kicked out of other SEO forums learn now to behave before they get kicked out of his (I do not think I have ever seen him ban anyone). He seems like a rather swell chap.
• Dirson Google Foro - Spanish forums about Google.
• Foro Buscadores - Spanish seo forums.
• Forums Abondance - French webmaster forums.
• Geeks on Steroids - Newer SEO & webmaster discussion forums.
• Highrankings SEO Forums - Jill Whalen's mid sized SEO forums. Jill is branded as "the SEO copywriter." Her forum is geared primarily at people new to SEO, but there are also a variety of more experienced SEOs there too. Her forum tends to be rather conservative or "white hat."
• HTML.it - Italian webmaster forums.
• IhelpYou Forums - Doug Heil's mid sized SEO forums. Doug is a self appointed crusader against search engine spam. He is quick to judge and his opinion is strongly reflected in his forums. Above when I wrote about the gossip column posts at ThreadWatch the one about Doug Heil's SPAM comes to mind.
• Jimworld - large webmaster forums. A bit past its prime in my opinion. A larger and older forum on the forum scene which I rarely visit.
• LilEngine Forums - smaller SEO forums. There is not much activity at LilEngine. When I first started moderating there many people did tons of link drops, but I have been trying to delete them out as best I can.
• Ozzu - mid sized webmaster forums. I do not post at their forum frequently enough to adequately review it, except to say that it has a decent signal to noise ratio and a cool looking design :)
• Resource Zone - Webmaster forums for public interfacing with the DMOZ (Open Directory Project) editors. Lots of major webmaster conflicts occur there. Some of the editors are great, but some are also judgemental and mean. Often frustrated webmasters directly accessing these editors means you get to see the best and worst the editors have to offer.
• Search Engine Watch Forums - newer SEO forums where many long time SEOs hang out. One of my favorite SEO forums.
• SEO Blackhat Forums - paid forum discussing aggressive SEO techniques.
• SEO Chat large SEO forums. The signal there is kinda drowned out by tons link drops and some of the top SEOs are driven away by the massive amounts of advertising on that forum.
• SEO-Forums.com - James Mann's small new SEO forums. I have not visited it enough to give it any sort of review...I can only state that it is kinda small and somewhat new.
• SEO Guy Forums - newer SEO forum which has taken off well. SEO Guy is a longtime member of SEO Chat. When he made his own forums many of SEO Chat's best members went with him.
• SEO Debat - Danish SEO forums.
• SEO Place - Derek Chew's newer SEO forum. Derek also runs Organic Rankings.
• SEO Refugee - independent SEO forum which sprung up after SEO Chat imploded.
• SEO Town - Darrin Ward's new small SEO forum. After his 1 year non competing clause with SEO Chat lapsed he made the site, but it has not really picked up much steam.
• SEO Talk - Newer small SEO forum from the people of Webmaster Talk.
• SEO Zip - Nandini Maheshwari's newer SEO forums. I help her moderate there.
• SearchGuild - Chris Riding's mid sized SEO Forums. One of my favorite forums. Great signal to noise ratio and great sense of community.
• Search This Forums - small webmaster forums.
• SitePoint Forums - large webmaster coding forums. Site is primarily focused on coding and web development instead of marketing.
• Spider Food Forums - J.K. Bowman's SEO forums.
  Suchmaschinen Community - German SEO forums.

• Syndk8 - black hat SEO forums.
• Top25Web - Anthony Ettinger's small SEO forums. He is a programmer by trade, and I believe the Top25Web forums are primarily geared toward those new to SEO.
• V7N Web Dev Community - mid sized webmaster forums - John Scott's SEO forums. John has a tendancy to be blunt, but he means well. I post there frequently. :)

• Web Inspect Forums - smaller, newer forums
• Webmaster World - large webmaster forums. Strict posting policies. Search Engine Watch forums has recently cut into their userbase.
• Web Pro World - mid sized webmaster forums. An SEO forum aimed at people new to the SEO scene.
• Webmaster Homepage - German webmaster forums.
• Webmaster Talk - webmaster forums focused around coding, creating, hosting, and promoting sites.
• Xeoweb SEO Foro - Spanish SEO forums.

Newsgroups:
Google Groups: Google Support
Google Groups: Search Engines

While the Newsgroups do have good stuff in them, they also lack moderation and that can lead to lots of misinformation. A newer Newsgroup powered by Google Groups 2 and moderated by Andrew Goodman is located here.

Andrew writes for Traffick.com, is consider as one of the leading gurus on Google AdWords, and he was the moderator of the I-Search list before the I-lists went away. His newsgroup has many higger level posts from sophisticated and experienced marketers.

LED Digest, one of the original email only discussion lists, also discusses SEO and other internet marketing and webmaster related issues.

Old SEO Forums Article
Here is a review of SEO forums I did near the end of 2003. Please note that some of its info may be slightly outdated, as things have changed and I have learned a good bit more in the past year. The information on this page is WAY MORE up to date than the info in that article.

Free tips to help you increase your Alexa Rank for your website.

1. Download the Alexa toolbar and surf your own site.

2. Have a few friends download the Alexa Toolbar and surf your site.
3. Shift the focus of your site toward a more webmaster like theme.
4. Participate in many webmaster forums which allow you to place your site in your signature.
5. Write articles about webmaster topics and distribute them around the web.
6. Optimize pages of your site for Alexa and related phrases.
7. Buy ads on search engines to increase your traffic. Your Alexa traffic rankings will increase.
8. Write an article with tips on how to increase your Alexa rankings.
9. Advertise that article on the world's largest network.
10. Join an autosurf network which exchanges Alexa credits. <--- this actually exists and they sell off some of the credits. The problem is that those are credits. They are not real visitors. They are not what you need.

    Direct Hit failed as a search engine because it based a large portion of its algorithm on web traffic. Alexa ranking is highly inaccurate and easy to manipulate.

    It is the quality and quantitiy of traffic to your site and how you convert those visitors that determines whether or not you will be a success. If you need help obtaining targeted traffic read my eBook. I guarantee you will not be disappointed.