SEO can be a confusing discipline for many, including those within the online industry. A lot of conflicting advice, secrecy, misdirection and outdated practise still exist. A good way to get a feel for how to cut the bullshit, (if you’re a small business or brand owner, seeking to hire an SEO) is to refer to expert blogs and independent research. A blog search engine such as Technorati can help you refine blogs by subject matter and will also rank blogs by authority. Additionally the consultancy SEOmoz publishes an extensive report every two years Search Engine Ranking Factors, which uses a polling methodology which survey top SEO professionals by invitation only. Such methodology is useful as this means you get the aggregate opinion of a large number of industry leading professionals (72 respondents in 2009 edition.)