I have been active in working with the following SEo techniques (and emplying others): Many and unique articles (12 per week) to High PR articles sites. (I have 200 unique do follow article links, not spun but hand written and varied and related to my profession) One article x 100 submissions, multiple times. Press releases Directories Social bookmarks. Forum posts with do follow links (all relavent) So I am seeing my website with correct keyword density dropping like a stone, maybe 2 positions a week. I can see competition with much less experience in my profession with websites started only 3 months ago ranking higher with 30 x back links. Some of the backlinks are on high PR pages PR3 PR4 etc. the old ways are truly not working, you MUST get high PR links to your site otherwise you are going down. I can see this in practice now. Articles, SBM, Press release and directories have been hit very hard and seem futile and a waste of time money and resource to create. My keyword IS very competitive but if "start ups" are ranking higher something is wrong. People need to work smarter, not harder gaining links with no value. Please, sensible reasoned and informative comments, not back link spam replies like