Rand Fishkin updates his list of questions qualifying SEOs seeking to charge for consulting services -- they should be able to correctly answer most, if not all of them. Those hiring a new SEO professional or seeking interview questions for someone to bring onto the team can also use the list. The questions include: Name six tools or sources that will display a list of external URLs linking to a Web page. And, how can an SEO positively influence the ratio of pages a search engine will crawl and index on a Web site? Fishkin plans to post answers to …

Google gives the option in AdWords to serve ads fast or slow (accelerated or standard). Lindsay Matt and Marcus McBride tell us what that means. To test the impact of the two methods, The Search Agency partnered with an unnamed, but well-known manufacturer of consumer technology. Matt and McBride explain the results in this long and detailed post, and suggest why standard delivery might perform better across all key metrics.

Jay Gould tells us how and why the Internet bubble has begun to expand. Company valuations for a variety of companies, from search engines to social networks, have begun to skyrocket -- and Gould tells us what that means for startups. Technology has begun its third phase, spurred on by smartphones and social graphs. He also explains why companies are choosing not to go public.

Everything Stoney deGeyter knows about SEO he learned in the 1980s, though at the time no commercial Internet existed. So he's taking a reflective look back, cued by the title of songs from some well-known rock 'n rollers. For example, deGeyter writes he always seems to run into people who read a little about SEO and think "It's So Easy" (Guns N Roses). And "What It Takes" (Aerosmith) to perform SEO correctly is more than just a basic understanding of how search engines work. Get the picture?

Yes, SEO professionals need to keep up with Web traffic on competitor sites, but knowing the tools to use can become challenging, especially when there's so many from which to choose. Sam Crocker provides a list of resources that many can add to their tool chest, serving up descriptions and strengths and weaknesses of each

Rick Aristotle Munarriz analyzes whether Google should or should not acquire Groupon, the site that bought co-op consumer purchases into the 21st century through email and electronic commerce. The rumored possible purchase sent Munarriz to analyze the bases for the purchase, the possible advantages and disadvantages, and what the niche space will look like in the near future.

The holidays always seem like a good time for reflection. Bill Slawski takes a walk down memory lane to describe the transition from Webmaster to SEO professional. He can't recall exactly when, but it happened sometime around 1996 when search engines counted among their ranks Alta Vista, Excite, Infoseek and Lycos. Today, the names might have changed and the methods have become more complex, but Slawski explains how the premise remains the same.

Search is getting some help this holiday season from social media campaigns that will provide another path to retail Web sites and conversions. Sports Authority will give away $500 gift cards to 20 randomly selected people who use Foursquare to check in at one of its stores on Black Friday, according to Christopher Heine. Participants must publish the check-in on Twitter to become eligible to win.

Ben McKay tells us 10 things that happened this year he thinks will shape 2011. From a European perspective, he looks at social media consumption, Bing-Yahoo alliance, mobile search, and online video. He also reminds us of the maturing SEO tools market and content pay walls, and suggests how each will influence changes in 2011.

Well, not really, but let's pretend. In fact, every so often Matt Cutts pretends he has the power to make one lucky person CEO for a day, asking folks through his blog: What would you do if you were CEO of Google? He's looking for ideas that would improve the world, the Web, or Google. What would you like to see Google do in 2011 or beyond?