Lately I've been talking to a lot of people in the industry trying to get a handle on the current SEO sales cycle, what people are charging, what their close rate is -- and, most importantly, what are the main objections that they are facing from prospective clients. SEOs typically hold their cards close to the chest but I've managed to glean a few nuggets.

In the early days of our search marketing business, our collection of SEO clients ran the gamut from slightly off-white to shades of gray approaching black. Yes, back in the day we too did some stuff that wasn't smiled upon by the anti-spam gods of the search universe. Of course, it was (and still is) sometimes difficult to determine where the line between white and black could be found.

A lot has been said, and a lot has been read on last week's Bing-rise/Yahoo!-fall last week, which makes now as good as time as any to start thinking about what it really means in the broad scope of "search engine marketing" - for both paid and natural search. I personally spent the better part of last week talking about and reflecting on the change, and I've written numerous thoughts on the implications. Given that there has been a little bit of time to let the news sink in, here are a few additional thoughts on what this change means …

One of the critical ways in which we communicate, grow, learn, and build relationships is through storytelling. And what makes a great story? A hero (usually the underdog), a villain (often the evil giant), and a quest to overcome great odds for an impossible dream. This clichéd plotline explains something I've noticed in the nearly two years I've been writing this column: We're not happy unless Google is doing battle.

I planned to write this week's article on the death of page views (I'll get back to that next time), but given the recent turn of events, I felt obliged to write this opinion piece instead. I'm usually the bitter, sarcastic guy -- and here I am defending a vendor, so this is a weird spot for me. I have spent the last day amazed at the consistent negative sentiments coming from the press, pundits, investors, and just about everyone but me. Yahoo is not dead.

For a long period of time, there was "The Code": an often unspoken agreement between advertiser and advertising agency, that together, through thick and thin, each side would respect and value the contributions being made and the economic climate under which events occurred, ensuring that everyone gained in a proportionate way to their stake in the partnership. Well, at worst, that code has been erased; and at best, it's no longer a viable staple, even for those who might still recognize its necessity.

As I said last week, I'm in the mood for a little reminiscing, so today, I'll be sharing the story of my first industry event and how I met iProspect's founder, Fredrick Marckini.

Faithful Search Insider readers will know I'm a big fan of "Top Ten" lists. In the past year, I've written no fewer than ten columns featuring Top Ten lists. Today I'd like to add one more to the collection. I've always believed you can learn a lot from a query. Here are my top ten ways to use search data beyond your search engine marketing program.

Six years before his death, my father had a severe stroke that left him, in its immediate aftermath, disoriented, visually impaired, and unable to form even simple sentences. Still, he was able to remember an important nine-digit number. That's the power of habit, in which some thought processes get so deeply embedded that it would take more than a cerebral hemorrhage to get them out.

This week's column attempts to wrestle with some large-frame issues that I think deserve attention, because, as we learned from the financial crisis, it's often the most basic, most obvious issues (such as whether all subprime mortgages that were being issued could possibly ever be repaid) that can blow everyone out of the water. In other words, just because nobody's talking about something doesn't mean that it's not real enough to kill you.