I have never worried to much about the placement of my site when it comes to search engines, looking at me web logs I have to laugh though at some of the terms we come to the top of the search engine totem pole. I even have received request from sites I have written about to remove my article about them as it has caused their listing to slip. My reply is generally get busy with your content.
On the other hand I get on a weekly basis request from companies to do link exchanges, they always start our with the same form letter. I always respond that they can buy a link and put a ridiculous price on it. They seem to go away, recently I received a very nasty reply back from a person that requested we link to them. Visiting the website I realized that the site had a Google Rank of Zero and it also was selling a product that was similar to one that I had done a favorable review on.
It is obvious that the SEO companies are working very hard for the companies that employ them and this contest is a way that they are going to attract more people to pay for their services. [WSJ]