In addition to today’s Internet Marketing Monitor coverage, we felt these stories were worth pulling out of the multitude of news items for July 20, 2007:

The $10,000 Robots.txt File… Ouch! [SEOBook]

Aaron Wall isn’t the only one who has had an “ouch” moment because of a robots.txt snafu. It’s very, very easy to block content that you’d rather not. Unless you’re monitoring your site closely, you might even miss the initial effect. Until, of course, you’re out $10,000 and start scrambling around trying to figure out what’s going on. Remember that thing about getting know your site well? This is part of that.

Google Quietly Decommissions Click-to-Call from Maps [Natural Search Blog]

Remember back in November when Google rolled out the Click-to-Call feature across its Maps service? Click-to-Call allowed users to make phone calls to businesses listed in Google Maps by simply clicking a link in the listing and entering their phone numbers. Google has apparently done away with this feature. But instead of making an announcement for the world to see, a Google employee monitoring the Google Maps Help Group let the news slip.

5 Pros and Cons of SEO Consultant vs Agency [Online Marketing Blog]

So you’ve decided to hire someone to do your SEO, huh? Do you hire an individual consultant? Or an SEO agency? As Lee Odden points out, there are pros and cons to both options. The one you decide to go with will ultimately come down to a number of factors. If you’re still on the fence (or haven’t yet decided to take the plunge), give Odden’s post a look and see if answers any questions for you. In my experience I’ve found that it’s often best to meet with and get to know a little bit about both a consultant and an agency before making a decision. Often times the choice becomes much more obvious.

Have a great weekend, folks! We’ll see you bright and early Monday morning…