RE: search engine page rank

> Google does seem to index pages with
> querystring 
> parameters these days, but not as consistently as those without, and
> it 
> doesn't seem to rank them as well.

The big problem with Google is what they do on their end is still very much
a mystery to all of us on this end. Google seems just fine with query
strings. A lot of searches will have the first result be a long, messy URL.
A search for 'sony vega' returns, of all sites, this one at the top:

http://tampa-stpetersburg.sellstufflocal.com/index.asp?Page=5&Category=1&Cit
y=198&Adid=135916&Sponsor=0

That said, simpler, cleaner, more human readable URLs are never bad. ;o)

And with all due respect to John and his skills, I'd like to ask the group
at large if anyone has ever used a SEO firm and, if so, what they felt the
results were. Did the SEO firm do anything significant outside the practices
of building accessible, well-written web sites?

-Darrel