Top Rated SEO Forums:

• SearchGuild - Very open and layback...good community feel to it
  
• V7N Web Dev Community - known to challenge some of the "norms" and goes against the grain.
  
• Search Engine Watch Forums - newer SEO forums where many old school SEOs hang out. Lots of breaking news breaks.
  
• Digital Point - Digital Point has quickly grown to be the most active forum by combining a fairly hands off social policy with innovative forum features and cool SEO tools.
  
• SEO Guy Forums - newer SEO forum which has taken off well. SEO Guy is a longtime member of SEO Chat. When he made his own forums many of SEO Chat's best members went with him. I moderate at the SEO Guy SEO forums.

What I consider to be a top rated SEO forum is one where:

• it is ok to express various opinions (if you find an SEO technique effective it is ok to discuss it even if search engines do not particularly like that technique); &
  
• there is a high signal to noise ratio.

Largest SEO Forums:

• Digital Point - a newcomer on the forum scene, Digital Point has quickly grown to be the most active forum by combining a fairly hands off social policy with innovative forum features and cool SEO tools.
  
• Jimworld - Webmaster Forums. The late Jim Wilson created what I think was the first popular SEO / webmaster forum. From what I know the forum seems well past its brighter days.
  
• SitePoint Forums - webmaster coding forums. Many of the other forums have been primarily driven by the marketing angle. SitePoint places more focus on coding and site development than most of the other large forums.
  
• SEO Chat - It was originally started by Darrin Ward around the same time as SearchGuild. Darrin sold SEO Chat to the owner of the DevShed network. SEO Chat has a ton of ads on it and is advertised heavily on networks like O'Reilly.

  The link rentals mean their posts come up well in search results and also that they parse a good amount of link popularity out in post sig links. The heavy on site advertising (some pages have huge ads and even have sponsored text links for buying prescription drugs on them) coupled with the large # of "me too" type posts that their link popularity has makes SEO Chat appear unappealing to many experienced SEOs.
  

• Webmaster World - Webmaster Forums. Currently this is perhaps the largest SEO / Webmaster forum (although Digital Point might be getting more daily posts). It was created by Bret Tabke and a few other webmasters with the goal of beating out Jimworld. They appear successful in that goal, but now Webmaster World has strict posting guidelines and over time lost many of its best members. Many of the best old timers from Webmaster World now post at the Search Engine Watch Forums.

 

The Big SEO Forum List:

• Abakus Forums - SEO forums - smaller, but they have a larger German version too. Webby moderates at a good number of various SEO forums. Swell chap :)
  
• Anthony Parsons SEO Forum - Ran by ... Anthony Parsons. It is still rather quiet as I do not think he has promoted his forum much, but Anthony makes many thoughtful posts at many other SEO forums.
  
• AOSEP - newer smallish SEO forum started by some Searchguild moderators.
  
• Band of Gonzo's Webmasters Forums - A few of the lead posters at WebProWorld created their own SEO forums. Dodger tends to dig up a good number of interesting news pieces.
  
• Buscador Espa�ol - Small Spanish SEO forums.
  
• Cre8asite Forums - usability / design / webmaster forums - mid sized. Guys Like Peter D, Black Knight, and bragadocchio post many enlightening posts with lots of experience in business and marketing.
  
• Digital Point Forums - Shawn Hogan's mid sized SEO forum. Shawn is a programmer by trade and has created some of the coolest free SEO tools available. His forums tend to be rather liberal and many people who are kicked out of other SEO forums learn now to behave before they get kicked out of his (I do not think I have ever seen him ban anyone). He seems like a rather swell chap.
  
• Dirson Google Foro - Spanish forums about Google.
  
• Foro Buscadores - Spanish seo forums.
  
• Forums Abondance - French webmaster forums.
  
• Geeks on Steroids - Newer SEO & webmaster discussion forums.
  
• Highrankings SEO Forums - Jill Whalen's mid sized SEO forums. Jill is branded as "the SEO copywriter." Her forum is geared primarily at people new to SEO, but there are also a variety of more experienced SEOs there too. Her forum tends to be rather conservative or "white hat."
  
• HTML.it - Italian webmaster forums.
  
• IhelpYou Forums - Doug Heil's mid sized SEO forums. Doug is a self appointed crusader against search engine spam. He is quick to judge and his opinion is strongly reflected in his forums. Above when I wrote about the gossip column posts at ThreadWatch the one about Doug Heil's SPAM comes to mind.
  
• Jimworld - large webmaster forums. A bit past its prime in my opinion. A larger and older forum on the forum scene which I rarely visit.
  
• LilEngine Forums - smaller SEO forums. There is not much activity at LilEngine. When I first started moderating there many people did tons of link drops, but I have been trying to delete them out as best I can.
  
• Ozzu - mid sized webmaster forums. I do not post at their forum frequently enough to adequately review it, except to say that it has a decent signal to noise ratio and a cool looking design :)
  
• Resource Zone - Webmaster forums for public interfacing with the DMOZ (Open Directory Project) editors. Lots of major webmaster conflicts occur there. Some of the editors are great, but some are also judgemental and mean. Often frustrated webmasters directly accessing these editors means you get to see the best and worst the editors have to offer.
  
• Search Engine Watch Forums - newer SEO forums where many long time SEOs hang out. One of my favorite SEO forums.
  
• SEO Chat large SEO forums. The signal there is kinda drowned out by tons link drops and some of the top SEOs are driven away by the massive amounts of advertising on that forum.
  
• SEO-Forums.com - James Mann's small new SEO forums. I have not visited it enough to give it any sort of review...I can only state that it is kinda small and somewhat new.
  
• SEO Guy Forums - newer SEO forum which has taken off well. SEO Guy is a longtime member of SEO Chat. When he made his own forums many of SEO Chat's best members went with him.
  
• SEO Debat - Danish SEO forums.
  
• SEO Place - Derek Chew's newer SEO forum. Derek also runs Organic Rankings.
  
• SEO Project - newer small SEO forum.
  
• SEO Refugee - independent SEO forum which sprung up after SEO Chat imploded.
  
• SEO Town - Darrin Ward's new small SEO forum. After his 1 year non competing clause with SEO Chat lapsed he made the site, but it has not really picked up much steam.
  
• SEO Talk - Newer small SEO forum from the people of Webmaster Talk.
  
• SEO Zip - Nandini Maheshwari's newer SEO forums. I help her moderate there.
  
• SearchGuild - Chris Riding's mid sized SEO Forums. One of my favorite forums. Great signal to noise ratio and great sense of community.
  
• Search This Forums - small webmaster forums.
  
• SitePoint Forums - large webmaster coding forums. Site is primarily focused on coding and web development instead of marketing.
  
• Spider Food Forums - J.K. Bowman's SEO forums.
  Suchmaschinen Community - German SEO forums.
  
• Syndk8 - black hat SEO forums.
  
• Top25Web - Anthony Ettinger's small SEO forums. He is a programmer by trade, and I believe the Top25Web forums are primarily geared toward those new to SEO.
• V7N Web Dev Community - mid sized webmaster forums - John Scott's SEO forums. John has a tendancy to be blunt, but he means well. I post there frequently. :)
  
• Web Inspect Forums - smaller, newer forums
  
• Webmaster World - large webmaster forums. Strict posting policies. Search Engine Watch forums has recently cut into their userbase.
  
• Web Pro World - mid sized webmaster forums. An SEO forum aimed at people new to the SEO scene.
  
• Webmaster Homepage - German webmaster forums.
  
• Webmaster Talk - webmaster forums focused around coding, creating, hosting, and promoting sites.
  
• Xeoweb SEO Foro - Spanish SEO forums.