SEOmoz wrote an article about where the focus of search engine optimization should be placed. Good SEO consultants know that traffic comes from websites and search engines. And a good SEO consultant knows that a websites ranking is increased with the number of links back to the website using keyword anchor text.
In speaking with marketing agencies or web design companies, whether for a job interview or in casual conversation, I find that most are focused on on-the-page seo strategies. Yes, it is important to have seo compliant webpages as much as possible. But when working with a client that has an existing website, it is not always easy to convert a website if it is not practical, cost-effective, or cognizant of time. So you have to work around what cannot be fixed on the site. That’s where link building comes into play.
To take it a step further, it’s not just link building, it’s obtaining quality links from quality websites. In a nutshell, that’s what SEO means to me. Thinking beyond Google, and other search engines, seo is nothing more than building quality links that can send traffic back to a website.
What do you think? Is it better to focus on the website’s seo? Or, will you achieve better results by spending more energy on linkbuilding?