When I say SEO, I mean professional seos, just like saying race car driver doesn’t talk about people who occasionally drive fast

What you’re describing, I would call a web developer or web specialist. They may know SEO, but they are not seos. I say this for a reason, they will not approach problems the same way specialists do: these developers are inherently generalists and will be more open minded in their recommendations. That’s a good thing!

As for google, I can only speak for the USA. There is no doubting the algorithm places high value on links, but that is not what will make it all work in the long run.

The comments perhaps diverted from the article theme a bit but I would like to make a point. I work for a company having a non-native market. Our SEO and marketing techniques are all in non-english language and culture plays a great role in conversion. However all you have mentioned to Shantolle about Google’s algorithms are so untrue when you check this region. I was so amazed myself. I sometimes dont believe I am trying to optimize for Google. Its frustrating. I dont know when would Google do something about it!

Thanks for dropping by!

To all new SEOs (and amateurs): spend less time trying to figure out the “tricks” for gaining rankings in Google. Nothing is a substitute for good quality content and markup. Make sure you have unique title tags, and a user-friendly navigation experience.

Google is shutting doors on the tricks and tweaks SEOs talk about daily. So don’t waste your time and resources. Instead, focus on making a great site and the rankings will come. Almost all of the sites that rank well today do so by offering more content, richer content, and clean code.

I can’t stress enough to just follow the fundamentals Google outlines in their webmaster guidelines and forget about gaming the engines. Google employs tens of thousands of the smartest people on earth, so the chances of the rest of us figuring out back doors that won’t be shut within a matter of weeks is slim, at best.

As a beginner SEO, focus on the fundamentals and adhere to white hat SEO (and avoid gimmicks) as much as possible.

Submitting articles is good if it’s good for your users. But backlinks from these directories are weak and the engines are wise to this tactic. Probably a waste of time.

Write another article, instead!

Best of luck.

You’re right that links are important, but I’m going to have to recommend to most people that going out and getting links is not the first thing to do – you need something worth linking to! Focus on creating good, high-quality content, and the links will come. The quality of the links is much more important than the quantity, and the only way to attract quality links is to have a quality site.