Originally Posted by Yo Adrian

Stronger links = stronger rankings.

Not easy or cheap to get, but they're the core of Google's algorithm no matter how much they preach otherwise. Google would rather we spend all of our time writing content, nudging banners below the fold, worrying about content scraping (Google scrapes loads of content and profits well from it) and trying to figure out why shitty competing sites rank better than yours (they have a patent on randomizing search patterns to create uncertainty) than spending time getting good links. Strong links are the one remaining thing that can game their system and they know it.