Hi all,
A lot of webmasters (including some self-proclaimed SEO experts) claim that on-page optimization is obsolete - that the only thing that matters is off-page optimization ----- "link building".

So is that true?

Hi there,

I'm an SEO myself have found that both on and off page SEO are vital. You can't get quality backlinks if your site doesn't have great content. Off page is also needed especialy when it comes to competitive industries.

There has been rumours of certain on page factores being devalued, such as header tags. But title tags are still important to Yahoo! and MSN and relvant content is a vital, especialy for Google.

Cheers, Koz

definately not true;

to my opinion the off page optimization is the steep slope of the SEO mountain and the on page optimization is the necessary base and the top of the SEO mountain...

it really depends on witch SE you're targeting, for example:
made the website, *only* did on-page optimization, site has barely to none links and ranks #1 for pretty competetive terms (real estate terms) in YAHOO! and MSN, in Google he can't be found on thoose competetive terms...

If you want Google-love, you need links
if you're trying to rank for terms that aren't on the page it makes it more difficult..
if you have great content it make it easier to ask and get links...
if you have good content, websites link to you without asking, people like to link to good resources/content

I think what is most important is to watch out for *over-optimization* my advice is don't worry to mutch about the optimization, focus on content. If you build quality content/websites, you will get thoose ranks sooner or later, atleast that's my experience.

It is my opinion that avoiding on page optimization is a mistake regardless of which SE you are targeting. Eliminating spider traps, tech issues and the like can make your site much more crawl friendly and help you avoid current and future pitfalls. I have worked on sites in the past with navigational structures that have resulted in a majority of pages being omitted from search or placed into Google's supplemental index. This was corrected by a css/table layout that placed content above the navigation and resulted in these pages being returned in main index results. However, if you design accessible pages most of these mistakes can be avoided in the initial design process. All of that said, on-page optimization is still only one part of the puzzle.