trillianjedi - 11:03 am on Jan 21, 2005 (gmt 0)

Jaffstar nailed point #1

As long as there are still links pointing at it with the keywords in the link text that sems to be all that is required to rank in Google.

No. Amend to : ".....all that is required to rank in google for that specific phrase".

Good on page content will catch a lot of the topics surrounding that phrase. You miss a lot of free traffic without it.

Point #2 is your users will love you for your content, not your anchor text. Good content will mean that they all email their mates saying "check out this great site I found!". They'll come back. Ranking #1 on a specific term is a waste of time and bandwidth if all they do is hit the back button.

Good content will also organically attract more inbound links, some of which will have anchor text. That brings traffic and searchers.

Your original title statement:-

On Page Content = Little or NO Weight in SERPs

Is wholly incorrect. Whilst you're right in thinking that good inbound links with anchor text is critical in google at the moment (and mega important for your main phrase), don't get so caught up in it that you miss the bigger picture.

TJ