How highly can you rank with good SEO but few inbound links?

[willbl]

I have a new site in a relatively competitive sector. If i 'perfectly' optimise it for my keyword phrases is it possible to get to the top of google if i don't have many inbound links from other sites?

The other sites in my niche have been around longer and have inbound links but are not particularly well optimised.

[eZeB]

The other way around is much much easier -- loads of links and little (or no) optimizing at least IMHO.

You have to have at least a minimum # links to get on the radar tho...

[TheRookie]

Well, it seems a ton of links won't have an immediate impact, since it looks like Google is running it through their new "filter".

[Jon_King]

>>is it possible to get to the top of google if i don't have many inbound links from other sites?

In a competitive area, the simple answer is no. IBL's play a significant roll.

[incrediBILL]

Getting top rank on the highly competitive term may be hard if not impossible to crack but variations, related and localized terms may be easy depending on just how good your SEO is done.

I've cracked top 10 spots on very generic terms easily with no IBL whatsoever and generated a few thousand visitors the first month. I couldn't break into "widgets" but people did search for "straw widgets" and "blue felt widgets" which I cracked easily.

The real question is how good is the competition's SEO for the keywords on the pages in the top 10?

If their SEO stinks, you have a good shot and IBL will clench the deal.

[hp11]

IBL's are the way to go with very competetive terms. Why not optimize for less competitive keywords so you can rank higher with fewer IBL's. This way you will still receive SE traffic, whereas for very compettive terms, you may not receive SE traffic if you are buried deep in th SERP's.