Link exchanges vs content vs a good site?

What weighs heavier?

[sincraft]

We have a website with so many SEO techniques on our site working - as far as keyword density etc. We are also working on putting about 20 articles on our websites front page via links to each one (does that help? or does it acutally only help the page it goes to)

I'm still confused as to if Link exchanges are better than content and a website laden with keywords but not spammed with them.

I'd value your opinions and other than ALL OF THE ABOVE..which do YOU think weighs the heaviest. Seems to me, link exchanges as the sites we compete with, have HORRIBLE content, sloppy ugly design - very little content and no keywords up. Yet rank high because they link with everyone and their mother..

S

[mrhazelj]

I would think with unique content and other on page things being equal, i would say the final descision is the authority of incoming links as I'm starting to learn. you could have a great website that nobody knows about. Your competitor could have a site on the same subject but has a good set of authoritive incoming links. but dont' discount content one bit though because when vistors do get there, you want unique content. So, build good content, then get authoritive links related to your subject. make sure you use keywords in the anchor text pointing to your site.

[alejandroulloa]

what do you mean by "make sure you use keywords in the anchor text pointing to your site"

Thanks

alejandro

[mrhazelj]

Here's an example. It is said that this improves rankings because when people link to you, they use whatever your product name is and your url:

<a href="http://www.widgets.com">keywords here</a>

keywords here would be your anchor text