Link Building is very important for the sot e

Now that's a good one.

I agree with pretty much everything here, except the bit about social signals. Why? Well, primarily because I've split-tested, and gotten some great results with social signals. Is it the biggest factor? No. But I think that, once you've got good content, it's probably the best bang for the buck. So if you're on a budget, or doing it yourself and only have so much time to spend, social signals is a good place to spend it...if and only if you know how to do it efficiently and effectively.

Besides, isn't every social signal a link???

Thanks for sharing that, Scott. I haven't seen social signals have much influence as of yet.

But the SERPs don't lie: if you've seen them make a difference then they do.

The reason we're seeing different things may be because their influence depends on a) the content, b) the niche, c) the type of social signal, d) how social signals interact with user-experience signals etc. Yes, they're technically links...but they're typically nofollow or javascript.

Correct, most of the social links are a no-follow.

great post