Thanks to Search Engine Land dot com for their treatise on Matt Cutts discussing SEO Industry Misconceptions.
The question was something like; “What do you see many SEO people spending too much energy on?”
His answer was, “link building” instead of content. I’m paraphrasing here.
His verbatim answer was this:
A lot of people think about; “How do I build more links, and they don’t think about the grander, global picture of, how do I make something compelling and then how do I make sure that I market it well?”
Right after that, he says you should be taking advantage of Social Media and Social Media Marketing “and that’s a great way to get out in front of people” – says, Mr. Cutts.
In the next few minutes, he discusses user experience. That’s all about why someone should go to your site – it’s fun, it’s fast, it’s entertaining – all of that stuff that goes right back to, “make something compelling.”