I am going to put my neck out on the chopping block by agreeing and disagreeing all in the same response. I do not believe that content is king, but I also do not believe that links are king either.
The very best unique quality content is worthless is no one can find that page in the search results. On the flip side of that coin, all the traffic in the world is not going to make a bit of difference if no one makes a purchase (or other similar action) when they find the page.
I firmly believe that it is a combination of the two (incoming links and unique quality content) that has the highest impact on the ultimate success of the site.
Do I have proof?
Heck, I don't know what kind of proof you are looking for, but I go by the bottom line - the results I receive.
For the same search phrase being discussed in this thread, a page on my primary site has been #2 or #3 (or both) pretty consistently. I am not naive enough to expect that to be permanent though. I know it can change even by the time you read this post. That is exactly why I don't believe in keeping all of my eggs in one basket.
No matter what happens during search engine updates, having a
COMBINATION of solid high quality incoming links
AND unique quality content is not going to hurt your efforts, so why leave either out of the equation?
