While I agree that search engines will continue to improve their technology I don’t think they’re going to be able to read around any and all human error in development any time soon. They still rely on webmasters to provide signals on a page’s topic via content/code/links, and I don’t see why that will change in the near future (or why it should, frankly). Beyond the technical issues if you’re not using the right language in the right places you’re not properly “tagging” your content.

Additionally I’d say I’m not ready/willing to wait around for search engines to step up their game – and I wouldn’t recommend anybody else bank on an unpredictable eventuality either.

I agree for new websites 100% – a little upfront SEO is all you really need when it comes to working keywords into the right places and ensuring no technical issues. And you’re right that once that’s done it becomes a promotional game. Especially with CMS platforms like WordPress leveling the on-page playing field in many ways.

As search engines evolve, the need for SEO will decrease and eventually SEO will die out as there will not be any need to do any optimization to your site, search engines will be able to gather the information they need without you making special preparations for it, of course, as long as you obey to a specific type of markup language and don’t make a mash out of your content.

At this time, I consider that, for new websites, besides taking the actions to ensure at least a minimal SEO for your content (I seriously think that many people are over-optimizing their sites), the best way to start is advertising. Either you run banners, or text ads, or television/radio/newspaper ads it’s all the same, ads work.

1. Minimal SEO
2. Advertising
3. Do it yourself, or hire someone on the long term, to make your website known on the internet. Posting links on forums and blogs might not be nice but it works, and if you’re on-topic and your linked content is on-topic you’re not doing any harm.

Not sure what this means, but I’ve got 8,495 inbound links, and I’m on top of my SERP for my KW phrases.

It also depends somewhat on the link building method. In a situation like Matt Inman using quiz badges to build thousands of links the “Free Online Dating” text was a lock-in. He could have been totally off-topic with his on-page SEO elements and still ranked #1 for that term.

But I definitely see your point on leading the conversation. If you somehow generate buzz/links on your “credit issue nullification services” – and that language becomes the context – that’s the wrong anchor text, and you’ll get it.

But I have a hard time seeing how you’d possibly generate buzz/links using crappy language like that.

I definitely appreciate your input – you raise some excellent points, and I find myself considering the situation from new angles – always valuable. I’m OK with being wrong if I learned something in the course of argument. :)