I think its a combination of SEO and back links at this time It seems to me that the value of backlinks changes over time as Ican see some of my competitors via SEO Spyglass dont have as many links focused on specific anchor text but they do have a bigger spread of keyword anchor text and they are still in front of me on SERP
I think, back links with anchor text and unique content, are the most important things to get high ranking.
So gov / edu sites weight much higher than .com. .net etc? Would be interested to know what .gov .edu sites are actually selling links.
thew weight of a link depends upon the links and their quality. Links are necessary to have a good PR.....