I absolutely think so. Some do not agree, but I still think strategic back linking is very important. Think more in the terms of back linking from high quality sites thru Guest Blogging, Relevant Blog Commenting, and natural blogging (where people link to your content because they like it). I thought in the past two years all I had to do was create amazing content and they wouldl come (traffic). Unfortunately, for most it does not work that way. Of course you still have to create amazing content to attract and keep readers and customers but you also need to concentrate on the promotional aspect of your Site. Creating a buzz through video and social media and getting quality back links and staying away from those services that blast out 10,000 backlinks from forum profiles is a good start So with content also think a lot about promotion in your IM travails ! It is a must ! What do you all think ?
The market of SEO will never come down doesn't matters what Google does with its algorithms. A website, mostly business oriented, needs to be optimized to get ranked in Google to get business. So SEO will remain important as ever it was, the only difference would be as whenever there is a update the process of SEO must be optimized ;-)