Wow.

I think a lot of people here miss the boat completely on this topic. All sites should be optimized. Text, graphic images, design, site architecture, usability, etc.

IMHO, to think that getting tons of links to your site is the be-all-that-ends-all of search engine marketing is very narrow minded.

I'm all for link development. I'm also all for keyword-rich content. I'm also all for user-friendly web sites. I just don't think these 3 things are mutually exclusive. There are reasons for keyword-rich content other than search engine positioning.

I know I have a different perspective than a lot of search engine marketers because I am a designer. I see sites from concept through usability testing to template design to focus groups to launch to promotion to measurement/analytics to redesign. (Did I miss one? Maybe content management?)

This whole thing about content vs. links seems silly to me. It's easy to get links to sites with good content. FFA spam links as well as high quality links.

Just my 2 cents.