I have been reading a lot about Google Search. It really sounds like if you lack links back to your site from misc. sites the content is really secondary. I wonder if most companies that come up in the top search results apply for the SEO packages where your site is added to 250 misc junk urls. It really does not seem fair.

Also, in your understanding, do Google site maps really help that much?

Sitemaps will not help your site get indexed. Google is a popularity contest, the site with the most friends (links) gets the most coverage not the best site by content standards.

Spartan, you're right... in SEO terms off-page optimization is much more important than on-page optimization (not coincidentally it's also much harder to cheat it, though by no means impossible).

John, though it might be argued that the site with the most backlinks *is* the one with the best content (on a particular subject). At least, that's the theory of the "web democracy" where links = votes... and I'm not saying it always works.

And I guess buying an SEO package is the equivalent of buying a campaign... the best candidate doesn't necessarily have the biggest campaign.