In a new post by Google’s Maile Ohye, she re-iterates something that most people in the SEO world already knew, but something that a lot of “black hat” search marketers didn’t want to hear…

“…Inbound links are links from pages on external sites linking back to your site. Inbound links can bring new users to your site, and when the links are merit-based and freely-volunteered as an editorial choice, they’re also one of the positive signals to Google about your site’s importance. Other signals include things like our analysis of your site’s content, its relevance to a geographic location, etc. As many of you know, relevant, quality inbound links can affect your PageRank (one of many factors in our ranking algorithm). And quality links often come naturally to sites with compelling content or offering a unique service.”

Matt Cutts, Google’s head of web spam, also recently gave a short interview with USA Today about simple ways to drive traffic to your site and increase potential sales