[Aidan]

Hi again Vanessa,

Some good POVs here on articles and backlinks and to echo what John W said you really should concentrate on your own sites content first and foremost. The best content belongs there absolutely.

The need for articles and/or backlinks from elsewhere will depend on what search terms you are targeting. If for example you are trying to get listed on Google Australia when someone here searches for "small business legal advice Cronulla" then you probably don't need any articles other than on your site!

On the other hand if you were trying to get a travel site on Google US for "hotel bookings" then you could have hundreds of great articles on your site but you would be unlikely to get listed without a great backlink profile which may or may not include getting your articles on authoritative sites among other backlink aquisition strategies.

Pick your keyword targets carefully and write good content for your own site first so the horse is firmly before the cart, to use John's metaphor.

Now having said that, do not underestimate the power of backlinks either. In fact it is possible to get ranked on the first page of Google for a term that does not appear on your page at all if you have the right backlinks!

Search Google for the phrase "click here" and you'll find an Adobe page in the top few results. Now see if you can find the phrase "click here" on the page? Thats the power of anchor text in backlinks at work!