Official Google answer: As Google's algo evolves, is it better to have exceptional links and mediocre content, or exceptional content and mediocre links?

Question:

As Google's algo evolves, is it better to have exceptional links and mediocre content, or exceptional content and mediocre links? By links I mean inbound link quantity/quality. Can new sites with awesome contest outrank mediocre/established sites?

Google's Matt Cutts answers:

Summary of the answer:

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Question

Views

Does anchor text carry through all 301 redirects?

1,061

Is there a good way to kick off a feed in Google Reader by doing something like temporarily making the feed include a whole bunch of old content?

686

Organic link building, according to me is one of the most difficult tasks for SEOs of SMEs. Can you please list 5 effective ways of organic link building other than building great content?

3,157

Any updates on "site hierarchies display in search results" (aka breadcrumbs)?

839

How accurate is Google's backlink-check (link:...)?

1,108