Are Backlinks the Most Important Aspect of SEO

SEO is always going to be treated like an art instead of a science. In other words, there is no exact formula to getting high rankings in the search engine. If there was, we'd all be doing the same exact thing, so in essence, it wouldn't work anymore. Backlinks is a key factor, which is why I am a big fan of Linkvana. The more backlinks doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be better for your rankings. You could spam the heck out of sites but that doesn't mean you are helping your rankings. In fact, you could be hurting them. No matter how you look at it, you want to make sure that Google thinks your back linking is being done naturally. If it's obvious to them that you are manipulating your backlinks, then Google is going to sandbox you, and that's the very last thing you want to happen.