What's more important for SEO: backlinks or social signals?

[Anise Langfels]

[SK]

I think backlinks are very important for SEO as I have heard from SEO guys..

[Reyna]

Actually both are same. You must have quality backlinks from a large number of websites.

[Lucky]

All ways Backlinks

[Herbal Malc]

Actually, things are changing. With the Google updates this year - Panda and Penguin - it is becoming more important to focus on social signals - Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus ones etc. Many backlinks are being deprecated - look at reciprocal linking, blog commenting, forum profiles, and so on.

The best idea now is to have brilliant content, then share it via the social channels. That way you will not only get kudos from Google, but you'll get natural traffic from the social channels.

That will stand you in good stead for years to come.