I managed to hit the last bit of Q&A from the new Chasing the Algorithm session this afternoon. The session featured insight on the industry from Danny Sullivan, Greg Boser, Jill Whalen, Mikkel de Mib Svendsen, Shari Thurow, David Naylor and Jeff Martin. One of the audience members asked that the panelists each share a quick view of what they felt was most important when it came to building your site and getting it to rank.

A quick run-down of their responses...

Greg: Greg pointed out that most of the algorithmic holes that he still sees in the results are a result of link issues. He pointed out that link issues, both internal link structure, anchor text usage and even external links are among the most powerful factors that he sees in getting sites to rank.

Jill: Jill encouraged everyone to focus on good, solid keyword research to make sure that they've selected not on the phrases that will drive traffic, but also the ones that will convert. Proper optimization of title tags and internal and external link structure also made her list.

Mikkel: Mikkel played my personal favorite song of site dynamics. He explained that if you start off small and grow your site over time, you have not only the bets chance of pulling some good rankings, but also the chance to learn as you go. Sites should be continually expanding their linking, their content and the amount of phrases that they are targeting.

Shari: Shari wanted everyone to know that it was important to focus on finding keywords that your target audience uses, not just the keywords that get the most searches. She also pointed out the need for search engine friendly design and taking search engine issues into consideration when you are getting ready to build or update your site.

Jeff: Jeff pushed for consumer driven content and links pointing out that you need to focus on the type of information that your customers are looking for and deliver it. That may mean content on your web site or it may mean linking out to the site that has the content. He also suggested that site owners look through their logs to find trends and match their content to those trends.