I’m still sticking with copywriting, at least in the liberal sense of content creation, as the skill from the list I most prefer to have.

If we analyse our target market then we will be able to choose our keyword. As yuri rightly suggested it is about knowing the customers instead of researching keywords.

I believe that blog marketing is the future marketing.

P.S. Web directory submission is perhaps one of the most time-wasting things one can do to a website. And his life

One thing I would say about copywriting though is that even without keyword research if you write well enough you will pick up repeat visitors and links. And if you can keep a piece of content focused enough you’ll likely have used a good amount of relevant phrases to your subject.

But yeah, I do agree there’s more to seo than any one thing. The poll only allowed for one vote though.

Then the other very important thing to do is to make sure that you are all the time acquiring as many one way links pointing at your site as possible. One good way to do this is through Web Directory Submissions.

By the way, good copywriting involves a lot about usability as well (readable paragraphs, subheadings, lists, fonts, etc).

So you can’t just go with one skill. You use them all at once whatever you are doing (comparing your rival’s content quality, for example).

reading is definitely a great way to improve all writing, though you do need to read good writers. i think by reading great writers you pick up on their rhythms and naturally improve your own writing.

There’s a lot of information on improving writing in general and copywriting in particular. CopyBlogger is a great source for both and their are many more blogs devoted to improving writing.

There are countless books on the subject. You can walk into any bookstore and find the writing section and there will be some there or simply do a search on Amazon. There are some good books on writing specifically for the web too.

The Elements of Style by Shrunk and White is a short book, but also one of the most valuable ones you can read to improve your writing.

I’m with you on the ability to learn. The best SEOs are those who can master or at least understand the basics of most everything on the poll list. And you’re right that the first stage of SEO learning is sorting through the good and bad advice. The key to that is finding a few sources you trust and letting them direct your thinking. Unfortunately there’s far too much bad advice out there from people who are either trying to sell you something or from people who haven’t figured it out for themselves yet, but are jumping in to help others.

I’m not sure yet what the most important skill in SEO might be, but in programming, it’s the ability to learn. I don’t know even the tip of the iceburg, but I know how to find the knowledge I need at any given moment to make a function work. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of SEO is being able to sort out good advice from bad, at least in the beginning.

Adam I was thinking of coding as well. A well-coded site has such an early advantage when it comes to seo and poorly coded one can put up so many roadblocks. Like I said in the post you can really make a case for a lot of these. Still on the list I’m going to stick with copywriting.