What is the most important part of SEO?

There are many important components that make up a comprehensive SEO strategy, but if I had to choose the most critical part, I would say it is creating high-quality content optimized for search intent.

At the end of the day, the main goal of search engines like Google is to deliver the best, most relevant and highest quality content to users for any given query. All of their ranking systems and algorithms are designed to surface stellar content pieces that satisfy searchers' intent.

You can nail all the technical SEO factors like site speed, mobile-friendliness, schema markup, etc. You can build an ideal site architecture and internal linking structure. You can acquire tons of backlinks. But if your actual content fails to be high-quality, useful and aligned with search intent, you'll struggle to rank well.

High-quality content means it is expertly researched, authoritative, free of errors, structured in a readable format, and provides a satisfying level of depth/completeness for the searcher's query. It keeps visitors engaged.

Optimizing for intent ensures you understand the underlying reasons and goals behind searches. Are they informational, navigational, commercial or transactional queries? Crafting content to align with that specific intent is key.

You can have the most optimized site in the world, but Google will simply not rank low-quality, thin or intent-mismatched content over pages that deliver a superior content experience.

That's why I believe high-quality, intent-optimized content is the most critically important part of any modern SEO strategy. The rest of SEO supports and enhances good content's ability to get discovered and ranked.