Ranking, Link Building & Google Analytics

 Were I going to be doing my site for an extended period of time I can see the value in knowing where my site ranks among its peers.  The analytical information available is almost overwhelming.  There is so much of it that it is hard to identify what is being offered as relevant and what is not.  I understand that the demo was based on a very large encompassing site but for that made it hard to interpret the data.  I suspect that with a smaller site it would have been easier to find answers to questions but probably would not have had all the options available.  Link building is the one area I could see a lot of potential for site exposure and growth.  Having other people "advertise" your site is a powerful reputation tool.  Linking to from one site to another shows searchers that there is something there worth checking out.  I do agree that quality over quantity is important but some quantity is needed to validate the links.  For a site like my book review site, links from book sellers would be the quality I think that would validate my reviews and increase my ranking among book review sites in general.