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If you want to rank well in search engines, links, specifically backlinks, are essential. They signal to Google and other search engines that others like your content and endorse it.
Besides content, they are the most important ranking factor that Google considers. The search engine uses links to gauge the relevancy of you pages for different topics and also to discover new pages to index.
Usually, Google is not super forthcoming about their algorithm and how exactly they judge websites, however, they recently published a guide for link building best practices. The earlier version only contained information about how to make sure your links are crawlable. However, the new edition also talks about making sure your links are understandable and relevant.