I Think google likes to see more content than backlinks. But if you have less content but high quality backlinks pointing back to your sites, then you will see higher rankings for your websites. Its more of a combination of backlinks and content. The website given below has a lot of useful content on the page but not quality backlinks. http://www.mytravelindiaguide.com But the more the high quality back links you have the better it is. Google will gonna rank you better and so as the other search engines. http:///www.mytravelindiaguide.com/blog/
Content is still king...but backlinks are queen. If you have great content and are able to do some work to get the ball rolling then getting backlinks will come from people who like your content. In other words "When the king looks good the queen takes notice."
Okay ..... here's a slightly differing view. We all know that links count. Google knows we know. Google goes to some lengths to spot some of these "acquired" links .... and makes them basically worthless. What Google wants to see is links that count. Those would be links from related sites, on relevant pages, with matching context and good link text. And the "key" thing is - the site that links to you has to be Trusted! If G looks, and see's the same site liking out to multiple other sites willy nilly, regardless of the destinations quality .... do you think G is gonna trust it and alloce much worth? If G looks, and see's that the linking site has pages for selling/buying/exchange links .... do you think G is gonna give any worth at all? If G looks, and see's that you have links back to the same sites linking to you .... do you think it will give you the same value if it was a 1-way link? If G looks, and see's that the site linking to you is poor quality, filled with trash, seems to be spammy etc..... do you think it will give you any value from that link? Yes - feel free to get in touch with a few relevant sites. Make sure they are Quality sites - ones you would be proud to get a mention from - ones that you know you would recommend to others with the same interests. If you look at a site and think "yuk" or "spam" or "rubbish" or "urmmm.... what" etc. .... then you do not want a link from them! All that making sense? Quality and Relevancy and Trust - NOT Quantity, rapid accumilation etc. And also - remember - you do Not just have to have PR passing links. You can do quite well with links that are blocked/nofollowed. If they are on popualr sites that are trusted by their users, with a genuine interest in your subject .... then you may find that you get a fair bit of dedicated and converting traffic. Doesn't matter that it gives you no Ranking bonus - because the idea is to convert!
It is true that Google wants the links to be "quality". They enjoy links from pages with your keyword in the title and through the page. That is why articles are a great way to build rank. You can write them yourself to be the same theme of your site.
Using Articles To Create Links Writing informative articles is a great way to create back links. You can use the articles on your site and publish them to article directory sites. Every site that publishes your article will create a back link to your site. Other sites may pick up your article and publish it creating “viral†publishing and more links. You should assign someone to write one or two articles every month without fail or hire an outside source to do this for you. Using Videos To Create Links Another great way to create links and sell as well is to create video clips that tell your story or sell your product in an interesting way. You can use these clips to sell on your site and you can publish them to video sites like youtube.com, metacafe.com, viddler.com and many others. These get great rankings in the search engines. You should assign someone to write one or two articles every month without fail or hire an outside source to do this for you. Using Social Networks To Create Links Social networks like myspace.com are great ways to create quality links. Myspace is one of the most visited sites on the web, so links from it make your site rank as very popular. To create links from social sites, open an account, link to others with similar interests, and make comments that include a link to your site. Using Blogs To Create Links Blogs want comments from readers. Visit blogs on similar topics to yours and on any popular blogs, leave a comment on a posting. Your comment can contain a link to your site. This should not be just self serving but should continue the dialog. For example, if your site deals with web marketing and you see a blog article on meta tags, you might make a comment like, “excellent article with good points. I also found good meta tag tools at www.yoursite.com†One great way to find good blogs is to set up a Google alert for all keywords you use and you will be notified anytime a post is made with those key words. Then, you simply visit the blog and make a comment. Full Article: http://www.maheshkukreja.com/how-to-create-quality-backlinks-get-tons-more-traffic
Both content and backlinks are important to one site that needs to gain a higher ranking. But which type of backlinks are the best for your site? I think the answer is those backlinks relevant to your niche. So, all what you need is to find the quality backlinks that are related to your site's niche.
Your assumption has some point and I think some of it is true. You can archive ranking you desired if you have both quality of "contents" and "backlinks", but what is the definition of those "quality"? I do not think we all can know the real definition from Google side but only our assumption based on facts, which is sometime could give a false. My conclusion, if I have to go with only one between contents and backlinks I would give a go with backlinks over content. It could benefits to you in both short term and long term of seo.
Both content and back link is important for website. Content to be present in unique and attractive they get more visitors and increase traffic. And back link is important, the presents of quality back link for our website get Google page ranking