Source: https://moz.com/blog/backlinks-google-study
For a very long time, Google always mention to avoid focusing too much on link building. Google doesn’t want web owners to manipulate search rankings by participating in unnatural link building practice. In short, it’s a message that external links is a small part in how Google ranks a site and can be ignored.
Based on Moz’s study, link building is a factor in increasing a website’s ranking. Studies show that 99 percent of websites that are found in top search results have at least one external link. Websites with no external links didn’t rank for top competitive keywords.
Ranking In Google Without Links?
What study shows about links:
1. It is rare to find a site without links to be able to rank for competitive keywords.
2. Individual pages without links can still rank because of internal links.
3. There’s a correlation between high rankings and amount of links.
4. It’s possible to rank without links if someone searches your site specifically.
These are the 3 things that Google can do as soon as it find a link to your site:
1. Google can rank your site based on the quality of link found pointing to your site.
2. Ignore the link if it thinks it is low quality (no benefit in rankings).
3. Lastly, penalized your site if you participated in manipulative link building.
As you can see, it’s still possible to rank with no links however, it’s easier to develop a campaign to earn links rather than waiting for your site to rank.