if you’re going to be ranking websites, you better learn what back links are. Until we reach the semantic Web, the rank of your website will rise and fall based on the quantity and quality of links pointing to your website.
Fortunately, that is already becoming less the case. Backlinks are just one aspect used to rank a site and they are becoming less important - certainly as far as Google is concerned - partly because they can be manipulated so easily. I have several sites ranking well with few backlinks - and the links I do have are from other sites choosing to link to me, not from any link building I have done.