To carry on where we left off about how the search engines algorithms work well focus on what can be compared to the Offpage factors in SEO.
Recommendation and references the candidate brings to the table these can be analogized as the Offpage factors. These elements believe it or not are given more weight by the search engines than they have in real life because not too many people can manipulate this factor, you cant make a good site to link to yours unless you provide something valuable and impressive to them. If someone recommends you then you are valued more by the search engines. So it is a big bonus when you get a recommendation or vote by a more highly valued player out there on the web. This is why quality link exchanges are vital to increasing your page rank. Links work as a quasi credential and that is why they are given the weight they are. Say one company refers to you as a genius that is classed as anchor text and due to the words used to describe you they have a greater power. Say another company recommends you as a smart guy this also is quality anchor text.
There is always a relative balance between the content and links that are used by the search engines algorithms. Both are important for a good site and when it comes to the usability issue they are viewed as being more important especially when it comes to good SEO. It also depends on the competition and on the keywords/keyphrases they employ. For a less competitive phrase you can just rank this by the Onpage factors. For medium competitive phrases it can go either way. It can be approximately a 75% - 25% mix of content vs. links or vice versa.