Did you know that most websites listed and ranking on Google rank without building a single backlink? John Mueller of Google said on Twitter that "most" websites rank without building a single backlink.
Well, it depends on how you define "build backlinks." If you define it as building great content people want to link to, then no. But if you define it as actively asking people to link to your web site, then yes. Most websites probably never have asked anyone to link to them and they do rank in Google.
Of course, most websites my readers work on have done link building to try to help the website rank even higher.
Here are the tweets:
Sure. Most do.
— John ☆.o(≧▽≦)o.☆ (@JohnMu) November 23, 2017
So yes, you can build a site, like this one, and rank just fine without asking or actively link building.
Forum discussion at Twitter.