Content is King! ALWAYS
Content for sure.
Think of content as being an avenue for potential visitors to discover your website.
This is why EVERY piece of content you create should have some form of footprint/breadcrumb
back to your site ie., link, button, opt-in form etc....
In fact, I would suggest you focus primarily on Content Creation
-Articles
-Blog Posts
-Videos
-PodCasts
-Infographics
-eBooks
-PPT Presentatioms
etc....
I'm not saying backlinks can't provide value. They can if done correctly. Unfortunately all Google
has to do is update their algorithm and backlinks can turn worthless very fast..
At the end of the day, focus on Content first and a solid backlink strategy second for a powerful 1,2 punch.