Google began the trend in link-based search engines with there Google Rage Rank system or (PR) and now all major search engines (Yahoo, MSN, AOL, etc.) base their algorithms on link analysis.

To get better rankings you will need good text links.

There are 3 main ways to get text links:
Some people will link to your site for free because they like it. Many reasons for this are that they feel your site has valuable information, such as a news site or portal site or perhaps because they know you. This can help you increase page rank but can take allot of time.

You can also trade text links
This process can be slow and especially when your starting out it it can be very hard to get a popular site to link back to you. In this case it is free but you must also place a link back to the sit that linked to you. This can also help you increase page rank but involves allot of emails and waiting and again time.

You may also buy text links from sites.
Many internet businesses choose to do this. Its usually the only way to build good links quickly and is a good way to help boost you site especially in the beginning. This is a great way to increase page rank and can help you much faster than the previous 2 ways.

The 3 best kinds of text links that will help you rank better:
High Page Rank Text Links
Relevant Permanent Text Links
Links from hosted pages