No, content does not require links to it in order to rank.
As I found out previously, Google can find and index a domain without any links to it. Technically, any indexed page can show up in search results, as long as:
- The query matches the page.
- The page has not been excluded for spam or malware.
- There are no other popular pages also ranking for that query.
In reality, this means that without links you will only rank for obscure queries that no one is really searching for. You do need links to rank well, for popular queries.
