Link Popularity

Link Popularity refers to how many sites are linking to you. Also known as incoming links. It does affect your ranking at search engines, in particular Google, as they see it as other sites voting for you, indicating that you are valuable or popular, and worth visiting.

Google uses link popularity as part of their algorithm for determining where a webpage will rank for a particular search. Their proprietary name for link popularity is "PageRank", or "PR". It is a page-based (not site-based) numeric measure between 0 and 10, where 10 is exceedingly rare, only achieved by the most popular sites, for example google.com, msn.com, adobe.com etc. An unindexed site has no PR, a newly-indexed site usually starts at 0. You can see what PageRank a page has, if you download the GoogleBar for your browser, as it has a little green bar that displays the PR if you hover over the green bar. It is kind of a logarithmic value in that the higher numbers are harder to achieve - a PR of 2 to 4 is generally quite achievable if you work at it. Higher values require significant effort, or incoming links from sites with high PR themselves. PR value is passed from one site to another, as you link to it. For example, if a page with a PR7 had your site as the only outgoing link, you would probably end up with a PR6 yourself.

Having a high link popularity (PR) does not guarantee you being at the top of results for your targetted searchphrase. In addition to the content of your page, currently Google places a lot of importance on the "link text" used to describe your link as it appears on other sites. And possibly the surrounding text as well. And eventually the theme of the page. So if you want to be ranked well for say the phrase "pink bellies", then ask sites related to pink bellies if they will link to your site using the text "pink bellies". Ask a lot of belly sites. Don't ask sites that have nothing to do with pink bellies. To avoid being considered as spam by Google, slightly vary your link text, for example "pink belly", "belly in pink", "why bellies are pink" etc.

The ideal situation is that your site is just SO valuable, that other sites will link to you as a reference. Or because you're funny, have lots of useful information, or some tools that are worth using. Failing that, they may link to you if you reciprocate by giving them a link. Choose sites on related subjects, with not too many links per page, organised by theme, and hopefully with PR.

A few years ago, simply having lots of incoming links was an easy way to get to the top of Google. Then, as unscrupulous webmasters began buying links, creating heaps of useless doorway sites and pages to generate links, building directory sites, link farms and arranging irrelevant reciprocal link arrangements, the value of large numbers of unrelated (or reciprocal only) links began decreasing in value. Google and other search engines began tightening their algorithms to devalue links. And webmasters constantly try to outthink or trick the search engines.

One of the latest crazes is the three-way link, where siteA links to siteB, siteB links to siteC, and siteC links to siteA. So theoretically these are not easily-detected reciprocal links (siteA to siteB, siteB to siteA), and the search engines won't notice. The downside is maintaining your link, as not all link management software can track three-way links - they were setup to monitor reciprocal links only).

A fantastic free method for finding valuable related sites who are happy to exchange targetted links, is Sitesells Value Exchange. You register your domain and the subject of interest, and they will mail you periodically with a list of sites suitable for link exchange. And it's completely free.

Brad Callen has created a solid tool for finding and managing links to your site, called SEOElite. It allows you to find high-PR related sites, automatically email them, find who is not reciprocating links, manage potential partners, and much more.

A slow and steady method to find sites to exchange links with is to search on Google, MSN or AltaVista for the top results for your chosen keywords and ask if they will link to you. Even though they are your competitors. Hopeflly your site is jst so much better than theirs that they are not a threat to you. With your unique selling proposition (USP). Then find out who is linking to those sites, by typing the LINK command. If those sites have a page where you can link to, exchange links. Google is famous for not showing ALL incoming links. Altavista and MSN are good for searching for incoming links. But you should track which sites you have approached, and what their reply was, and where they have your link, which is why people use products like SEOElite to track that kind of information.

From experience, many people say they will exchange, but never place your link on their site. So at the end of each month, check your site for incoming links, and delete references to those who are not, preferably after giving a courtesy warning notice.

A quick way of finding sites willing to exchange links, is to include extra words in your search. For example search on Google for "home business - add url" to find willing partners for the home business area.

Sometimes you strike it rich, and find a quality site who only exchanges with other quality sites. Examine who they have linked with, and approach those sites as well. Assuming, of course, that you also have a quality site with only quality links.

These days, as so many people do not reply to emails, I am starting to send an inquiring email first, and only adding the link after their response. It seems to be accepted practise on many forums.

Get your site mentioned in as many places as you can. Other tips to improve your ranking:

Submit your site to directories.
Include your site in your signature in forums, testimonials, articles, ezines.
Include it in the resource box for articles you write
Higher value is placed on links from related sites.
Include text descriptions with the links. Engines don't like plain pages of links.
Don't have more than about 40 outgoing links per page.
Make your links page accessible within one or two clicks from your main menu, or people won't agree to link to you.
Code your own link page. Automated solutions are predictable, and are often targetted by search engines and deliberately excluded.
Try to get a page rank > 1 on google. Many people will not link to you if you have a zero ranking.
Find out whether you are indexed, your link popularity and saturation using free tools at these sites:
MarketLeap
TrafficRanking
Link Popularity
Link Popularity Check - Checks MSN, Lycos, Altavista

Find sites to exchange links with you:


Links To You
EProfitNews
LinkPartners
If you'd like to learn more about link building, check out LinkingMatters.com and Linking101.com

If you have money to spare, you can buy tools to organise your links for you, eg:
LinksManager. Although purists say that a manually managed link directory is best, because you can vet your link partners.

There are many free link checking tools that you can download to see if your links are valid, and reciprocated. Although you will need to setup/maintain the reciprocal link information, which is why people generally upgrade to paid products that automatically check for reciprocal links.

So basically, once you have optimised the content of your webpage, the best way to get to the top of the search engines, is to increase your link popularity. Hence the ongoing competition between webmasters as to ways of generating more and more, relevant incoming links.