What is link popularity?
Link popularity is a measure of how many websites are pointing to your site with hyperlinks on the web. Most of the major crawler based search engines employ some type of link analysis as part of their ranking algorithms. The reason for this is to minimize the effect of scrupulous web masters who might use spamming techniques to help their sites rank higher by manipulating the keywords on their web pages called on-page-factors. Link analysis gives search engines a new way of determining which pages are relevant for particular topics.
The history behind Link Popularity
The Web by its very nature is based on hyperlinks, where sites link to other prominent sites. Each site linking to another site is casting a vote in favor of the sites they link to. Since search engines can measure these links in their vast database, they are able to determine which sites are more important and can shift their ranking algorithm from purely on-page factors to off-page factors ie. links. Combining the ranking scores of on-page, and off-page factors the search engines can deliver more relevant links for web searchers. While it is still possible to achieve high rankings for non-competitive terms without a great deal of link popularity, it is unlikely your site will rank well for very popular terms without it.
The benefits of Link Popularity
Link Popularity is one of the most important and critical aspects of any effective Search Engine Optimization campaign today. The off-page factors such as link popularity, Google'sPageRank and anchor Text in incoming links play a major role in your site’s ranking in the search engine results pages (SERP). By building links, you can help improve how well your pages do in link analysis systems and the final ranking on search engines. The key is understanding that link analysis is not just about "popularity." In other words, it's not just about getting lots of links from anywhere. Instead, you want links from good web pages that are related to the topics you want to be found for and your links contain the keywords your site is targeting.
Where to start?
It is important to note that the sheer number of incoming links is not as important as the quality of the sites that are doing the linking. The fastest way to get some quality incoming links is to get listings in the popular directories, such as Yahoo and the Open Directory Project. For business sites, Yahoo costs $299 per year (it is free for non-commercial sites, although it takes a while to get listed). The Open Directory is free for all sites that meet certain quality standards, but it sometimes takes a lot of follow-up inquiries to make sure your site gets listed. When listing your sites, try to get them in the highest-level category that is applicable to your site.
Finding Partners
Once you have submitted your directory listings, you should look for other sites who may want to link to yours. Seek out businesses similar and who are related to your business, but are not direct competitors. Google is an excellent engine to use when looking for potential linking partners. By typing in keywords you think your customers might use to find you, a number of websites appear related to yours. If they are quality, high ranking and non-competing sites with "links" or "resources" pages look to see if your link is a good match then try to exchange links with the website owner. If you think it is a possibility, make a note of the site, including the webmaster's address and something specific about the site you particularly liked. It is also useful to look at each of the sites on these "links" pages, many of them might also be potential link partners for your link campaign. When you have found a good number of sites, add a link to each of them from a "links" page on your own site. It is important to do this before contacting the site owners, they are more likely to reciprocate if they see you have already taken the trouble to link to them.
Making the contact
Once you have added a link to each of the sites you have identified, it is time to contact the site owners, usually this is done by email. Due to the volume of spam most webmasters receive, it is very important to let them know you have actually visited their site in the first few sentences. Compliment them on the site and specifically mention the attributes you particularly enjoyed (as previously noted). You should then let them know you have already provided a link to them, and give them the URL of your links page so they can view their link for themselves. Only then do you mention you would appreciate it if they would reciprocate.
Monitoring
Once all of your initial emails have gone out, check back to the sites you have targeted periodically to see if they have added your link. If they haven't added it within a month, one follow-up email is normally acceptable. If you don't hear back from them for a month after issuing a the second email, it may be time to remove their link from your links page, unless you feel that the resource they provide is of critical value to your visitors. Check your rankings every month or so to see how they improve, and, if necessary, start the process again.
The List Of Don'ts
- Don't exchange links with sites that you would not want your visitors to see.
- Don't exchange links with sites that contain nothing but a huge collection of links called "link farms". Search engines have been known to penalize sites that are associated with such sites.
- When you build your own link directory be careful not to put too many links on each page, as a guide you should not place more than 50 outgoing links on each page.
- In addition, do not harass people who do not answer your emails. If they haven't responded within a month of your second email, don't expect a link.
- Finally, do not expect overnight results. Link building takes a great deal of time and effort, and there is no real shortcut a primary reason why search engines place importance on it.