What is Link Popularity?

Link popularity relates to the number of links pointed to a web site. Over the years apparently the number of links pointing to a site has become of more prominent importance in terms of search engine positioning, ie: websites with lots of sites linking to them rank better in searches. Some writers on the subject even claim that search engines take into account the "relevance" of the links, ie: sites linked to by similar sites rate better. Search engines are secretive about their exact practices and it's hard to tell what's true. One thing is certain, though link poularity is touted as a newly emergent element on the scene, it actually has been significant since the beginning because of the "crawl" factor. Regardless of whether or not most search engine software is sophisticated enough to actually meter link popularity as a crucial factor, and especially whether or not it is sophisticated enough to guage themed links, the more links a site has pointing to it, the more often it is crawled by spiders, and the more often it is indexed. Therefore, it is crucial for a site to have at least a few external links pointing to. This is more true now that some engines are even dropping sites that don't have at least one external link, and this could possibly become a trend with search engines to help conserve database space.

If you have more than one site, be sure they are pointed at each other to increase your link popularity. In fact you want to get a link everywhere you can: directories, classifieds, link exchanges, etc. Note that a link from a search engine like Alta Vista or an index like Yahoo don't count as link-backs because they are stored in a cgi-bin database, which is disallowed in the robots.txt. The best place to get link-backs are on directories that publish pages in the public areas of their site. When you go to a directory go down a level to look at the site listings and note the full URL address. Does the last part say, "cgi-bin/," or does it say something like, "home/internet/submissions.html"? The former is in a potentially disallowed cgi-bin. The latter is in the public docs area, and that's where you want your links. I've set up a link exchange directory with just this in mind. If you'd like to trade a link and get a solid link-back Check it out (opens in a new window).

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