Link Popularity is a measure of the number of external links to a web site. External Links are links from other web sites. Link Popularity has is a very important factor on which web sites are ranked by search engines… and logically so! If you give it a thought, you’ll understand that the more the number of external links to a web site the better it would be in terms of quality and value to web surfers.
Let us first get to know the intricacies of Link Popularity and why is it so important for several search engine ranking algorithms.
Sponsored Links
What is Link Popularity?
Link Popularity measures the number of pages that link to your web site. Such links are also called in-bound links – links which allow visitors to come in your web site. The greater the number of in-bound links, the higher the link popularity. From a search engine ranking algorithm point of view, this seems quite logical. The more the in-bound links the better would be your site because other sites will only link to yours if they have found your web site informative or helpful.
How to measure the Link Popularity of your web site?
There are several tools and services available online that will give an idea of the Link Popularity. The different web site link popularity checkers listed below provide different kind of results. It is good to keep a tab on the link popularity index of your web site because it determines how your site would rank on search engines.
How to increase link popularity?
Getting people to link to your web site is not very easy – it requires a lot of time and effort. Before you approach other web site administrators be sure that your web site is fully functional and that it offers a “Links” or equivalent page. Place a link to the other web site from yours and then send a polite email to the web master requesting them to link to your web site.
Make sure you describe (briefly!) your web site in the email and mention the reasons why you want an link from the other site. If you can trace the name of the web master (from their “Contact Us” or equivalent page), nothing like it! You would then be able to personalize your email and address the web administrators by their name.
This little extra effort will go a long way in getting you an in-bound link. Also write a small phrase containing your keywords. This phrase will form the “hot spot” for the link. And don’t forget the URL of your web site or the direct link to the page on which you placed a link to their web site. Finally, don’t be disheartened by refusals or if the web master does not respond, just keep a tab on everything.
An important point concerning linking and link popularity: Approach only good sites for link placement requests and link exchanges. So how do you know that a site is good or which is shoddy? A rough indication of the quality of a web site is its Google Page Rank value. The Google PR value is available on the Google toolbar and varies between 0 and 10, where 10 is the highest rank.
PR is how Google measures a web site and so you can safely assume that a site with high PR is a good quality site. However, Google PR is no indication of the amount of traffic a web site gets. For that you need to refer to How to know web site traffic rankings.
Creating a search engine friendly link
Your aim is to have good search engine friendly in-bound links. So when you request other web site owners to place links to your web site, be sure to have links that will not only increase the Link Popularity but will also give a boost to your site rankings. An easy way to do this is to create search engine friendly links. The HTML anchored text or the “hot spot” should contain your important keywords. Also include a small phrase for the TITLE attribute of this anchor tag. Follow this up with one or two sentences describing your web site or web page.
Note: Don’t be disheartened by refusals and if the web master does not respond, just keep a tab on everything.
Here are some link popularity services which will help you in knowing how many pages link to yours.
bCentral
Click here.
Addme
Click here.
Abakus
Click here.
MarketLeap
Click here.
Link Popularity
Click here.
Widex
Click here.
Submit Corner
Click here.
