Link popularity
is the single most influential factor for determining how well a web site
will perform in search engine rankings. A web site's link popularity is
computed from the number and more importantly, the quality of links
pointing to a web site.
Link
Popularity history
To gain a better understanding of link popularity it is useful to know why
it became so crucial for search engine rankings. In the past a web page's
ranking was determined, amongst other factors, by the number of keyword
occurences within 'on-page' elements i.e. in page text, META tags, title
tag.
When web developers learned that they could trick a search engine to
return their web pages by cramming keywords into their pages the search
engines had to get a bit smarter. They were using 'on-page' elements to
determine relevance so it was only natural that they would look to
elements out of direct control of the web page creator i.e. 'off-page'
elements. Search engines made the assumption that the greater the number
of links from other sites pointing to a web site, the more popular the web
site is and therefore a more quality resource. This worked nicely in
theory but in practice it was also to be abused.
Web site owners figured out many ways to get links pointing to their web
sites one example of which was through the use of link farms, pages the
contained nothing more than a collection of links, Quantity of links was
being abused so the search engines made use of the old saying "quality not
quantity" and began to assign a quality factor to each of the links
pointing to a web site. Now web sites that had a higher number of high
quality links were looked upon favourably by the search engines. Building
link popularity became a science in itself and today is still the most
time-consuming and frustrating activity for a search engine optimizer.
Main classes
of links
Note: In the following examples
SiteA is our web site and SiteB is an
outside site
(i.e. a web site under a different domain name than SiteA).
Inbound links:
Inbound links to a web site are links that originate from an outside web
site. An example would be a
link on SiteB pointing into a page on SiteA.
SiteA (----- SiteB
Outbound links:
Outbound links from a web site are links pointing to a page on an outside
web site. An example would be a
link on SiteA pointing out to a page on SiteB.
SiteA -----) SiteB
There are two further classifications of links:
Reciprocal links:
An example of a reciprocal link is when
SiteA links to SiteB AND SiteB
links to SiteA,
the link is reciprocated by both parties.
SiteA -----) SiteB
AND
SiteA (----- SiteB
To achieve a high link popularity the type of links to build are inbound
one-way links. This simulates how natural links are created i.e. links
that people create to point to your site because they found it worth
linking to.
For outbound links it is natural to assume that they might decrease link
popularity of a web site but this is not true. You do not give away your
link popularity when you link to another site. They do not add to your
link popularity though.
Reciprocal links can add to your link popularity if the web site that you
exchange links with has a higher link popularity than your site. However
they are not as powerful as inbound, one-way links as they are quite
artificial in nature i.e. most probably created by communication between
the owners of both sites.
How to build
link popularity
So it is quite obvious that to help build up a nice link popularity many
inbound, one-way links need to be created. This can be achieved in a
number of different (and most importantly, legal) ways:
Directories:
Directories are categorized listings of links from around the web. Many,
many directories exist and vary in their methods of getting your link
posted on them. They provide a great source of quality inbound, one-way
links. Getting listed in quality directories such as DMOZ or Yahoo can be
more beneficial for your link popularity than a lot of links from smaller,
newer directories.
Great site content:
The most powerful way to get inbound, one-way links is to have great site
content that other web sites will want to link to. This allows you to get
links from sites other than directories, which can definitely be better.
The best thing about this is that it requires no communication on your
part, it just happens naturally. If your site has poor content then others
sites may not link, including the directories. Most of the top ranking web
sites today got to the top because of great content. Writing interesting
and informative articles for your web site is a good way of getting these
kind of links.
Emailing web site owners:
If you come across a listing of links on a web site other than a directory
e.g. a links page on a somebody's personal web site, it can do no harm to
write the web site owner a polite email requesting a link to your site
from their page. They may request a reciprocal link in return but
sometimes they do not and you can get a quality inbound, one-way link for
your efforts. I have got many links in the past using this method. In my
email I always ask them to visit my site first before making a decision to
link and I personalise each email with a comment or two about their site.
Summary:
The best and most effective way of increasing your search engine rankings
is working to improve your web site's link popularity. This can be
achieved by getting as many inbound, one-way links as you can from quality
sites such as directories. Other ways to get these links are having great
content on your site and requesting a link to your site from other web
sites.
Increasing link popularity is a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating
process but is definitely worth the time and effort when you see a
dramatic increase in traffic.
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