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Importance of Link Popularity
Link popularity is becoming one of the
most significant factors in determining
how well a site ranks. Search engines
are continually motivated to provide
relevant search results for each search
query.
Traditionally, search engines based
their rankings chiefly on what was found
within a page or site. Search engine
rankings for keyword queries were
initially based on the metadata and
title within a page. Due to the misuse
of metadata principles search engines
have started to give more credence to
off page criteria - namely link
popularity and link reputation.
What is Link Popularity?
The foundation of link popularity is the
number of links a search engine detects
pointing to a particular site. The more
popular the site, the more likely the
site is to have quality content. Quality
sites are more likely to have content
rich pages, allowing the search engine
to provide quality results to the search
engine results pages. Search engines
give a higher ranking in their search
results to pages that come from a site
with high link popularity.
How does Link Popularity Affect Traffic?
Link popularity is a recognized way to
boost targeted traffic. A web page is
deemed more important when many other
pages link to it. A link is a vote cast
by one page for another. But votes are
not equal. A vote from a page that
benefits from high link popularity
transmits a greater weighted value than
a page with lower link popularity.
Link popularity is a building block of
search engine ranking criteria that when
incorporated with on-page optimization
factors will influence ranking position
in the search results. When links are
reinforced with importance to the user
and relevant relationship to the
receiving page, they have a greater sway
on search engine ranking potential.
Link popularity is measured by a complex
set of calculations to determine
weighted values of incoming links that
are not only based upon "page
importance" but link reputation as well
which is the contextual relationship of
the linked pages.
How Does Link Popularity Affect Site
Rankings?
A link popularity score alone won't
determine a page's rank, but search
engines increasingly use it to score
pages because it is considered a sign of
a high quality site: one site won't link
to another site for no reason, so a site
with an immense amount of external links
must contain meaningful content.
All search engines use different
algorithms to rank sites, but most of
the major ones consider link popularity
in some form. Google uses link
popularity almost exclusively to rank
sites. Because Google provides content
for other major players, a high ranking
may help a site in other major search
engines as well.
Many links to a site can also improve
search engine ranking by keeping a site
in the search engines. As more sites are
linked, the odds increase that search
engine spiders will encounter the site
repeatedly and be less likely to leave
it out of their databases.
Link Popularity Pitfalls
Because of the importance of link
popularity there have been many cases of
misuse. There are elements to be wary of
when it comes to embarking on a linking
campaign to boost a website's link
popularity. The following is a list of
some linking pitfalls:
FFA
Link Farms
Bad Neighbourhoods/Dirty IP's
Banned Sites
Penalized Sites
Accumulation of links too quickly/False
Inflation
Independent Back Linking Network
About the Author
Amye has spent 15 years in the IT
industry and has been working in the
Search Engine Optimization field for
four years - enjoying every minute! For
more SEO Tips for beginners see SEO
Fever - a work in progress.
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