Link Popularity - Why is it important?

According to Wikipedia, Link popularity is a measurement of the quantity and quality of other web sites that link to a particular website on the World Wide Web. It is an example of the move by search engines towards off-the-page-criteria to determine quality content. In simple words, link popularity is the factor which is measure by the quality backlinks pointing towards your website.

In the search engines, Link popularity acts as an important part to get the visibility of a website among the top of the search results. Therefore, all the search engines expect at least one or more links pointing to a website, or else your web site will drop from the search engines index.

Some major search engines like Google uses a unique link analysis system to remark the web pages. The viewpoint of link popularity is that major and important websites will draw huge links and the sites whose content in not so good may not be able to attract the links. Link popularity gives more weight on the quality backlinks and not the number of links.

Search engines think that if your website is good and has any value, then other websites should link to you. If no one links to your website, it means that something is wrong with your site. If the number of links pointing to your website is more then your chances of popularity, authority and relevance is high.

Except Yahoo, all the other search engines factor link popularity into their algorithms though, it is calculated differently. As Google gives weight on the quality of the links, Yahoo measures it on the total number of backlinks pointing to your website. Google and the other search engines are interested in providing the most relevant and topical information for search queries at the top of the SERP’s because this increases the chances of the searcher finding what they are looking for and thus amplifies the perception that the particular search engine provides relevant and applicable websites for search queries.

Link building is a very specialized task which needs a good knowledge of the link building, where and how to find and build high quality links.

A booming link building strategy includes: directory submissions, both general and niche, internal blogging links, linking to business partners or local businesses, social bookmarking sites where you can get good backlinks and writing good articles and press releases that can get your website some high quality links. A link building strategy encompasses all the available mediums online, from social networking sites to the traditional directory. Link building is not only about requesting links but it is about developing a strong brand and websites to which the key online communities want to link to.