What Is Link Popularity?
- Early search results relied almost exclusively on information on a webpage to determine the page's rank in search results. Keywords and other information in the page's metadata played a significant role, as did the content visible on the page. Unscrupulous Internet marketers abused the system by stuffing keywords onto webpages that had little to do with the search term. Including link popularity as a major factor in determining search engine placement helped to address this abuse.
- Not all links contribute the same weight to link popularity. The reputation of a website, as measured by its own link popularity and other factors, influences the amount of weight given to links from that website. Search engines are also capable of identifying link farms, which are groups of poor-quality websites that link to themselves in an attempt to falsely inflate link popularity scores. Receiving inbound links from these "bad neighborhoods" of websites can negatively impact a webpage's link popularity score instead of increasing it.
- The format of inbound links also plays a role in your webpage's link popularity. Hyperlinks that include relevant text are easier for search engines to interpret as being related to a particular subject than generic "click here" links. While you can't control how other websites link to yours, format the links within your website and from other websites you manage to include relevant text to boost your link popularity scores.
- Creating great content will lead to increasing link popularity over time, but you can accelerate the process by actively seeking quality inbound links. One tip from Niagara University's Zongqing Zhou is to participate in conversations on related blogs and discussion forums. Including your website's address in your signature can result in many inbound links. Additionally, participating in conversations can result in a popular blogger or website linking to you after they learn you have valuable services available that may interest their readers.