What is Link Popularity – Affiliate Programs
What is Link Popularity
F. Terrence Markle
Link popularity is simply the total number of web pages that link to your web page. Link popularity is an extremely important factor that is used by most of the major search engines to rank web pages and web sites. In general, the major search engines consider link popularity a key factor in their algorithms to determine the relevancy of your web page to a particular keyword search query.
Good link popularity is important because it can increase the visitor traffic to your web page. The reputation of your web site i.e., votes of confidence from other web sites is a measure of the site
Link Popularity – A Thing of the Past – Site
Link Popularity - A Thing of the Past
Courtney Heard
Ive found myself involved in a lot of discussions about the dropping importance of link popularity lately. Numerous people have said to me that they think incoming links no longer hold as much weight as they once did, and that the only links worth obtaining are relevant links. I have to vehemently disagree.
First of all, before Sergey Brin or Larry Page even learned the word algorithm, there were web sites that practiced the fine art of reciprocal linking. Pre-Google link exchanges served only one purpose and that was to develop direct traffic from those links. This still works! Somewhere in our PR worries and link popularity ambitions, we forgot one important fact : you never know when the next link you obtain for your site will be a direct traffic producer. For example moving.ca, provides daily traffic to www.abalone.ca through a small, text link on their links page. This does not come up on Google as an incoming link to Abalone Designs, but it is one our most valuable incoming links, nonetheless.
Now, as far as your ranking is concerned on Google, links still hold weight. Search for just about any term or phrase and check the #1 ranked sites incoming links versus the others. 9 times out of 10, The first ranked site will have a few more links than the others. The times when I see lower ranked sites having more incoming links than the #1 site, generally speaking, the #1 site has better content, and more of it or this sites incoming links have anchor text that contain the exact search term or phrase you searched for and the others dont. Its still the same old formula. Offer a content-rich, user-friendly site with incoming links that have relevant anchor text and your sitell do alright.
Relevant anchor text is important, but what about having your link on relevant sites Links on relevant sites or pages have one tremendous bonus and that is targeted traffic. This is providing, of course, the link produces direct traffic. Other than that, I say links on relevant pages arent that much more important than other links. Take, for example, the incoming links to seoinc.com - the very first page that shows up on Google when you search for seoinc.coms incoming links, is csmonitor.com. A Christian Science magazine! If Im missing some link between religion and SEO, please inform me, but otherwise, these two sites couldnt be more different. Google has deemed this an important incoming link for seoinc.com, regardless. You think you know the algorithm, but you dont. You never know when links will count.
Lets not forget about the other search engines, though. Still a few steps behind Google, MSN places a lot of weight on incoming links. So does HotBot, Yahoo! and now, apparently, Become.com. This is just a handful of places that take a critical look at your link popularity. And I hate to say it kids, but I think theres a chance that MSN might slightly outdo Google this year. As of late, Ive noticed different rankings on Google for clients based on where youre searching from - geographically-specific search results against our will. I havent spoken to one individual who likes this idea. This could be the giant mistake MSN has been waiting for Google to make, and you dont want your perfectly Google-optimized site to miss the MSN bus when its usage tops Googles.
This brings me to my last point which, quite frankly, is a no-brainer. The Internet is nothing but a massive network of links, hence net. To turn your back on this is one of the hugest mistakes you can make on the web. The more links you have around the web, the more often your site will be seen. Its just like the real world, "theres no such thing as bad publicity". Think of incoming links as cyber-publicity - theres no such thing as a bad incoming link.
About The Author
Courtney Heard is the founder of http://www.abalone.ca, an Internet Marketing and SEO company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtneys articles are available at http://www.abalone.ca/resources/.
courtney@abalone.ca
Link Popularity and Your Add URL Page – Site
Link Popularity and Your Add URL Page
Bob Hampton
With all the buzz going on about the importance of a sites link popularity, the "look and feel" of your Add URL page or whatever you have named your add URL page has taken on an increased importance as well.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the look and feel of your sites Add URL page
During the research phase of creating my "Link Popularity IQ" Web site, I encountered Add URL pages that spanned the full spectrum of a possible look and feel rating of 1 to 10.
The "Look" of Your Add URL Page
When you are ready to design or re-design your sites Add URL page, make sure that the quality of that design is as high as possible. Possible link partners visiting your sites Add URL page may very well make a snap judgement of the quality of your site based solely on the look of that one page.
Make sure you pay just as much attention to the look of your Add URL page as you do to what you consider the most important pages on your site.
The "Feel" of Your Add URL Page
The feel of your Add URL page is just as important as its look. If the "how to link to us" instructions on your Add URL page are not 100% clear and easy to understand, your potential link partner may simply go on to the next site on her list of possible partners.
Take the time to create an Add URL page that contains easy-to-understand instructions on how the link exchange process should be done.
An Example of a Quality Add URL Page
I hope you wont think it pretentious of me for saying that the Add URL page on my site is an example of an Add URL page that deserves a look and feel rating of 8 to 10.
I invite you to visit my Add URL page http://wwww.lpiq.com/add-url and judge for yourself.
A Free Add URL Template
If you like the look and feel of my Add URL page, you are invited to check out my free Add URL Page Template http://www.lpiq.com/template.
Please feel free to use the template as an aid when designing or re-designing your own Add URL page.
Summary
You should strive for a look and feel rating of between 8 and 10 for your own Add URL page. If you can attain a look and feel rating of 10 for your own Add URL page, so much the better. The extra time you take now to do it right will pay off handsomely in the future for the link popularity of your site.
Bob Hampton
LPIQ.com
About The Author
Bob designs and builds his own Websites. His most recent site is Link Popularity IQ http://www.lpiq.com/lpiq. He invites you to test your knowledge of link popularity by taking his free Link Popularity IQ Test http://www.lpiq.com/test.