Link Building
For years,
"link popularity" and "Google PageRank" have been the talk of the town in the search engine optimization community. However,
the definition of link popularity and how it differs from PageRank (PR), as well as how much effect these actually have on
search engine rankings, is often misunderstood.
What is Link Popularity?
The theory goes something like this: The search engine Powers That Be have decided that if other sites
are linking to your site, it must be a winner; therefore, it deserves a boost in rankings (when all else is equal). If you
think about it, this makes a lot of sense. People link to good sites, not bad ones.
PageRank Does Not Equal Link Popularity
It's important to note that Google PageRank is not
the same thing as link popularity. PR is actually a subset of link popularity. Whereas PR focuses strictly on the quantity
and popularity of links, link popularity adds a "quality factor" into the equation. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly
use the terms "link popularity" and "PageRank " interchangeably, which has served to confuse the issue further.
All major search engines place some emphasis on link popularity in their ranking algorithms.
There appear to be 2 main types of links that work best to increase your link popularity: links from other sites that focus
on the same keyword phrases your site focuses on, and links from relevant categories in major directories and industry-specific
portals. "Free-for-all" (FFA) sites do not constitute quality links, so don't waste your $24.95 submitting your site to 500
of them. Links from sites that focus on topics that have nothing to do with your site probably won't help you win any link
popularity contests, either (although they may temporarily boost your PR).
How Does Link Popularity Work?
Here's an example of how I believe link popularity works:
Let's say that Bob's Pizza Palace Website has a link to Joe's Men's Clothing store site. If the link uses the keywords
"men's clothing store" in the anchor text (the clickable part), it may help Joe's link popularity a little bit for those keywords.
However, Joe would benefit a lot more if the same link came from a site that was more related to Joe's site than a pizza palace.
For instance, a more related link might be from a woman's clothing store, a men's shoe store or any other type of store that
relates to clothing in some way.
An even higher-quality link for Joe might be from "Sam's Clothing Store Directory," which lists a whole bunch of clothing
stores that can be found on the Internet. That is exactly the kind of link that the search engines would want to credit toward
link popularity. Again, the key is in having that common thread between the sites.
Where Do Reciprocal Links Come In?
The other popular misconception floating around is in regards to reciprocal linking. Since so many people think that
exchanging links with sites is the easiest way to get them (it may or may not be), new people learning about link popularity
are under the mistaken belief that they must have links that are reciprocated on their site (e.g., "you-link-to-me-and-I'll-link-to-you"-type
links). Still others are saying that reciprocal links are dead and you won't gain any benefit from them.
Both camps are wrong. You certainly don't need to get reciprocal links, but you can if you want to. Remember, it's
links pointing TO your site that are the helpful ones. Links pointing FROM your site to other sites are wonderful to have
because they help your visitors find related stuff, but if your site doesn't lend itself to linking to other sites, then by
all means, don't do it. You need to do what's right for your company and your site visitors, first and foremost.
Link popularity is a technique used by many of the major search engines. It refers to the number of web sites that have
link's on them pointing to your site. The basic assumption of the link popularity algorithm is that sites containing many
links to them must be better than sites containing lesser links pointing to them. This may be true in many cases, but a new
web site, launched today, would have no links to it because it would be brand new. That is what "zero link popularity" means.
One scary fact is that even if you have the most amazing site in the world and submit it to an engine like Google night and
day for five years - YOU WILL NOT APPEAR IN THE INDEX - unless you have AT LEAST ONE SITE linking to your site! This is a
fact. Are you interested now? Read on....
Not all links to your site will carry the same weight or value. Search Engines give more credence to some links to
your site than to others. That is why linking to FFA pages is a waste of money and have NO effect on link popularity - this
only results in an increase of spam mail in your inbox.
WebOoo can contact
webmasters related target market web sites to request a link to your site. In response we advertise them on our ever expanding
web ring. We also include them for free in our AtoZInternetDirectory and our BluePagesUK directories. They gain, you gain.
We also create portal sites for all our clients. Here we provide content related to your web site and links back to
you main page. Email us today for a list of current pages pointing to our existing clients - we are only delighted to show
you. Remember, having additional industry specific site links can not only enhance engine results, but can also provide a
stream of qualified visitors to a site.
Link popularity is important for the following reasons:
- it provides
one of the strongest methods available for delivering highly relevant search results
- Link popularity
becomes a strategy or tactic that can be used to boost site referrals and develop new online relationships
- Link popularity
provides a real-time marketing performance metric that is based on an index of independent and publicly available data sources
Please note that if you are already enjoying
high search engine listings,
Webooo will deliver Link Building
as a standalone service.
Should I be concerned with Link Popularity?
Yes.
Link Popularity refers to the number of links a
website has from other websites. These links point
back to your page. It has become an extremely
critical element on the web today, especially when
using Search Engines as a marketing tool. Engines
like Google will not even list you UNLESS there is at
least one other site which references your site.
That's why WebOoo
'free' link building service has received so much praise from our clients. We create portal pages which list your sites URL
and a description of your sites content.
