Link Popularity is defined as the number of links that are included on a site. Most Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) base the ranking on the number of links. Linking has been found to be a guaranteed way to improve traffic to websites. With traffic determining ranking in SERPs, know what you need to look for to increase your link popularity. Google and Alexa have toolbars that deal with website traffic. Alexa’s toolbar goes solely on traffic, with the higher the rank the lower the traffic to the website.

The toolbar that can be found useful from Google can actually tell a webmaster who to link with. Using this toolbar will help you improve your Google PageRank. However, under Google SERPs rules, to improve your listing you need to link with PR3 or higher sites. If you are not at PR3 or higher yourself, a lot of sites will NOT link with you until you get that ranking. Just what is the Google PageRank? Scaled ranking of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, and as of the date of this article, everyone is still guessing on the exact figures Google uses to get the PageRank returns as Google isn’t saying!

Why Link by Others?

To get a website seen by others, you would need to link to other sites. This is basically a “word of mouth” type of advertisement within the World Wide Web. The more people that see your links on other pages they are likely to browse, the better the traffic COULD be to your site. Consumers, of course, are fickle. In order to stand out from other sites, you need to be dedicated and provide a reason for people to browse your pages. More links yield more traffic, which yields more Search Engine Optimization (SEO). That is a good thing, in plain and simple speaking.

How do you Obtain links and What do Watch out for?

Finding links can be done in various ways. If you’ve little time but lots of money, there is software available to anyone. But if you are the hands-on type then you should know about reciprocal links, web directories, sponsor/affiliate sites, as well as knowing about links to and from sites in your own genre.

Reciprocal links are basically the idiom “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” You link to a site, they link back to you. Easy enough it would seem. However, be careful with these as you want to make sure the place you are linking to is a service you believe your particular viewers want to have available. A plus on reciprocal links would be to manage to get some linkage from those sites that have very few links displayed. As some search engines will give marks, good and/or bad, for the number of links, finding the middle ground for reciprocal links is best.

Web Directories are best for those sites that are brand, and sparkling new. Know the directories TOS and follow it. Lest your site be stricken from within it. Looking into an affiliate marketing program or finding sponsoring sites is an invaluable tool to say “Hey, look at who is backing us up!” A plus, too, is the commission you can often earn for selling/buying products between the site you offer and the site you link to. Linking within your own discipline often helps the SEs that use patterns and groupings for links. These will reward you for using links this way, a reward of traffic and SERPs placements! Using the right words or anchored text within these links can help even more. Use the link from a site as a signpost to your site. Anchored text is defined as text that is visible with a hyperlink.