Link Popularity
What is link popularity?
Link popularity is a measure of how many websites are pointing to your site with hyperlinks on the web. Most of the major crawler based search engines employ link analysis as part of their ranking algorithms. The reason for this is to minimize the effect of unscrupulous web masters who might use spamming techniques to help their sites rank higher by manipulating the keywords on their web pages called on-page-factors. Link analysis gives search engines a method of determining which pages are relevant for particular topics.
The history behind Link Popularity
The Web by its very nature is based on hyperlinks, where sites link to other prominent sites. Each site linking to another site is casting a vote in favour of the sites they link to. Since search engines can measure these links in their vast database, they are able to determine which sites are more important and can shift their ranking algorithm from purely on-page factors to off-page factors i.e., links. Combining the ranking scores of on-page, and off-page factors the search engines can deliver more relevant links for web searches. While it is still possible to achieve high rankings for non-competitive terms without a great deal of link popularity, it is unlikely your site will rank well for very popular terms without it.
The benefits of Link Popularity
Link Popularity is one of the most important and critical aspects of any effective Search Engine Marketing campaign today. The off-page factors such as link popularity, Google's Page Rank and anchor Text in incoming links play a major role in your site’s ranking in the search engine results pages. By building links, you can help improve how well your pages do in link analysis systems and the final ranking on search engines. The key is understanding that link analysis is not just about "popularity." In other words, it's not just about getting lots of links from anywhere. Instead, you want links from good web pages that are related to the topics you want to be found for and your links contain the keywords your site is targeting.
Google PageRank
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
