The concept of link popularity can be tough for newcomers to search engine optimization. Essentially, it is a method that enables search engines such as Google to rank a website based on how many inbound links it has obtained. The more quality inbound links means the more likely that the website in question is of quality- so Google ranks it higher. However, there are a few things to look out for when trying to build link popularity.
First, it should be noted that quality should be considered of quantity. Google will rank an inbound link higher if it comes from a trusted webpage. This means that if a link from a small and low-traffic website is compared to a prestigious high-traffic website, the prestigious website would likely give more benefit than 10 or 20 small websites. Google may also give penalty or filter results from websites it deems as “spam” or irrelevant. Overall, the point of the game is to get as many trusted links on trusted websites as possible.
There are a few certain guidelines that one can follow to ensure the best possible benefit in link popularity. First, one-way links are generally more important than reciprocal links. The problem with reciprocal links is that Google sees them as possible link trades, which are actually deemed as an attempt to trick search engines. Therefore, participating in link trades isn’t as beneficial as it used to be in the past. In fact, many webmaster experts will tell you not to participate in them.
When getting links, be sure to keep the anchor texts in close context to the content of the website. Google also checks to make sure that webmasters aren’t simply just spamming links with a specific anchor text to raise to the top of the search engine results. One way they check for this is to make sure that the anchor text fits the rest of the content. Of course, the exact algorithm is somewhat complex, and no one really knows the specifics. The accepted norm, however, is to keep everything in context.
Lastly, it would be good for a webmaster to prefer high Google PageRank links over websites that have less PR. In general, Google PR will transfer partially from one website to another- and a higher PR basically means the website’s “worth” is more. This can lead to higher search engine rankings, but no one is exactly certain as to how much. The better benefit is the amount of money that ads and links can be sold for a high PR website- although recently Google has been penalizing websites that sell links, as they deem it as “cheating” the search engines.
Link popularity no doubt plays a large role in search engine rankings, so every prospective successful webmaster should pay mind to them. The more popularity a website achieves, the better its ranks will be. When the ranks are better, then the traffic will start flooding in at a constant rate. Of course, with a constant flood of traffic, comes more potential money. Clearly, link popularity is very important to strive for. |
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