What is link popularity all about then?
At the simplest level, the more sites that link to your site, then the
more important your site will be regarded.
That's the straightforward explanation - it's
actually a little more complicated than that. Search engines will also
look at the quality and relevance of those links that
are linking to you, in addition to other factors. (In some instances,
they'll even look at the words being used to provide the link.)
For example, if you had a Web site for a guest house, one link from
your tourist board (presumably a popular site by virtue of being the
official body for your region) might well outweigh three links from
the personal homepages of three past guests.
Better still, of course, would be to have all four links! However, this
hopefully illustrates the point that, whilst it is good to have, say,
200 links pointing to your site, it is the quality and relevance of
those links that is also significant.
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One very important
search engine that has placed a great deal of emphasis upon link
popularity is Google. This excellent search engine uses what it
calls PageRank™ as an indicator of a page's value. Without
a good Google PageRank, you are unlikely to appear high in Google
search results. And, since Google is such an important search
engine, it's essential that you strive for a site with good link
popularity if you're looking to attract visitors.
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Having a good link popularity is great for
two reasons - 1) for the traffic that the links themselves bring, and
2) for the improved performance that it generates in search engines
(which will also bring more traffic).
It should be stressed, though, that link popularity isn't something
that comes overnight. If you launch your site in January, you can't
expect everyone to be linking to you by February. Even if they were,
it would still be some time before the search engines 'caught up' and
were aware of these multiple links.
The number of links that point to your
site tends to increase gradually with time, assuming your site is being
promoted. This is where our manual promotion
service comes in.
The Dedicated Partnership Ltd.
Maude Street, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 4QD - England, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1539 736677
Fax: +44 (0)1539 736688
