How To Increase Your Link Popularity

Link popularity is very important to your site's success, no doubt about it. It's difficult to obtain high positions on some search engines without it.

So what is it exactly?

It's simply the number of sites that link to yours.

Having your link on any other website can help your link popularity score, but having your link on a RELATED site will increase your score much more. Concentrate on linking with related sites for better effectiveness.

Ways to increase your link popularity include reciprocal links, search engine submissions and software.

What engines use link popularity to help decide your search engine rankings?

Google and Altavista put the most weight into your link popularity score but Teoma (formerly Direct Hit) started it all. Most spider based search engines will take your link popularity into account when determining your rankings nowadays.

Reciprocal Links

Building links with other related sites is the easiest and best way to increase your link popularity. Not only do you get your popularity increased but you may get traffic from a prominent link on another related site. A simple way of building links to your site is to type your most important keywords into a search engine and see what sites come up. Focus your efforts on the higher quality and more established sites you find. Then write a short, polite letter to the webmaster of the site asking if they would like to trade links with you.

For some people, asking other webmasters for links may not be an option since they may be a competitor. There are other ways to increase your link popularity but they may not work as effectively as asking to trade links.

Search Engine Submissions

A link on Yahoo or Open Directory is a great way to build your link popularity. Since these directories are reviewed by an actual person and they review each site for quality, Google and Altavista will think your site must be of some quality for it to be in one of these directories, so your score will go up! This is yet another reason that Yahoo and Open Directory should be your first priority when starting to promote your website.

Link Popularity Building Software

Zeus

There are some good software programs that will help you build your link popularity. One that has been around awhile is called "Zeus". Zeus works by searching the net for related sites from information you enter. Zeus will create a sort of directory for you to upload to your site that include links to all these related sites it found. Then Zeus will send an email message to the webmasters of these sites for you saying that you have added a link to their site from your site. Some of these people will add your link to their site.

Arelis3

We have recently tried this program and found that it works very, very well in creating quality reciprocal links. This program has some important features that Zeus does not.

Axandra's Arelis3

Build Your Own Links

Let's say you have a site about tractors. You can create a tractor search engine, directory or links page featuring not only your own site but all the other tractor related sites out there. Then write an email to the webmaster of the sites you have included in your directory and ask them for a link back to the directory. Make it easy for them by creating a page where you place pre-made graphics and text links for them to copy and paste into their site. They will love that you have added their site to your directory and will often add the requested link.

You can also build an information site about tractors. Then feature your links on the site prominently. A free information site attracts visitors!

Other Way To Increase Link Popularity

Here are some tools to check your link popularity:

WebPosition Link Popularity Checker
Widexl Link Popularity Check
JavaScriptKit Link Popularity Checker
LinkPopularity.com

There is even some software to help you increase your link popularity:

Free Link Popularity Check
Zeus