Each search engine has a different algorithm but all of them consider the link popularity of a website. Now you might think "Alright, then I'll get as many links to my website as I can get to increase search engine positions and to increase traffic"... But wait, link popularity is not only about how many links you have but also where these links come from.
Google created a system that gives your website a certain page rank. The page rank of a website is very important while building your link popularity. Basically it is better to get 1 link from a pr8 website than getting 100 links from a pr2 websites. You must understand, that a certain amount of the pagerank of a website will be passed on to the links that are placed on a website. So if a website has a pagerank of 6 and there are 10 links on the page, then a certain amount of the pagerank will be passed on to these 10 websites. The amount of pagerank that is passed on will be equally split up between all 10 links on that page. So what does that mean? It means that a link from a website with a high pagerank and a small amount of link on it will be most beneficial to your own page-rank.
Improve Your Search Engine Rankings
Now what exactly do you need to do to achieve supreme link popularity and improve your rankings on all the popular search engines?
The first step you should take is to submit your website to a popular directory, such as the Open Directory Project. They give you a free listing whether you are business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site listed. There are a lot more directories out there where you can submit your website for free. Use directories with a page rank of 4 and higher to get the most out of this strategy.
The next step is to find other quality sites where you can place free links. Look for sites that are related to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful to your website's visitors. By linking to a related website, you are increasing both of your website's traffic and link popularity.
Not all websites want to link to other sites, so you will have to do some research when looking for possible linking partners. Google is an excellent source for your research, just look at websites with a top 20 position and you should find some good linkpartners. Your choice of link-partner websites should be quality, highly ranked, non-competing websites that have a links or resources page. Go to these websites and objectively assess them. Look at their services, product, and the ease of use. Then check out the other websites they are linked to, and determine if your own website fits into the crowd.
Once you have found a potential link-partner, you must take action. The first thing to do is to add a link to their website on your own links page. This is an essential first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances of finding link-partners.
Another good way to get 1-way links to your website is to write articles and submit them to article-directories. You simply add a "about the author" text below your article, people pick your article out of a directory and put it on their websites. Each time this happens you get a one way link to your website. Of course each directory you submit your article to also means a back link to your site.
These are just some methods for increasing the link popularity of your website. If you want to know more about this topic then you should read an e-Book about marketing online:
