Link Popularity...
The Web's Rendition of a Social Circle.
Careful now, link to the wrong site(s) and you'll be ostracized! – by Ginette Degner

Link popularity no longer comes in just one flavor. Not long ago it was just the number of links that made the difference between top rankings and lost in the shuffle. This is no longer the case. There are several factors that go onto the recipe known as the link popularity formula. Our recipe is a guide, you can of course season it a bit but there are some deviations from the recipe that will leave a sour taste on the spider's palate.

Before adding a link to your site, ask yourself:

• Is the content part of your theme?

• Does the site you're linking to add value to your site visitors' experience?

• Would an editor visiting your site see the link as an attempt to manufacture link popularity- is it an ad for a link exchange?

• What purpose does the link serve? Does the link actually have a reason for being on your site?

• What sort of links are on the site you're linking to?

It's all about reputation

As with any popularity contest you are known by your reputation before you ever get the chance to introduce yourself. On the internet, your reputation is determined by anchor text – the text that comprises the clickable link(s) pointing at your site.

Of course, getting other sites to link to you is great! ...but, if you are to expect these links to produce desirable results, you must control what they say about your site. Just knowing who links to you is not enough – you must also know what those links are saying about you. A link using the keywords and phrases that you want to be known for (found under) is the cornerstone for successful linking. We have found this to be true to the extreme when researching results at Google.

In many cases we have found that changing the anchor text of a link has made the difference between being found in the first page results or lost somewhere back on the third page. To analyze the hierarchy I use backward link tracking tools like OptiLink allowing me to determine exactly what each and every incoming text-link is saying a...