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Link
popularity is the
number of links that point to a webpage.
Link
Popularity is a crucial factor, used by almost all of the search
engines to rank websites. Link popularity can be increased by link
exchange!
Search engines don't just look at the content of a
webpage to determine if it is a good match for a search. Thousands and
thousands of webpages contain the same keywords (in different
combinations) so matching a search term with a page's content is not
enough to build an ordered list of results to a search query.
Search engines also count the number of other
webpages that "validate", by linking, that a particular webpage is a
good match for a search on certain keywords (link popularity). The text
contained in the link that point to a webpage is considered as well. If
the text in the link that points to a webpage contains the queried
keywords, the search engine considers that webpage a better match to
the search query on those keywords.
It is not only the number of the links (link
popularity) that counts, but also the "quality" of the links. A link
from a good-quality webpage (ranked high by the search engines) matters
more than many links from low-ranked webpages.
One of the first search engines that used link
popularity as a key factor in ranking websites was Google.
There are also many free services that allow one to
query several search engines at a time regarding the link popularity of
a website.
Since link popularity
has become such an important factor in determining search engine
positioning, many solutions have been proposed for improving link
popularity. A very popular and inexpensive way is link exchange (links
swap). Done properly, it can dramatically improve your link popularity!
How To Manage Links and Link Exchange?
Link exchange has to be managed wisely!
Links and link
exchange (links swap) management is not an easy task,
but if done properly, it might significantly boost your website’s
ranking.
First, you should build a link exchange page for
your website. If you swap links heavily, you should consider links
categorization, and you should create a separate page for each
sub-category. It is very annoying for surfers to see huge links pages,
with hundreds of non-categorized links, even if they are theme-related.
ANY category can be sub-categorized, and you should do that. On the
other hand, there is a poor chance that search engines will index a
page with hundreds of links and no content, because that page looks
like a FFA page!
Second, you should include your link exchange
information in a very clear manner. Some webmasters give the HTML code
to be included for the link, and this is a great idea! Anyway, you
should provide at least you URL, your link text (your keyphrases to be
included!) and a short description of your website (again, your
keyphrases to be included!). If you want, you can provide a small image
or banner, but keep in mind that text links are more valuable than
graphical links. If you provide an image for linking, don’t forget to
provide also the “alt” text for that image! An email address for link
swap is also needed. If you actively swap links, it is a good idea to
have a special email address just for this purpose.
Third, you may want to take a closer look at the
website you are swapping links with. If they use a third-party service
for link exchange management, then you will get a link back from the
website of the third-party service, NOT from the website you are
trading links with! Those links are not very valuable, because the
third-party website, by managing the links of hundreds of different
websites, might look to the search engines like a “link farm”.
Basically, you are "giving" a link to somebody’s website, but
"receiving back" a link from somebody else’s website. To check that,
just visit their links page, and watch for an URL change in the address
bar of your browser. If the URL does not begin with their domain name,
they are using a third party service for links management, and the link
you are getting in exchange for yours does not worth too much in terms
of page ranking. Many webmasters avoid to trade links with websites
that do not host their links page in the same place with their website,
but on third-party sites. Anyway, the link that you are getting back
might still generate direct traffic for your website. If you need a
better understanding of all of the above, you should try a closer look
on how the PageRank algorithm works.
Finally, it is a good
idea to visit some forums dedicated to links swap and/or link
popularity. Many good things can be learned from other people involved
in this activity. Knowledge is power, and practical experience is
valuable knowledge! Keep that in mind…
Links and Google's PageRank
Google's PageRank algorithm is based on link popularity!
As everyone knows, most search engines today rank
web pages according not only to page-related factors (as keyword
frequency, meta-tags etc.) but also to their link popularity, which is
determined by the number of links from other websites. The “quality” of
the links is considered as well (links from “popular” pages, with many
links pointing to them, are weighted more). It is much better to have a
link from a very popular website (for example microsoft.com) than
having someone’s personal home page linking to you :-)
The Google PageRank is the implementation of the link popularity
concept in the algorithm of the Internet’s most popular search engine,
Google. The PageRank is a number between 0 and 10. A PageRank of 0
(PR0) means no links to a website, while a PageRank of 10 (PR10) means
millions of links pointing to that particular website. It seems that
the scale is logarithmic, so PR10 does not mean ten times more links
than PR1, but many more.
It is often not understood that PageRank is a
measure related to webpages, NOT to websites. Each page of a website
has an individual PageRank. Usually, the home page of a website has the
highest PageRank, but this happens only because generally all the other
pages of the website link somehow to the homepage.
Google offers a free tool (the Google Toolbar: http://toolbar.google.com)
that can be used to check a web page’s PageRank. After downloading and
installing it, an additional bar below the URL field will indicate the
PageRank by a green horizontal gauge. Moving the mouse over the green
gauge will reveal the numeric value of the PageRank.
Link Exchange (links
swap) is the most effective way to increase your link popularity!
Although PageRank is crucially important for a high
position in the search results, it is not the only factor in Google’s
algorithm. Google takes into account page-related factors too, such as
the keyword frequency, title and heading tags etc. However, there is
strong evidence that PageRank is the MAIN factor that gives a webite's
positioning in the results pages.
To increase your PageRank, you should get as many
external links as possible pointing to your homepage. The links should
be from pages with high PageRanks. It seems that a link from a website
with PageRank ZERO is worth 200 times (!!!) less than a link from a
page with PageRank FOUR.
In order to help you boost your PageRank, Links-Pal
offers an advanced service called "Highly Recommended Link
Exchange Partner". It is not free, but it will definetely help
your PageRank since you get 30
HIGH-QUALITY LINKS pointing to your website, from pages
with PageRank FOUR! You also get MAXIMUM VISIBILITY in our directory,
and more webmasters will find you and swap links with your website.
Click <HERE> to order this service!
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