Link popularity
Online Advertising
Link popularity
Link popularity is a measure of the quantity and quality of
other web sites that link to a specific site on the World Wide Web. It
is an example of the move by search engines towards
off-the-page-criteria to determine quality content. In theory,
off-the-page-criteria adds the aspect of impartiality to search engine
rankings.
Link popularity plays an important role in the visibility of a web site among
the top of the search results. Indeed, some search engines require at least one
or more links coming to a web site, otherwise they will drop it from their
index.
Search engines such as Google use a special link analysis system to rank web
pages. Citations from other WWW authors help to define a site's reputation. The
philosophy of link popularity is that important sites will attract many links.
Content-poor sites will have difficulty attracting any links. Link popularity
assumes that not all incoming links are equal, as an inbound link from a major
directory carries more weight than an inbound link from an obscure personal home
page. In other words, the quality of incoming links counts more than sheer
numbers of them.
To search for pages linking to a specific page, simply enter the URL on
Google or Yahoo! this way:
link:http://yourdomainname/pagename.html
Here are some strategies that are generally considered to be important to
increase link popularity:
- There should be links from the home page to all subpages so that a
search engine can transfer some link popularity to the subpages.
- Appropriate anchor text with relevant keywords should be used in the
text links that are pointing to pages within a site (technically, this helps
link context, not link popularity).
- Getting links from other web sites, particularly sites with high
PageRank, can be one of the
most powerful site promotion tools. Therefore, the webmaster should try to
get links from other important sites offering information or products
compatible or synergistic to his/her own site or from sites that cater to
the same audience the webmaster does. The webmaster should explain the
advantages to the potential link partner and the advantages his/her site has
to their visitors.
- One way links often count for more than reciprocal links.
- The webmaster should list his/her site in one or more of the major
directories such as Yahoo! or the Open Directory Project.
- The webmaster should only link to sites that he/she can trust, i.e.
sites that do not use "spammy techniques".
- The webmaster should not participate in
link exchange
programs or link farms, as search engines will ban sites that participate in
such programs.
To increase link popularity, many webmasters interlink multiple domains that
they own, but often search engines will filter out these links, as such links
are not independent votes for a page and are only created to trick the search
engines. See Spamdexing.
In this context, closed circles are often used, but these should be avoided, as
they hoard PageRank.
See also
External links
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This guide is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.
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