How to increase your site’s Link Popularity

Link Popularity is the number of incoming links you have linking to your site. It is important because the more links you get the more traffic and exposure you get for your site.

Link Popularity used to play an important role in getting you a higher PageRank. Although now I feel Google does not give much importance to backlinks. They seem to award every new site with a PR 5 nowadays. So what is Google looking for? Well, I am not sure but Orginal content is still an important factor.

Your site’s Link Popularity also plays an important part in how search engines rank your website for various keyword searches. That explains why I am still on the first page for keyword ‘‘. The article has got a number of links to it and is the main reason why it is still on the first page for that and it’s related keywords.

A link from any site is good. But it is best if you get quality links from related sites. As a result, increasing the number of quality, relevant sites which link to your site can actually improve your search engine rankings.

So how do you increase your site’s Link Popularity?

• Get your site listed in the search engine directories: Google gives importance to the websites that are listed in DMOZ and directories. If you manage to get your site listed on these directories, soon it will be listed on and hundreds of other directories automaticaly. As a result, your site will get a boost in link popularity and improve search engine ranking in other search engines.However, it will take time to get your site listed in directories such as DMOZ. I have been trying for months now and have not succeeded so far.You can get listed much faster by getting links from niche specific directories. Find these directories by doing a search on Google with the primary keywords of your web site. For example “yourkeyword directory”. A list of Blogging directories can be found here.

  Another good list of directories can be found here

• Provide quality content on your site: People will link to your site if you provide the information they are searching for. The best way to get more links is to submit your articles to Ezinearticles. From there more people will find your articles and link you.You could also offer some free services on your site that everyone would love. What type of services depend on your choice. I am sure services such as Website Optimization gets lots of links everyday.I have noticed manytimes that Reviews on the latest beta products or Web Services get a lot of backlinks. So you may want to try that.
• Link exchanges: Link exchanges is another good way to increase your site’s Link Popularity. But do look out to which sites you exchange links with. It is best to exchange links with related sites that have a high Search Engine Ranking with quality content.Look in directories such as Google’s to find sites that have your keyword. You will find a lot of sites with link pages that do link exchanges with other sites. Simply visit their site and ask for a link exchange. A search for “yourkeyword submit site” will list out hundreds of websites to exchange links with.
• Link Exchange Services: You could also consider registering with a link exchange service such as Link Market and Link Metro to quickly generate more links pointing to your site. This is how it works- You register your site with the service and the service adds you to the links page that other members place on their Web sites. Some services promise to add as many as 500 links pointing to your Web site within 30 days. They may also ask you to link to their site and upload a ‘links page’ that they offer. The links page will be linking to all their member’s sites.I won’t recommend this method as some Search Engines consider link exchange services as artificial link popularity and may even ban your site for participating in such a program.
• Wikipedia: I have heard that Google adds weight to sites that are linked by Wikipedia. So find a topic in Wikipedia that matches your article and trying linking it under ‘External Links‘. But please don’t try to spam it.
• Other methods: Other methods to increase yours site’s link popularity is to register and be active on a Forum that allow you to provide signatures. You may also sign Guestbooks and give out your URL. But these methods are not as effective as the methods mentioned above.

How to check Link Popularity in Search Engines?

You can use services such as Link Popularity Checker to check your site’s link popularity in the major Search Engines.

You may check the Link Popularity in Google using “link:www.yoursite.com”

Please do share your ideas on how to increase Link Popularity.