Link Popularity and
"Page Rank"
The two main factors that govern how highly your site
will rank in the search engine results for a given keyword are relevance and
reputation. Relevance is a measure of how easy it is for the search engine
to tell that your web page is really about the search term that's been used.
We improve your relevance with on-page search engine optimization, and we
talk about that extensively on other pages of our site. Reputation is
measured by the number of links coming into your web site and the quality of
those links. The most common term for that is “link popularity”.
A web page’s link popularity score is measured by the
number of other web pages that link to it, and that includes pages linking
from within your web site as well as links from pages on other web sites.
Some of the more popular search engines like Google and Yahoo have toolbars
which display an indicator of the link popularity of a given page.
If all of the top ranking web sites for one of your
critical keyword phrases have link popularity scores of 5, 6, or 7 but your web
site has a link popularity score of 2, it will be very difficult (if not impossible) for
your web site to rank among them, no matter how well optimized it is for
keyword relevance.
Therefore it's important to embark on a link building a campaign so that
your web site can effectively compete with others.
Link popularity generally accounts for about 30% of all
factors affecting your rankings in the search engines. This percentage
varies depending on each particular search engine’s degree of emphasis on
link popularity. Google currently seems to weigh link popularity more
heavily than most other search engines.
In Rank Magic's search engine optimization recommendations, we
always take into account the effect of links among the pages of your web
site on your site’s link popularity. That's one of the two components of
link popularity. The other component has to do with how many pages from
other web sites are linking to pages on your site. That's what we work
to increase in a link building campaign.
There are several ways to
increase your link popularity. Here are a few.
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Excellent content on your site
that provides value to your visitors will encourage links without your
having to ask for them.
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A listing in the
Yahoo! directory can influence your link
popularity because it's a respected link source. At $299/year, though,
that's an expensive link.
-
A listing in the
Open Directory Project is another valuable directory to be listed
in. Especially since their directory powers over 450 smaller search engines and directories, so that the number of links to
your site is multiplied.
-
Topical directories related to
your industry are another good source of quality links.
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Vendors and other business
partners can provide links that are focused and keyword specific.
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Participate in email newsletters
and online forums that relate to your business. When you provide good advice
to someone, a link to your web site in your signature line at the bottom of
your posting is a valuable addition to your link popularity.
-
If you write informative articles about the general subject matter of your
business, you can post them online for editors of other web sites to use
when they need extra content for their own web sites. When they use your
articles, each one has a link to your web site.
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Often it's necessary to request that
other web sites link to yours.
Google's PageRank is perhaps the most obvious
implementation of link popularity based evaluations impacting your ranking.
With Google, links from pages that themselves have a high PageRank
contribute more to your own PageRank than do links from sites with a low
PageRank. And, in the extreme, it's been shown that web sites with no
external links are subject to being dropped from the Google results
altogether.
Google’s PageRank is a logarithmic scale of 0-10 much like the Richter scale for measuring
earthquakes: it's much easier to move from a PageRank of 3 to a 4 than it is to move from a 4 to a 5, and that's easier than moving from a 5
to a 6 and so forth.
Is link popularity strictly a function of the number of
incoming links or are some links are more important than others? The answer
is that some links are definitely more important than others. The words in
the link and the content on both the linking page and the destination page
help determine the relevance of the link. And more relevant links help your
site’s rankings more. If you have a web site that sells computer software, a
link from a computer manufacturer is more relevant that a link from your
local butcher's web site. A link that uses the phrase “computer software” in
the text of the link is a more relevant link than one that simply uses your
web site address.
Another factor that distinguishes the value of different
links is the link popularity of the linking web site. A link from a web site
with a PageRank of 8 is far more valuable to you that link from a web site
with a PageRank of 1.
The best sites to consider requesting links from are web
sites that complement your own site but don't compete directly with you. For
sites like that, it makes sense for them to link to you because it provides
additional value to visitors on their own site. If you request a link from such
a web site, be prepared for them to request a reciprocal link from you. If a
web site isn't good enough for you to link to, you shouldn’t be seeking a
link from them.
Never seek a link just for the sake of the link. And above
all avoid “link farms" which are web sites designed simply too provide links
to other web sites. The search engines are wise to that trick and it won’t
help you.
Link building it is a very labor-intensive process, and
your efforts are probably better focused on your own business.
Rank Magic
can seek and identify high quality, relevant web sites and ask their
webmasters to link to your site.
Many webmasters are being bombarded by form letter email
requests for links, and routinely discard them without a second glance. For
that reason, Rank Magic always sends personalized individual emails when
requesting links. And when possible, we call on the telephone. Then we
follow up if we don't get a response promptly.
In addition, we can provide all the information you need
to add prospective link partners to a “links” or “resources” page on your
web site. With that in place, we can approach potential link partners and
explain to them that we have already linked to them because it's of value to
our visitors to know about their web site. That makes it easier to explain
why it will be valuable for them to link to you.
As you can see, this is a labor-intensive process and
needs to be distributed over time. As a result, we structure a link building
campaign as an annual campaign devoting a predetermined number of hours per
month to the effort. For some clients, we devote an hour a month. Other
clients may request two or three hours of effort per month.
For more information, see our article on the Entrepreneur Magazine web site.
Contact Rank Magic
today to improve your site's link popularity, achieve enviable search engine
positioning and realize more business from your web site!
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