Stage 2 - Off-Page/Link Popularity
Introduction To Link Popularity
The search engines reward the top positions to the websites that they deem as most relevant. They determine which sites are most relevant using 2 factors: content and link popularity.
The content of your website is the on-page factors. Read about them here
The link popularity of your website is determined by the amount and quality of the links coming into your site. Google has created a system called PageRank that shows how much authority each website has.
A simple explanation of PageRank: PR works on a scale from 0 - 10, with 0 being lowest and 10 being highest. Each website that links to your website is a vote for your site. The more votes you have, the higher your PR. However, not all votes are equal. If a website that links to you has a high PR, they will pass more PR to you then a website with low PR.
Also, the more relevant a website that links to you is, the more PR they pass on. Example: If you have a vitamin site, links from other health-related sites will be more beneficial than links from a computer site.
A simple analogy is that PageRank is like water: a website with a high PR has a lot water and gives you more water when they link to you than a website with a low PR (a little water). The more water you accumulate, the higher your PR will rise. When you link out to other sites, you are giving them your water (PR).
For a detailed explanation by Google click here.
Many people ask: How much more valuable is a link from a PR5 site, than a link from a PR4 site? The exact answer is not known but industry experts believe that it would take about 8 links from a PR4 site to equal 1 link from a PR5 site. So a link from a PR7 site would be worth 512 links from a PR4 site (8 x 8 x 8).
Again, this is not exact, it is only an approximation. There are other factors that determine the quality of the link such as relevance and anchor-text. (anchor-text is the words in the link, example: link popularity
How To Gain Link Popularity:
In order to rank well on the search engine's you need to appear more relevant than your competitors on-page and off-page. Off-page means link popularity and this is critical to your success. To beat your competitor's, you need to have higher link popularity.
There are two ways to build your link popularity:
- One Way Links - Website's that link to you and you don't link back to them.
- Reciprocal Links - Website's that link to you and you link back to them
Ideally, you need a combination of One-Way and Reciprocal Links to build your link popularity. The amount of links you need is determined by the quantity and quality of your links versus your competition, in relation to each targeted keyword.
Learn about our Link Popularity Services
