"How important is link popularity? I have used a trial version of WebPosition
Gold which compares links and popularity, but how valid is this assessment?
Is there better software available which performs the same function?" -- Sharon
Wilson
Link popularity is very important to achieving a higher position in the search
engine rankings -- for very competitive keywords, perhaps as much as 50% of
the ranking algorithm.
WebPosition
Gold 2.0 (www.wilsonweb.com/afd/webposition.htm) includes an enhanced Page
Critic feature that computes your link popularity and compares it to the link
popularity of competitive sites. You can do this without paying for WebPosition
by using WebPosition
Link Popularity Check (www.linkpopularitycheck.com), which searches Lycos/AllTheWeb,
MSN, and AltaVista to determine how many pages on the Internet contain links
to your site. The result, of course, is only an estimate, but it gives you some
idea of how many quality incoming links you'll need to acquire in order to match
your keyword competitors. You'll find other free link popularity checkers by
searching for "link
popularity" on Google.
Also see my article with Eric Ward, "Linking
Strategies that Improve Traffic to Your Site,"Web Marketing Today,
4/2/2003. http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt8/linking_ward.htm One approach to finding
linking partners is to use Ken Evoy's free SiteSell
Value Exchange. It (1) registers your site as one that is willing to exchange
links with other sites that have a similar theme/topic and content and (2) searches
for sites with similar topical content. http://sales.sitesell.com/value-exchange/
