Search engine rankings are like a popularity contest, but instead of having many friends, it’s about having the right ones and they will help you top. In SEO, these “friends” are other websites linking to yours. The better their reputation, the more they help your website stand out.
This is what we call link popularity—how many websites link to yours and, more importantly, how trustworthy and relevant they are.
But why is link popularity important? It’s actually one of the important parameters that search engines use to consider whether your site deserves the top-ranked spot on the search results.
Here, we’ll explore what link popularity means, why building link popularity is so important for your website’s success, and practical steps you can take to improve it and climb the rankings.
What Is Link Popularity in SEO?
Link popularity is one of the important aspects of search engine optimization. It measures:
- How many websites link to your site
- Whether those links are accurate, up to date and trustworthy
Think of it as a vote of confidence—when other websites link to yours, they’re telling search engines like Google that your content is valuable.
There’s a difference between link popularity and link quality. Link popularity is about your number of links, while link quality focuses on how credible and important those links are. Both are crucial for building a strong online presence.
High-quality types of backlinks from reputable sources can significantly enhance your site’s authority. In fact, top-ranked search results typically have 3.8 times more backlinks than those in positions two through ten.
To boost your site’s link popularity, focus on:
- Reclaiming unlinked mentions of your brand or website.
- Updating old content to make it more link-worthy.
- Getting listed on ‘Best X’ like sites.
- Searching for the backlinks from trusted websites and reaching out.
Since link building sounds simple at first sight, a lot of efforts are needed to maintain link popularity and a quality backlink profile. Outsourcing your link building activities to GrowthOG could empower you to stay on top of the campaigns, optimize your efforts, and deliver impactful results.
The Importance of Link Popularity in SEO
Link popularity plays a crucial role in how well your website ranks on search engines like Google. But why is it so important? Let’s break it down.
Improved search engine rankings
Backlinks are like votes for your website. When high-quality sites link to your pages, search engines see this as a sign that your content is trustworthy and valuable. The more relevant links you get, the higher you can rank on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Quick Tip: Focus on acquiring backlinks from websites within your industry or niche. It’s not just about the quantity but the quality of those links.
Building trust and authority
Imagine a respected industry leader recommending your website. It’s like a stamp of approval. Incoming links from authoritative websites boost your website’s credibility. Google and other search engines use these links to gauge how trustworthy your site is.
Stat to Consider: According to Authority Hacker, 93.8% of link builders prioritize link quality over quantity. This is evidence that search engines prefer more ‘quality’ backlinks than a quantity of poor-quality backlinks.
Increased visibility and traffic
Backlinks not only improve your rankings but also bring direct referral traffic. When other websites link to your content, visitors from those linking sites will click through to yours.
This gives you a chance to convert them into customers or regular readers. And seek links from sites with audiences similar to yours. These visitors are more likely to engage with your content.
Enhanced crawlability
Links help the search engine bots find and crawl your pages or posts. Lack of backlinks can mean that search engines will not index some of your work thus making you less visible.
How search engines are crawling web pages
It helps if you use internal links within your site, but the important thing is that you strive to make sure that all your important links are connected with other sites and engines.
Improved user experience
Visitors who discover valuable links in your site will be more likely to stay and discover other pages. This minimizes your bounce rate and gives search engines signals that the user found the information on your site useful. Similarly, this can also assist in improving your rankings even higher as it appears to.
Did you know?
According to a survey, 79.7% of SEOs say link building is an essential part of their strategy. Yet, 52.3% of marketers say link building is the hardest part of SEO!
But don’t worry—once you understand the basics of link popularity along with the help from GrowthOG, getting those valuable backlinks can become much easier.
Factors That Contribute to Link Popularity
The factors most famous SEOs use and promote are getting the best link quality and focusing on relevant and authoritative sites, and diversifying link sources. Here’s a breakdown of the key factors that contribute to link popularity:
Link quality
The quality of the links pointing to your website is key to improving your rankings. Links from well-known, trustworthy sites are more valuable than those from low-quality or spammy sites.
A few links from trusted, high-authority websites can have a bigger impact on your SEO than many links from less reputable sources. It’s always important to obtain links from trustworthy and related websites.
Dofollow vs. nofollow link ratio
The balance between dofollow and nofollow links is important for SEO. Dofollow links pass value to your website and help to improve search rankings. Nofollow links don’t pass this value but can still help drive traffic to your site. A mix of both is ideal.
Having too many nofollow links likely appears unnatural to search engines while having too many dofollow links appears manipulative.
Link diversity
It’s therefore important to develop a diverse link profile in order to achieve the best backlink profile. This means earning links from different websites, pointing to different pages on one’s site, and using a mix of different anchor text types. That way, you let search engines recognize that your link profile is natural.
Link relevance
Links originating from sources that have a similar theme as the content in your site are preferable. Relevance also informs the search engines that your site is in some way related to a certain topic or industry, and thus increases your site’s credibility in that certain field.
Link placement
Where your link’s placed on a page affects its value. Links in the main body or introduction of an article are seen as more important by search engines than those in sidebars, footers, or comments. Links within the main content are considered more relevant and valuable because they are part of the primary content.
Anchor text
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink, and it helps search engines understand what the linked page is about. It’s important to use different types of anchor text, including exact keywords, brand mentions, and relevant terms. Using too many of one anchor text type can look unnatural and may hurt your SEO.
This is where link-building services like GrowthOG can help you. With the expertise and experiences in the industry, they could guide you on the right path to improve link popularity, providing links that are impactful and tailored to your preferences.
Measuring Link Popularity for Success
Success couldn’t be made without monitoring and measuring your efforts. These can be useful in determining the extent of the link profile strength and the correlation between the link profile with search engine rankings.
Let’s break down the key indicators for measuring link popularity and why they matter.
Domain rating (DR) and URL rating (UR) by Ahrefs
Ahrefs uses Domain Rating (DR) and URL Rating (UR) to measure the strength of a website’s backlink profile. DR measures the overall authority of a domain, while UR looks at the strength of individual pages.
These metrics are based on the quantity and quality of backlinks pointing to a site. A higher DR and UR generally mean better link popularity and a stronger chance of ranking higher in search results.
Authority score (AS) by Semrush
Semrush’s Authority Score (AS) is a holistic metric that evaluates a website’s overall trustworthiness and strength in search engines.
It contains a set of numerous parameters that may concern backlinks quantity and quality, the ratio of referring domain names, and other SEO factors.
The larger the Authority Score, the more established the website and the better its link popularity for appearing high on the rankings to the various search engines.
Domain authority (DA) and page Authority (PA) by Moz
Moz’s Domain Authority and Page Authority are two vital features that help define the likelihood of a site or a single web page to rank high in the search engines.
DA is the general level of domain that translates to the overall level of scoring while the PA measures segmented scoring from a specific page.
Both are influenced by factors, similar to the number of links, the quality and relevance of the links.
Outsourcing link popularity monitoring to GrowthOG
Managing and monitoring your link popularity can be time-consuming, especially if you don’t have the resources or expertise in-house. That’s where agencies like GrowthOG come in.
Outsourcing this task to experts offers several benefits: they can provide in-depth analysis, identify opportunities for improvement, and help prevent issues before they affect your rankings.
GrowthOG’s team delivers data-driven insights, allowing your internal team to stay focused on other important tasks while ensuring your link profile stays strong and competitive.
Best Practices to Increase Link Popularity
Link popularity ranking also plays a critical role in the success of the site and the kind of traffic that the site attracts. Now, let’s discuss how to improve strategies with link profiles.
Crafting link-worthy content
Creating high-quality, engaging content is the foundation of any successful link-building strategy. Content that is original, relevant, and valuable to your audience naturally attracts backlinks.
Airtable doing a great job providing on demand webinars to their audience
Formats like blog posts, infographics, videos, and research studies are particularly effective in garnering attention and links.
Focusing on link quality over quantity
High-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant websites can significantly impact search engine rankings. It’s always better to have one or two quality links instead of having a number of poor-quality links. Measuring link quality requires evaluating the referring pages – including their content quality, backlink profile, and linking practices.
Building and maintaining relationships
The combination of using social media, the forums where people interested in the field gather, and the creation of content with other people is important. Sustaining these relations creates trust and over time, link-building seems natural because you build relations not links.
Employing multiple link-building tactics
The optimization of the link building entails the enhancement of the prospects of acquiring quality backlinks. Such strategies as guest blogging, broken link building, and using social networks efficiently create a good link profile.
Outsourcing link-building services
Working with link-building agencies has several advantages: access to a base of contacts, experience in working with content, and the potential for growth. Agencies like GrowthOG focus on obtaining relevant, niche, or preferred contextual links.
Ensuring dofollow links
While the dofollow link type transfers SEO parameters, the nofollow link type does not do that. Obtaining do-follow links from high-PR sites is the key to making one’s site link popular.
Some of the techniques to get ‘dofollow’ links are making link-worthy assets, using the right link-building techniques, and tracking backlinks while remaining fully compliant with Google’s policies.
Over to You
Link popularity is an essential aspect of SEO that cannot be ignored if you want to rank higher on search engines and attract many visitors to your site. It’s about the quality and relevance of your content that makes a significant impact.
Links from trusted and reputable sources tell the search engine that you have a good site that should be ranked high in the SERPs.
To improve the site rankings, it’s important to achieve good quality backlinks, produce relevant content, and foster communication with other reliable websites.
If you’re looking to boost your website’s link popularity, GrowthOG can help you with expert link-building strategies tailored to your business needs. Reach out today and take your SEO efforts to the next level!