Link Popularity, which refers to the number of external websites that are linking to your website, is one of the major factors that is considered when search engines determine the page rank for your website. The higher your page rank, the more free traffic you can receive from the search engines. You can literally save yourself lots of money from your advertising budget by sitting back and letting the search engines deliver your website to potential prospects. The best part about it all is that you do not have to pay a dime for it.

When you create a new website, you are going to start with a disadvantage because you will naturally have low link popularity. It makes sense that websites that have existed for a longer time would have higher link popularity and search engines would prefer to send traffic to those websites because they are more popular.

Link popularity seems to be a good indicator of a website's quality because high quality websites will only choose to link with other high quality websites. Why would a high quality website jeopardize their credibility by linking with a low quality free for all link farm? They really would not, making this effective criteria for search engines to use. Linking to low quality websites decreases your credibility with the search engines and your website will appear much further down the results page and this greatly lessens the chances of people finding your website.

There really is not a definitive answer regarding how many links your website needs to rank well with the search engines. Fortunately, for new websites there are some quick and effective strategies to help you increase your link popularity.

One of the quickest methods would be to write a good article and submit it to an article directory. When your article is accepted, you will instantly have a link pointing back to your website. You can also join forums and be a useful participant of a forum discussion. If your website link is included in your signature for each post, you can instantly create more links back to your website.

Another method to increase links to your website is to locate reciprocal link partners. Focus on quality when you are looking for linking partners, not quantity. The websites you link to should complement the content of your website and should appeal to your audience.

The importance and value of link popularity should not be underestimated. Take some time to evaluate the link popularity of your website and take some simple steps to increase it. In no time you will have the search engines delivering you a steady supply of free targeted traffic too!