One of the most overlooked aspects of search engine optimisation is link popularity. This variable indicates not just the number of other sites linking back to your site but the quality and relevance of those third party pages.

In SEO terms, a link is like a reference or seal of approval. It tells the search engines that an independent web site sees your site as a valued resource and one that it is happy to redirect some of its own traffic towards.

Choosing your link partners carefully will determine the extent of the success –or failure- of your search engine optimisation campaign. While it can be tempting to set off on a link treasure hunt to gather up as many links as possible, being a little bit more discerning will actually propel you through the search results and lead to an optimised presence a lot sooner.

So what should you look for when targeting links for your web site?

1. Relevance

The best type of link, whether it is sourced purely for search engine optimisation reasons or not, is one that is relevant to your business and your web site. A relevant link can be one from a trade association you are a member of or on a page featuring a news item or product review about your particular service.

One indicator of a site being relevant to your own site is if it references any of the same keywords as those you are looking to optimise. Check the page title, text content and the anchor text of the link pointing back to your page. If any of these offer similar content to your web site or feature the same primary or secondary search strings, you’re on to a winner.

2. Few outbound Links

It’s a universal fact that the less there is of one particular thing, the more we want one. You can apply this theory to limited edition cars, covetable antiques, and haute couture clothing. The same is also true of links. If the page that links to you has few outbound links in the source code, all the better for your search engine optimisation prospects. The more of something there is, the less valuable it becomes so try and avoid pages with hundreds of outbound links. From a search engine perspective, the quality of the referrals is diluted as the page is not carefully sifting through the millions of available pages to find only the best and most informative sites to direct traffic towards.

3. A High Google PageRank

The Google PageRank is a measure of Google’s perceived importance of each web page. You can view this ranking by downloading the Google webmaster toolbar. The best links come from links that are hosted on pages with a good Google PageRank. The scale runs from 0 (being of no importance) to a 10 (the most important). Bearing in mind that Google give their own home page a PageRank of just 9, don’t waste energy chasing after the impossible.

Your web site inherits a sliver of the PageRank from each link that points back to it so always try and hit above you station. If your home page has a PageRank of 3 for example, aim for links from PageRanks of 4 and above.

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