Link popularity is a gauge of the quantity and quality of other websites that link to a specific site on the internet. Search engines use link popularity to determine a website’s reputation, if numerous quality websites are linking to another then they must value that site. The theory goes that if many places are linking to this site then there must be good content and valuable material worth pursuing.
Link popularity will therefore have a high impact on a website’s exposure and high page ranking.
So How to Go About Checking your Link Popularity: Software or Service Approach?
A simple online query for link popularity software will bring numerous sites offering both link popularity software and services. The software may be a freeware, shareware or commercial package, check around and budget, there may be no need to spend at all to analyse your link popularity. Read further…
Link popularity software will require you to fill in a basic form where you add your URL and submit the information. The link popularity software will then query the major search engines and determine how many links they have indexed back to that site.
Both link popularity software and online services will, by and large, bring back the same format of results. Which is better? It is a case of trialling approaches until you find one that fits. Arguing for a software versus service option, software packages may offer the ability to save and export results for storage and analysis. Equally online link popularity services may also offer similar options with downloadable spreadsheets.
The Cost of Link Popularity Software
At this stage we are still talking free and major providers. Both link popularity software and services will start to moot the concept of a cost as the scope and coverage of the link popularity check grows. Software packages and services will offer to query your link popularity against not only the major search engines but against a huge raft of global, lesser known websites, this number may well grow into the thousands. Read on…
Link Popularity Software: Go for Wholesale or Selective?
So the argument for link popularity software as a software or online service remains balanced, personal opinion and preference being the driver.
The debate for paying for link popularity software is in my opinion less hard to crack. I would argue that the only reason to pay for link popularity software would be to carry out something akin to “vanity” link popularity analysis. If you checked against an Outer Mongolian engine to see how many links that site provided it wouldn’t help you, you risk getting bogged down in superfluous detail, possibly at the cost of the bigger picture. Other than giving you a warm inner feeling that you are popular, that listing in Outer Mongolia is hardly likely to convert into something of value to you.
Selective and free link popularity software wins in every case.
Link Popularity Software: Check against the Big Players
Now to further muddy the waters. Do we actually need a link popularity software package or service provider to find how eminent your website is?
All of the major search providers will have webmaster tools and advanced search preferences in place for individuals to check their popularity.
My recommendations would be to:-
- Target the monsters of the search industry. Visit Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Ask and any industry or niche specific search engines.
- Search for terms within the advanced search preferences for word such as “Find pages that link to the page” in Google or “Site Explorer” in Yahoo!
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