The link popularity element measures the number of reciprocal links between web pages on the Internet. There are two kinds of  reciprocal links to focus on for search engine placement: inbound links and outbound links - links to your website and links from your website.

You can look at inbound links as a form of vote. If site A has a link to site B, it is a vote A makes for B: "Look at that site, there is something good here!" The more votes B gets from other sites, the more reciprocal link-popularity B gains.

Now, each of the websites that votes (have outbound links) are actually delegates as they themselves have a number of voters behind them - the websites that link to their website. The more voters they have behind them, the more weight their vote carries on other sites. So the most popular websites have the most link-popularity to pass on.

Some search engines can "understand" the theme of related web pages. For such search engines inbound links from thematically related websites might get a better scoring.

Outbound links are a bit different. They work similar to references in a scientific report. If you have references to the right authorities in your profession it shows that you know what you are talking about. You acknowledge the "masters" and thereby put yourself in a category above the ones that don't.

IMPORTANT TIP:
Not all  reciprocal links count the same for search engine optimization! Links from recognized authorities in your industry count more than reciprocal links from a small private website on a free host.

Do not use free Search Engine submission software or services to submit to hundreds of thousands of free directories and search engines just to gain more inbound links. Reciprocal Links from most of these places won't do you any good in the search engine optimization and placement game. With this practice there is even a risk that some of the links you get this way will harm your rankings.

Do not participate in organized exchanging of unrelated links between websites - so-called link farming - to boost you link-popularity factor. Most search engines consider that to be spam. Instead, focus on getting inbound links from relevant major players in your field - they are the only reciprocal links ones that really count to boost link popularity.

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