Link Popularity
Link popularity describes the significance of a website for search engines. A search engine determines this based on the backlinks that refer to a website—because, according to Google and others, links are considered recommendations of the internet. The more external links a website receives, the more important it seems to the web search engines, and the higher its link popularity will be. This can indeed influence a website's ranking in the SERPs. Therefore, link building is an important discipline in online marketing.
Link popularity is not measured solely by the sheer quantity of backlinks. Quality also plays a crucial role here. Especially with the so-called "PageRank"—Google's metric for assessing backlinks and link structures. The thematic relevance of the linked websites is explicitly considered. After all, in terms of a "recommendation," a link only makes sense if it is thematically appropriate. A backlink from a sunscreen website only makes limited sense in an article about search engine optimization. Furthermore, the PageRank of a website is also influenced by the PageRank of the linking website. The higher the value of the other website, the higher your own. The power that a link transfers from one website to another is referred to as link juice.
Can link popularity be easily increased?
If link popularity indicates the value of a website, which in turn is determined by the number and quality of external backlinks, can't you theoretically engage in excessive link exchanges for link building and everything will be fine? It's not quite that simple: If website A links to website B and vice versa back to A, Google recognizes this as a pure link exchange. This is referred to as reciprocal links. Pure link exchange is not desirable for search engines, as a recommendation should not require a return favor. This also applies to link purchasing. Both violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can even lead to a penalty, namely a downgrade in site ranking.
The best solution for thematic backlinks to increase link popularity and develop a natural link profile: providing informative, engaging, and interesting content that is "link-worthy." One should not just try to gain links and traffic through short-lived actions, but achieve lasting success through good content. This requires ideas, time, and leisure, as not every piece of content is linked quickly and successfully.
Click, domain and IP popularity
In addition to link popularity, click popularity and domain popularity are also standards for evaluating a website. Click popularity is based on the number of clicks from a visitor, while domain popularity measures the website's quality based on backlinks originating from different domains. An advancement of link and domain popularity is IP popularity, where only backlinks from different IP addresses are counted.
Internal link popularity
But not only the external links are considered by search engines like Google. The internal links also count. The quantity and quality of these links are referred to as internal link popularity. Backlinks are built in SEO as part of off-page optimization, while internal linking plays a role in on-page optimization. Although search engine optimization should be considered holistically, these two areas are different, even though both involve linking.
Internal links refer to the networking of the individual subpages of a domain. These links help the user to navigate through a website and find further content or relevant offers. Search engines like Google "evaluate" internal linking—specifically, internal link popularity—just like the backlink structure of a website. They also serve as a guide for Google's webcrawler (Googlebot). The crawler specifically works through links and uses them to reach deeper levels of a website. Without this link structure, it would likely take much longer for the bot to scan a page and include it in the Google index.
Note: The more internal links are on a page, the less link juice is passed on. Therefore, link juice should be distributed strategically. Link spam is counterproductive.
Relevant link texts are crucial
Link texts, so-called anchor texts, should ideally give the user a first impression of what to expect with a click on the hyperlink on the upcoming page. For good internal link popularity, it is crucial to use relevant link texts that match the respective subpages. The text should not be too general. For instance, a "read more here" struggles to convey what the content of the linked page has to offer. At the same time, link texts should not be repeated too often. This would eventually just seem like keyword stuffing, which is not beneficial for site ranking. Search engines evaluate good internal link popularity when variations of link texts are offered that refer to the same page.
In addition, the quantity plays a role in evaluating internal link popularity: The more subpages available, the higher the number of internal links. Furthermore, multiple links can be made on a page or pages can be linked multiple times.
By the way: The backlink profile can be viewed in the Google Search Console. If improvements in SEO measures are necessary, a look at the Search Console can provide initial clues about the quality of the current link building.