Link popularity one of the most important factors for search engines when calculating their rankings for any particular query. Of course the term entered into the search box should be represented on the returned pages, but link popularity will be a big part of that calculation. Gaining link popularity isnt hard, but it can be time consuming. Look at the options, and decide what you need to do to climb the search engines.
Trying to gain link popularity - without focus on relevance - is heavily debated, but many SEO theorists claim it to be of very high importance. Deciding for a linking strategy, and following it, is excellent for following up your strategy, and to improve it if necessary. As mentioned, there are plenty of ways of gaining link popularity, all more or less effective. Some options available will give you an excellent opportunity to actually gain relevant links while focusing on link popularity.
Submitting to various web directories
Submitting your site to web directories is a good way of getting more inbound links for free. There are many directories accepting free submissions, and even more directories available if you reciprocate their link. The amount of directories, and its time consuming nature, will make this option a full time job for a few week, but the results wont wait. A very viable option, and something every webmaster should include in her strategy, is to submit your site to as many high PR directories possible. The high PR, and the obvious relevance, will give you a few very good links at little or no cost. This is a good long-term strategy. Submitting to a few directories on a daily basis will give you a steady flow of new, relevant backlinks.
Exchanging links
Exchanging links with other webmasters is a fairly easy way of getting your inbound links, but the downside is you wont get many one-way links at all. The variety of options in the link exchange business makes it highly likely to find an alternative fitting both your wallet and demands. Many services offer completely automated link exchanges, thus leaving you with more time to improve your website, conversion ratio or to increase your one-way links from directories or article submissions.
Writing and submitting articles
Writing articles is perhaps the best way to gain both link popularity and highly relevant links. Because it is you who are writing the whole page, you can cram in just about any keyword you want. The number of article directories accepting submissions will make every article count, no matter how few people actually seeing it. This is a very good way of gaining backlinks, but it can be hard to come up with enough material to make it to the top. It can also prove difficult for non-native English speakers, but with a good text editor and a lot of patience, it should not be impossible.
Using link-bait
Many webmasters create pages only to attract inbound links. This can be done in a number of ways, often with a useful and extensive list of something (i.e. web directories, article directories etc.) or free software of some kind. For people with no programming skills, there are plenty of ways of finding free software with the right to sell or give it away. Creating a good link-bait page can give you a huge amount of new links, and if you are lucky the number of links to that page will only grow over time. Once you have made the page, you often need to get the ball rolling by posting the link on your favorite forum etc. Once people see it, they will post it on their forums, mail it to friends or even add it to their page.
Using any of these methods will surely move your link popularity in the right direction, but it is advised you try to utilize as many ways you can, as it will be both faster and more effective.
http://www.articleco.com/Article/4-ways-to-improve-your-link-popularity/28044
