We all know just how important it is to get as many incoming links as possible. The top search engines love backlinks; and you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that link popularity plays an important role in their ranking algorithms.

Incoming links aren't just important to the search engines. The more links that you have that link directly to your site, the more opportunities there are for people to click them. Every opportunity to click a link is an opportunity to get a visitor to your web site.

So, if the "arrow" is your targeted visitor, then the incoming link is your bow. Now, I'm not suggesting for a moment that you take up archery! But I am suggesting that you get as many bowmen as possible to send targeted traffic to your site.

How do you know when you have enough bowmen?

How many incoming links is enough?

Here's a step by step process to get you the answer...

1. Choose your primary keyword and run off to your favourite search engine and run a search.

2. Identify the URL at the very top, the number one position, and copy the URL to your clipboard.

3. Now open another browser window and get to this page: http://www.link-advantage.com/popularity and paste the #1 URL from the search engine window into the search box. Don't click the "check" button just yet.

4. Go back to your search engine window and click to page two and capture the URL that is in the top of that page (#11 in the overall results).

5. Return to the Link-Advantage.com window and paste the #11 URL into one of the additional search comparison boxes.

6. Enter your own site's URL in one of the remaining boxes and then click the "check" button.

Now look carefully at the results. You now have two targets to aim for. You know how many links you need to beat the site that holds the #1 position; and you know how many links to get your site into the top ten position on that important first page of the results for your keyword.

Surprisingly, now you know what you are aiming for, you are much more likely to succeed and by using the http://www.link-advantage.com/popularity tool you have an easy way of keeping score.

In my link building experience, having a clear target and measuring progress can be a great motivator. However, it's important not to feel overwhelmed when you first start and see that you're going to need thousands of backlinks. Just set yourself a realistic target to aim for within your first week, or month, and get started.

Building link popularity isn't a one-off project, it's an ongoing and important part of building long term traffic.

Copyright John Taylor PhD September 2005 - All rights reserved.