Two concepts that are commonly confused when it comes to search engine optimization are page rank and link popularity. Page rank focuses only on the quantity and popularity of your links in the search engines. Link popularity however refers to the “quality” of your links. These are not interchangeable turns as Pagerank is actually a term that is part of the definition of Link Popularity.

All of the major search engines' algorithms do assess link popularity in one way or another. The two main types of links that seem best to boost your link popularity are links form relevant categories in big Internet directories and links from similar sites to your own that are focused on the same keyword phrases that your site is. These sites are considered to be high quality sites.

If you want to avoid sabotaging yourself then stay away from links that the search engines might consider to be low quality such as Free For All Sites. You are particularly cautioned against using one of those “Link to 1000 Targeted Sites for Free” type programs as they will only serve to lower your link popularity in the eyes of the search engine. Although they might increase your page rank temporarily (maybe for just a few days) this type of link farming might actually completely sabotage your link popularity. It's just not worth it. Never do anything to sacrifice your link popularity which is much more crucial to your website's overall success.

Usually there is no need to sweat over you link popularity if you have not done anything that the search engines may not like such as hire a company that specializes in link farming to enhance your SEO. Offering a quality product or service at a reasonable cost is usually the best way to get other quality sites to link to you.