1. Link Popularity
This rule of popularity is based on how many other websites have links
on their page that point to yours. Because popular sites with well-written and
unique content should naturally attract incoming links, this is a factor the search
engines take into account when ranking a website. A page with more quality
inbound links will more than likely have stronger influences on the search
engines than a page with no back links to it.
2. Link Reputation
Not all incoming links are created equally and it's vital to obtain back-links
from quality sources. Based on relevance, the link reputation determines the
quality of one's links. This is defined in part by how closely related the
sites are that link to one another. For example, a general sports website may
include links to other website pages that are on lacrosse or football. These
are considered relevant links and will likely have more of a positive impact in
the search engines algorithms. However, if the same sports page linked to a
site for pets or household goods, the search engines wouldn't consider it as
relevant and would provide less importance on that link.
3. Anchor Text
Relevance (and ranking) in the search engines is also done through anchor text. These are words or phrases that are clickable hypertext to your web page. As both human viewers and search engines see this text, anchor text defines the web page it links to and therefore should be relevant to your website. Before visiting the website, people should know what the website is about by having relevant, descriptive text.