Success on the Internet can be like a major military campaign. Without a clear strategy and rapid-responsive tactics, your adversaries will mow you down in the search engine rankings. So set out to increase link popularity.

If a good offense truly is the best defense, then start your foray with a look at your link popularity rating. Don’t be surprised when you find widely varying results from different search engines. That’s because every search engine has its own computational process, known as an algorithm, that calculates its rankings.

Search engines rank web sites in strange and mysterious mathematical ways. Virtually every search engine has its own proprietary algorithm (a step-by-step computational process) through which it calculates both link popularity and link importance. That’s why, when you check your web site’s link popularity on several search engines, you get a different result each time.

Link importance ranks what kind of external websites link to yours. Link popularity counts up how many sites link to yours. These factors go into the algorithm that creates a link popularity score that’s weighted, rather than a raw count. This weighted ranking came about after search engine designers realized that spammers were skewing the ratings by setting up phony websites to link up with. These days reputable search engines rarely count links that come from free web sites.

Search engines got antsy about using solely numbers of links because of some antics by our “pals, ” the spammers. These shady characters set up bogus web sites for free, then linked from them to their main money-making site. The result? Top rankings for sites run by shifty spammers, and many unhappy users of prominent search engines. Ergo, new algorithms to rank importance as well as volume of links were created.

So if your strategy is to increase link popularity to a certain level, then your tactics have to be to get noticed by other sites with online clout AND to get more links in total. Some ways to do this include:

* Earn listings by submitting your site to search engine directories such as the Open Directory Project (dmoz. Org) and Yahoo. Com. Volunteer human editors run these directories, and they look at each site and evaluate it individually. It’s a great part of the democratic process that is the Internet. However, like democracy, getting listed on a directory like this can be a slow process. If you want a quick boost, find some niche directories that match up with your content focus. Use your keywords to locate them, and then use keywords again to qualify your site for the niche.

2. Remember the number-one rule of the Internet: Content is King. Without quality content, your site isn’t worth the seven seconds it takes to load. Users certainly won’t link to a dud site, so work hard on bright content. And don’t forget the mighty keywords!

4. Say something nice about someone else’s web site – a testimonial, in other words. When your fave asks to use your lovely comment, be sure they include a link to your web site.

Yes, the Internet is definitely hot and crowded, so learn to use its techniques effectively to increase link popularity and get the attention you need.