define Link Popularity / Link Cardinality

Definition:

The act of a search engine counting the number of inbound links to a web site. It is a statistic used by some search engines that counts the number of times a web page is linked to by other web pages. Many search engines now use this information as part of their ranking system.

Link popularity is measured by a combination of factors that are designed to weigh the importance of each incoming link. Links from sites with high link popularity will have more weight in a search engine algorithm than links from unpopular sites. In addition, links from sites with complimentary content count as more than links from sites that have no relevance.

There are typically two types of link popularity: Internal and External. Internal link popularity typically refers to the number of links or pages within a web site that link to a specific URL. External link popularity refers to the number of inbound links from external web sites that are pointing to a specific URL. If you have more “links” than your competitors, you are typically known to have link cardinality or link superiority.