Off Page Factors in SEO ~ Free Backlinks

Apart from the On-Page Factors of a web page, Off Page factors are considered significant as well. As, the inner working behind the search engine's Google, Yahoo, MSN ranking and quality measuring of a web page is not known to the outside world; so, SEO consultants and analysts consider both On-Page and Off-Page factors highly vital.
Off-page SEO is related mainly to the domain's traffic levels. All the links directing towards the website, quality of inbound links are measured for Off-Page SEO. Link popularity is a common term interchangeably used for Off-Page SEO.
Let us briefly overview significant Off-Page factors and terms involved in quality Search Engine Optimization activity for websites:

Link Popularity

Link Popularity is considered a significant factor not only in ranking websites but also for achieving increased traffic through search engines. For SEO purposes, links should be created with various sites keeping both quality content and ranking in view. Link popularity is one feature that secures good positioning in search engines.
The anchor text to which links are given should remain consistent as well. It's best to have consistent, well-written and interesting content on your web pages to make them popular and link-worthy.
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Inbound Links

Inbound Links (IBL) are termed as the links that are referring to your web pages. These are the best links considered they are coming from:

Quality Content (Keyword Saturated)
High PR (Page Rank) pages - Preferred 3 and above
Popular pages
High Traffic pages

IBL are the best source of making your web pages and documents popular and increasing link popularity. Inbound links also make up the backlinks for a page. The most popular search engine, Google, considers backlinks and Page Rank (PR) as significant off-page factors and rank websites according to these two.

Page Rank

Page Rank allocated to a web page is considered vital factor regarding good SEO. Though, the categorization of PR in on-page or off-page factors is still debatable, Page Rank (PR) of 3 and more is considered to make a page worthy enough for linking, whether internally or externally. The range of PR is from 0 to 10 and these are based on special algorithms formulated by Google.

Directory Listings

Directory submissions and listings are also considered a vital way towards link popularity. There exist many popular directories online, addition of your website or web pages to them is considered first step towards "Link Popularity".
DMOZ or Open Directory Projects is considered the most vital and comprehensive directory; search engines, as Google, pick up pages from there hence guaranteeing improved search results for your website. Yahoo listing is also a fundamental resource for listing your websites and documents.
Optimizing your websites for search engine requires hold on both Off Page factors and On Page factors. Working on link popularity can be a difficult task but it'll definitely boost your site.