UPDATED JANUARY 28, 2013
Link popularity has long been the basis of Google’s entire organic search engine ranking algorithm. Â That is, if you wanted to rank well in Google, you had to get a lot of high quality sites to link to your site. Â The logic was that if someone was willing to link away from their site to your site, then you must be a good company with a good reputation. Â While links are still important, Google’s recent ranking algorithm updates (called Panda and Penguin) have changed the importance and value of links.
Without getting into too much detail here – since this is just an update to a now outdated blog post…
Google now favors high quality content and social media  presence or online reputation over link popularity.  Think about it.  If you have a huge list of followers on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, then you must be a good business.  If you have great online reviews, then you must be a legit business.  If your website has great content that people follow and naturally link to, then you must be a good company.
Link popularity is not dead, but it’s on the way out. Â Focus your efforts on creating content rich websites with great content. Â Focus your efforts on getting more traction in the plethora of social media sites.