If a web page features in the top ten listings, (also known as "front page listing"), for a particular keyword or keyphrase, it is more likely to be viewed than a page listed on page four.

As any search engine optimizer will tell you, achieving a front page listing simply doesn't happen by chance. Years ago, an optimizer could rank a page successfully, for a set keyword or keyphrase , by simply delivering the correct keyword density, within the page content, but search engines soon changed their algorithms to prevent " keyword stuffing " as it had become known.

On top of the regular changes to their algorithms , search engines introduced link popularity as an additional way to rank a web page. Link popularity was calculated on the number of hyperlinks, from other websites, that pointed to your web site. The more links that were pointed to your site, the easier that it was to gain a front page position on the engines.

Search engines had decided that link popularity was now a key factor in ranking and showing relevance for web pages. The engines believed that if other web sites were using your site as a reference point, your site must contain more relevant content than other sites with similar content, so your site received a boost in the search engine rankings. As the engines, at that time, were not analyzing the links, it really didn't matter where they came from - it was a case of quantity, rather than quality. Some search engine optimization companies and web marketers then set up link farms to get around the introduction of link popularity. Unfortunately, they overdid it, with the result that the engines were crowded with pointless links.