The metric by which high schoolers are rated is eerily like PageRank, one of the chief factors in determining how a site ranks on Google. There are other factors, like content relevant to search terms, domain age and whatnot that bolster a site's search results, just like a teenager's apparel, athletic prowess and looks will determine how likely he is to score on any given weekend. But general popularity is no more profound or involved than how popular other kids decide he is, and general popularity can supplement, and even compensate for a lack of other attributes. The more plenteous AND popular the supporters, the more popular the kid.
A backlink to a website is comparable to a high schooler's vote of approval. If Site A links to Site B, say, in a sentence that says "world's best web marketing company", then the Google crawler figures "if Site A site thinks Site B is important, it must be". Link juice from incoming sites is much better used if the links are optimized for significance, i.e. a link to a salon says "Houston Aveda Lifestyle Salon" rather than "check this out", but that's a conversation for another day.
The trick in building effective backlinks is to get to get the biggest, best-endorsed sites possible to link to your own. If Site A is irrelevant, then so is their vote of approval. To build powerful backlinks, you sometimes pay a site administrator to put you on a page somewhere. Sometimes you contribute to a forum and manage to slip a backlink into your post. If your site has really compelling content, others will voluntarily cite you on their own sites. There are all sorts of strategies for building backlinks, and we invest a lot of time and effort in the endeavor.
The BBC News (PageRank 9), the Drudge Report (Pagerank 7) and Peter Pan's Fashion Page (PageRank 4) are the equivalent of the Quarterback, the Fonz and the Drum Major, respectively. An obscure stoner who pals around with the Quarterback for a day or two can be immediately flung into the limelight, just like a BBC article featuring your blog will singlehandedly give your site a lot of Google love. People respect the cool guy, so if a site like Drudge and a few of its peers endorse you, you should be very successful. Though an age-old web classic, Peter Pan's Fashion Page doesn't have the rankings to send you above the fold without a whole bunch of its friends. If you want the Drum Major to endorse you for your bid at Prom King, she's gonna have to convince the whole damn band.
Which is how I became so bloody popular. I didn't hang around with the cool kids, but I had enough nerds that I compensated for it. With the Chess Club, Drama Club, Science Fiction Club, National Honors Society, DECCA, Black Student Union, the curbies, the goths, the bangers, the band, the choir and the orchestra all on my side, I didn't need the Clique. Now, it's typically those people at the center of the Cool Group that get the accolades, because their small numbers carry so much weight. It takes a lot of nerds to beat out just a handful of jocks in anointing a king. But it can be done!
So, now you may wonder, "if I want my site to rank, can't I just build a whole mass of mini-sites that link to the one I want to boost?" This used to be a fairly effective practice. Splogging, it's called. A portmanteau of "spam" and "blogging". A bot goes out and builds hundreds of sites, populates them with gibberish and sticks in a few links. Well, Google can rat out the splogs these days, and it gives their vote about as much weight as they'd give someone's Second Life Avatar. Sites that incorporate splogs (one of many "black hat" techniques) get dinged, and as a result lose rank. There are still plenty of SEO companies out there doing this sort of thing - the kind that charge $50 a month. Really, they should probably pay you.
Interestingly enough, popularity increase in a high school is exponential, just like it is on the web. As sites begin to credit you, others take note and do the same. If you start small, say, in the Chess Club of the World Wide Web, you can probably expand into Mathletes and then the National Honors Society before long. That's where you get in with the student council kids, and eventually even the coolest of the cool will think you're okay. If your site gets popular enough, people will link up on their own, Google lists you at the top for whatever you want and the clients come flying in.
When we build links, we catalyze coolness. We make friends all over the web, knowing that friends lead to more friends. Exposure is good. Unless you're a total prick. Then you just wind up as a highly publicized Worst of the Web laureate.
