Link popularity is one of the most important elements that search engines factor into their ranking algorithms. You may have a perfectly optimized website; however, if your site does not have competitive link popularity regarding your targeted keywords for optimization, then, your site is not likely to compete for top rankings of these phrases and you're not listed on page one of Google. Search engines and you must think alike, so we must always know what the search engines are looking for.
The following key elements determine whether you're even near page one of Google;