A Little About Backlinks
The number and quality of backlinks to your site is important to your site ranking because those backlinks are indicative of your site’s relevance and popularity. Link quality has become more important than quality since so many have used splattering backlinks in non-relevant ways just to spam the search engine spiders. Today’s algorithms place more importance on backlinks originating from quality, popular sites that are relevant to the content.
Info on the Link Popularity Comparison Tool
SEO Book offers a free Link Popularity Comparison service that shows you how your link profile compares to your competitors. Being ranked near the top will earn more backlinks since most sites are more likely to reference, or link to, a popular site than one that is unlikely to be viewed. Knowing how your site compares to your competitors in backlinks can give you a good look at how the search engines are seeing and ranking your site.