Link popularity can be a measure of how successful your website is by indicating the number of web owners who link your site to theirs. Professional web owners cannot link to your site if it is of low quality content, with nothing valuable to offer or does not conform to their status. To increase your website link building popularity, you should also endeavor to engage other external sites which are willing to reciprocate links with you in a professional and ethical way (Highly Suggested)!
They should be ranked either at your level or higher but not lower than you. They should be of good reputation and from a trusted source. Reciprocating links are not always the best but if you are able to get quality stuff then good for you, just go for it. This immensely improves on the quality of your site as well which in turn can bring in the huge numbers of visitors you have been dying to receive.
Do not however rule out all the lower ranked web pages until you ascertain that it is not just a portion of the site that is so adversely ranked. The rest of the webpages could be at par or better than yours. The poorly rated site could be as a result of malice by other web owners who they have reciprocated links with and are giving them a bad image.
In as much as you want good quality linkages to your site, these links should be having contents that are in line with what you do, add value to what you already have and probably targeting the same population for them to be invaluable and of course improve your website.
Avoid crowding your site with unnecessary links that do not add value to your website. Also to avoid are reciprocal partners who instead of helping build you actually try to destroy you by manipulating your links which are attached to their sites.
Having a big quantity of off shore materials yet the quality are poor only aggravates the problem and does not encourage visitors to your site. Be selective; set your bar high and only take what makes you look good, the contents should be search engine friendly and also user friendly.
It is better to have less but of high quality than too much quantity but of poor quality. Your visitors will appreciate being directed to sites that are meaningful and have accurate information in addition to practicing best internet practice.
It is highly suggested that you hire a link building company that actually provides you one way, natural and organic fresh links using brand new and compelling content.