More about the concept of PageRank and popularity of a site
The website's popularity is a measure of the quantity and quality of the links that point to it in the internet.
The links are the main elements of the Web, supplying connection between pages and sites. A site can be classified as more popular than another one if the number of links of other sites to it is superior than the other one's. The quality of these links, measured by the populaty of the pointing sites is also considered.
In other words, each link in a site A pointing to a site B can be interpreted as a vote from A to B. The populatity of the site A and the relationship degree of the contents of the site A and the site B also define a weight for the vote. If my site is a tires supplier, a link in a great automobile assembler plant has more influence on my pageRank than a link a an astrology site to mine. The populatity of a particular site can be then defined by the weigthed number of it's votes.
Therefore, my PageRank and the popularity of my site are merging concepts.
Why do I need to increase my PageRank?
The combination of the otimization of the site with an effort targeting raising it's PageRank can result in a significant improvement in the positioning of you site in the results given by the serch engines in the internet.
Everyone knows that being in the first positions can mean a lot more visits and consequently, a larger possibility of new business. Therefore, raising your site's populatity become's something CRUCIAL in a marketing estrategy in the internet. When it comes to sites improving, check the service offered by Flood - Sites Improving.