Link popularity is the number of links that point to a webpage.

Link Popularity is a crucial factor, used by almost all of the search engines to rank websites. Link popularity can be increased by link exchange programme.

It is not only the number of the links (link popularity) that counts, but also the "quality" of the links. A link from a good-quality webpage (ranked high by the search engines) matters more than many links from low-ranked webpages.
The quality and quantity of links with other web sites allows you to increase your link popularity.

Increasing your link popularity will drive more traffic to your web site as more visitors will click through to your web site and better search engine ranking will result bringing more targeted traffic.