Link Equity: What It Is and How It Flows

Link equity is the SEO term for the value, trust or authority that a link passes from one page to another. When a respected site links to your page, some of its standing is thought to flow to you, helping that page compete in search results.

For businesses, link equity explains why some links matter far more than others, and why the way you link your own pages matters too. It shapes decisions about which links to pursue, how to handle redirects during a site migration, and how to make sure your most important pages benefit from the links you've earned.

What is link equity?

Link equity, often called "link juice" in SEO slang, describes the ranking value links are believed to carry. It's an industry concept rather than a Google term, but it's rooted in a real system: PageRank.

Google's founders described PageRank in their 1998 Stanford paper, "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine". The idea was that a page is more important if important pages link to it, with each page's value shared among the pages it links to. Google's guide to its ranking systems says PageRank was one of its core ranking systems at launch, that it has evolved a lot since then, and that it continues to be part of the core ranking systems.

Google's spam policies use a related phrase, describing some paid links as links that "pass ranking credit." In everyday SEO language, link equity is that credit.

Why link equity matters

Not all links are equal. A link from a relevant, trusted page that people actually read is generally thought to carry more value than one from an obscure or spammy page. This is why link building focuses on quality over volume.

Internal links distribute value. Most sites earn links to a few pages, often the home page or a popular article. Internal linking helps share that value with the service pages, product pages and guides you most want to rank.

Migrations can lose it. If you change URLs without proper redirects, links pointing to old pages lead nowhere. Planned redirects keep that value connected to the right pages.

It feeds AI visibility indirectly. AI search features like Google's AI Overviews draw on pages that are indexed and eligible to appear in search. Pages that are well linked, both internally and externally, tend to be discovered and crawled more reliably.

How link equity works

What affects how much a link passes

Google doesn't publish a formula, so these are widely held SEO principles rather than confirmed weights. Commonly cited factors include the relevance of the linking page to your topic, the linking page's own authority and links, where the link appears (in the main content or a footer), how many other links are on the page, and the anchor text used.

Link attributes

Links qualified with rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc" tell Google you don't necessarily endorse the linked page. Google's outbound link guidance explains each value, and Google treats them as hints. So these links may pass little or no equity, though they can still drive traffic. See link attributes.

Redirects

In July 2016, Google's Gary Illyes said 30x redirects don't lose PageRank anymore, as The Drum and Search Engine Land reported. A 301 is still the clearest choice for permanent moves. Google's canonicalization guide calls redirects a strong signal that the target of the redirect should become canonical.

Crawlable links only

Equity can only flow through links Google can see. Google's link best practices say it can generally only crawl links that are <a> elements with an href attribute. Links built with JavaScript click handlers and no href may not be followed at all.

How to make the most of link equity

Find your most-linked pages. Use the Links report in Search Console or a backlink tool to see which pages have earned the most links.
Link from those pages to priority pages. Add contextual links from strong pages to related service or product pages.
Redirect retired URLs. When you remove or move a page that has links, 301 redirect it to the closest relevant page, not just the home page.
Fix broken internal links. They waste value and frustrate visitors.
Keep important pages shallow. Pages buried deep in the site get fewer internal links. See crawl depth.
Earn relevant links. Prioritize coverage from sites your customers actually read.

Common mistakes and misconceptions

"PageRank is dead." Google stopped showing the public Toolbar PageRank score in 2016, as Search Engine Watch reported, but its ranking systems guide says PageRank continues to be part of its core ranking systems.

"You can sculpt equity with internal nofollow." Nofollowing your own links to push value elsewhere is an old tactic. Google's Matt Cutts explained back in 2009 that it doesn't work the way people hoped, as Search Engine Roundtable covered. Use clear internal linking instead.

"More outbound links will drain your equity." Linking to helpful sources is normal and useful for readers. Google says there's no magical ideal number of links a page should contain.

"Third-party scores measure link equity." Metrics like Domain Authority are tool estimates, not Google data. They can help compare sites, but they're not what Google uses.

Link equity vs. domain authority

Link equity describes the value passed by individual links, page to page. Domain authority usually refers to third-party scores that estimate the overall link strength of a whole domain. One is a concept about how links work. The other is a tool's attempt to summarize a site's link profile in a number.

How Butter approaches link equity

At Butter, we think about link equity in two halves: earning links that are worth having, and making sure the pages receiving them are connected to the rest of the site. Every plan includes link work. The GEO plan includes one AI-crawlable content citation and backlink each month, and the GEO+SEO plan adds one quality backlink each month on top of on-page optimization and technical SEO fixes.

On the GEO+SEO plan, unlimited on-page optimization includes adding and improving contextual internal links, and technical fixes cover broken links and redirect chains. We don't buy links from networks, and we don't promise a ranking. Our SEO service page explains how links fit into the wider program.

Frequently asked questions

Is link equity the same as PageRank?

Not exactly. PageRank is Google's link analysis system, described in its founders' 1998 paper. Link equity is the broader SEO term for the value links are believed to pass, which PageRank helps measure.

Do 301 redirects pass link equity?

Yes, according to Google. In 2016, Gary Illyes said 30x redirects don't lose PageRank anymore. Use 301s for permanent moves and point them at the most relevant new page.

Do nofollow links pass link equity?

Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints, so it decides case by case. Assume they pass little or none, but value them for traffic and brand visibility.

How can I pass link equity to important pages?

Link to them from your most-linked pages with descriptive anchor text, keep them close to the home page in your site structure, and fix broken links and redirect chains.

Sources and further reading

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