Link Equity

The practitioner term for transferable ranking authority that hyperlinks pass between pages. The resource SEOs spend, conserve, and route through site architecture.

Definition

Link Equity (also called "link juice" in older SEO writing) is the practitioner term for the transferable authority that a hyperlink passes from the source page to the destination page. It is functionally PageRank from the operator's perspective - the resource you spend, conserve, and route through your site architecture.

When SEOs say "this page passes a lot of equity" or "the equity is leaking", they mean the link is graph-significant enough to materially affect the destination's ranking. Link equity is not a single Google-published number; it is the cumulative ranking weight from authority signals (PageRank), topical relevance, anchor text, and context.

What controls link equity flow

Four mechanics decide how much equity a link passes:

1. Source page authority. Equity is bounded by what the source has to give. A new orphan page with no inbound links has near-zero equity to pass, regardless of how authoritative the domain is.
2. Number of outbound links on the source. Equity divides across all outbound links. 10 outbound links = 10% per link. 100 outbound = 1% per link. The math is more nuanced today (links are weighted by position, anchor relevance, etc.) but division remains the rough principle.
3. Link attributes (rel values). The rel attribute family signals to Google how to treat the link. See the table below.
4. Context. A contextual paragraph link inside main content passes substantially more equity than a footer or sidebar link with the same anchor and destination. Boilerplate placement triggers automatic discounting.

The 4 rel attribute values

Where link equity leaks

Equity loss happens in 5 predictable places:

• External links in main content. Every link out is equity out. Use sparingly and only when the destination genuinely benefits your reader.
• Excessive internal links per page. Above 100-200 links per page, the per-link equity becomes negligible. Audit and prune.
• Orphan pages. Pages with no internal inbound links accumulate zero equity from internal flow. Either link them in or remove them.
• Broken outbound links (404). A link to a 404 wastes equity. Replace or remove.
• Chained redirects. Each hop in a 301 chain bleeds a small amount of equity (estimated 5-15% per hop). Keep redirects direct.

How to conserve and route link equity

1. Architect a hub-and-spoke structure. Inbound external equity lands on hubs, which redistribute internally to spokes via contextual paragraph links.
2. Prune sitewide nav links to only top-priority destinations. Every nav link is a sitewide multiplier - more equity flows where you link from every page.
3. Use 301 redirects to consolidate equity from retired URLs into their canonical successors. Avoid 302 (temporary) which does not pass full equity.
4. Tag paid links sponsored, comment links ugc. Manual Action risk for unmarked paid links is real.
5. Internal anchors should be descriptive, not just "click here". Anchor text is a context multiplier on link equity.

Related concepts

• PageRank - the underlying algorithm equity flows through
• Anchor Text - the context multiplier on equity
• Trust Flow - trust-weighted equity proxy
• Internal Linking Architecture - hub-and-spoke equity routing
• Anchor Text Analyzer - audit anchor context multipliers on your inbound equity