What is Link Equity?
Link equity, more commonly referred to as “link juice,” is the worth or authority transferred from one website to another via hyperlinks. This SEO value can enhance the recipient site’s authority and ranking potential in search engines.
Because link equity is dependent on the amount quality and quantity of inbound links to a page, it is an important factor in determining how well a page ranks in SERPs. It reflects the website’s credibility and relevancy.
Why is Link Equity Important?
Link equity is important for several reasons:
1. Improves Search Rankings
Pages with higher link equity are more likely to rank well in search engine results. Quality backlinks from authoritative sites pass on significant SEO value, boosting the linked page’s visibility.
2. Builds Authority
Accumulating link equity from reputable sources enhances your site’s overall authority and trustworthiness, making it more attractive to search engines.
3. Enhances Crawl Efficiency
Link equity helps search engines discover and index new pages more efficiently. Well-linked pages are crawled more frequently, ensuring that your content stays up-to-date in search engine indexes.
4. Distributes Value
Internal links help distribute link equity throughout your site, ensuring that important pages receive the SEO value they need to rank well.
How is Link Equity Determined?
Several factors influence the amount of link equity passed through a hyperlink:
1. Source Authority
Links from high-authority sites pass more link equity. Authoritative sites are trusted by search engines, and their endorsements carry significant weight.
2. Relevance
Links from pages with relevant content pass more link equity. Search engines prioritize links that make contextual sense and add value to the user experience.
3. Link Placement
Links positioned within the main content of a page (contextual links) pass more equity than links in footers, sidebars, or comments.
4. Number of Links
The more links on a page, the less equity each link passes. Link equity is divided among all outbound links on a page.
5. Link Attributes
Dofollow links provide link equity, but nofollow links do not. Nofollow links signal search engines not to pass on SEO value to the linked page.
