What is Link Equity, Link Juice or Link Authority?

When you compete for visibility in search results, you need to understand the invisible forces that control rankings. One crucial force—often misunderstood—is link equity.

I’ve spent years analyzing how authority moves between websites, watching rankings change as link patterns shift, and helping clients figure out why certain pages perform better than others. Most SEO content barely covers how link equity actually works in real-world situations.

This guide shows you exactly how link equity works, how to spot where your site leaks authority, how to direct it strategically to underperforming pages, and how to build a link structure that makes the most of your ranking power.

What Link Equity Really Means Beyond Basic Definitions

Link equity (also called “link juice” or “link authority”) is the ranking power that moves from one page to another through hyperlinks. This simple definition doesn’t capture its complex behavior.

In practice, link equity works as a vote of confidence in your content, but not all votes count the same way. Each vote gets weighted based on the authority, relevance, and trustworthiness of its source.

The Mathematical Reality Behind Link Equity

Google doesn’t share its exact algorithms, but through testing and observation, we can figure out the approximate mathematical principles that control link equity:

1. Logarithmic Distribution: Link equity follows a logarithmic rather than linear scale. The difference between 10 and 20 links matters much more than the difference between 110 and 120 links.
2. Diminishing Returns: Each extra link from the same domain gives you less benefit. Your first link from a high-authority site like The New York Times passes significant equity, but the tenth link from the same domain adds very little extra value.
3. Partial Passing: Links don’t pass all the equity from a page. Each link passes only a fraction of the total authority (about 85-90%).
4. Authority Dilution: When a page links to multiple external sites, the total passable equity gets split among those destinations. A page linking to 100 external sites gives each one about 1/100th of the available equity.

Here’s a concrete example:

Picture a page with a hypothetical “authority score” of 100. If it links to only one external page, that page might get up to 90 points of passed authority. But if it links to 10 external pages, each one might receive closer to 9 points each (90 ÷ 10).

This explains why a single link from a selective, authoritative source can outweigh dozens of links from less selective sources.

How Link Equity Has Evolved From PageRank to Today

To understand how link equity works today, we should look at how it’s changed over time.

The Original PageRank Formula

Google’s original PageRank algorithm calculated a simplified version of link equity using this recursive formula:

PR(A) = (1-d) + d(PR(T1)/C(T1) + PR(T2)/C(T2) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

Where:

• PR(A) is the PageRank of page A
• PR(Ti) is the PageRank of pages Ti which link to page A
• C(Ti) is the number of outbound links on page Ti
• d is a damping factor (typically set to 0.85)

This meant a page’s authority was directly influenced by the authority of pages linking to it, divided by the total number of links on those pages.

Modern Link Evaluation

Today’s algorithms go far beyond this simple model to include:

1. Topic Relevance Weights: Links from topically relevant pages carry much more weight. A link from a digital marketing blog to your SEO tool is worth far more than a link from a cooking site, even if the cooking site has higher overall authority.
2. User Interaction Signals: How users interact with links affects their value. Links that get clicks and lead to positive user engagement (low bounce rates, longer time on site) seem to pass more equity.
3. Link Context Analysis: The content around a link matters a lot. A link surrounded by relevant, contextual text passes more equity than a link in a generic “resources” list.
4. Entity Relationship Mapping: Modern search engines map relationships between entities (people, businesses, concepts) and consider these relationships when evaluating link equity. This explains why links from sites within your business ecosystem can be particularly valuable.

This explains why old-school link building tactics (like directory submissions or forum profile links) don’t work well anymore, while earning fewer, highly-contextual links from relevant sources can improve rankings significantly.

How to Diagnose Link Equity Issues and Find Your Site’s Weaknesses

Before you can optimize how link equity flows, you need to know where the problems are. Follow these steps to diagnose link equity issues on your website:

The Technical Aspects of Link Equity - HTTP Status Codes and Their Impact

The technical implementation of your links greatly affects how equity flows through your site. Different HTTP status codes affect link equity in various ways:

301 Permanent Redirects

A 301 redirect passes about 90-95% of link equity to the destination URL. Use this method for:

• Domain migrations
• URL structure changes
• Consolidating duplicate content

Implementation Example:

Redirect 301 /old-page.html https://www.example.com/new-page/

302 Temporary Redirects

302 redirects pass less equity (about 70-75%) because they tell search engines the change is temporary. Avoid 302 redirects for permanent changes.

307 Temporary Redirects and 308 Permanent Redirects

These newer HTTP status codes work similarly to 302 and 301 but preserve the original request method (GET, POST, etc.). For link equity purposes, a 308 passes about the same equity as a 301.

404 Not Found and 410 Gone

These status codes result in complete link equity loss. Any links pointing to 404 pages waste their potential ranking power.

Meta Refresh and JavaScript Redirects

These methods pass less link equity than proper server-side redirects (about 70-80%). Server-side 301 redirects work best when possible.

A real-world example shows this impact: When moving a client's site from HTTP to HTTPS, we found they had used JavaScript redirects instead of proper 301s. After fixing this technical issue, their organic traffic increased by 18% within three weeks—with no other SEO changes.

How Canonicalization Affects Your Link Equity

Canonical tags (rel="canonical") tell search engines which version of a page should receive the link equity when duplicate or similar content exists.

Properly Implemented Canonical Tags

A properly implemented canonical tag combines link equity from duplicate pages to the preferred version. This consolidation passes about 90-95% of the link equity.

Example of a proper canonical implementation:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/product/" />

Common Canonicalization Mistakes That Leak Link Equity

1. Broken Canonical Chains: When Page A canonicalizes to Page B, which canonicalizes to Page C, a lot of equity gets lost in the chain.
2. Contradictory Signals: When a canonical tag points to one URL, but a 301 redirect points elsewhere, search engines must decide which signal to follow, often resulting in equity loss.
3. Self-Referential Canonicals on Non-Canonical Pages: When a non-preferred version includes a canonical tag pointing to itself rather than the preferred version.
4. Multiple Canonical Tags: When a page contains more than one canonical tag, search engines may ignore all of them.

To find these issues, crawl your site with a tool like Screaming Frog and filter for pages with canonical tags. Export this data and look for:

• Pages with canonical tags pointing to non-200 status code pages
• Canonical chains (where the canonical destination itself has a canonical tag)
• Pages with multiple canonical tags

How to Create the Perfect Internal Link Architecture

Your internal link structure determines how link equity flows throughout your site. Build an architecture that maximizes equity distribution:

The Hub-and-Spoke Model

The hub-and-spoke model creates a structured hierarchy where:

• "Hub" pages serve as authoritative centers on broad topics
• "Spoke" pages cover specific subtopics and link back to their hub

This model efficiently channels link equity through logical pathways rather than spreading it across unrelated pages.

Practical Implementation:

1. Identify 5-10 core topics central to your business
2. Create a comprehensive hub page for each topic (often 2,000+ words)
3. Develop spoke content that explores specific aspects of each topic
4. Link spokes to their hub with topically-relevant anchor text
5. Link from hubs to high-priority conversion pages

For a SaaS client using this model, we saw a 47% increase in organic traffic to their product pages by channeling authority from their information-rich hub pages.

Strategic Siloing with Cross-Pollination

Website siloing organizes content into distinct topical sections while maintaining controlled cross-linking between related silos.

Implementation Steps:

1. Group content into clear topical categories (silos)
2. Create strong internal linking within each silo
3. Implement selective cross-linking between related silos
4. Make sure all silos connect to the homepage and main navigation

Advanced Technique: Create "sideways elevators" that connect related subtopics across different silos. For example, a page about "email marketing automation" in your email marketing silo might link to "marketing automation platforms" in your software silo.

Tiered Link Architecture

A tiered architecture creates a hierarchical structure that efficiently distributes link equity:

• Tier 1: Homepage, category pages, and cornerstone content
• Tier 2: Subcategories and major supporting content
• Tier 3: Individual products, services, and specific topic pages

Limit the number of tiers to 3-4 maximum to make sure even your deepest pages are only a few clicks from receiving homepage authority.

Advanced Techniques to Maximize Your Link Equity

Extract maximum value from your existing link equity with these advanced techniques that create significant ranking improvements:

1. Equity Consolidation Through Content Pruning

Content pruning identifies and removes underperforming content that dilutes your site's overall authority. The process works like this:

1. Analyze all indexed pages for organic traffic, conversions, and backlinks
2. Identify pages with minimal traffic, no conversions, and few or no quality backlinks
3. For these underperforming pages, choose to either:
   • Improve and expand them substantially
   • 301 redirect them to relevant stronger pages
   • Remove them completely (with proper 410 status codes)

Consolidating your link equity across fewer, stronger pages makes the overall authority of your domain more concentrated and effective.

Case Study: A financial services client reduced their indexed pages from 2,800 to 1,200 through strategic pruning. Despite removing over 50% of their content, organic traffic increased by 32% within four months due to improved link equity concentration.

2. Link Reclamation and Redirection

Link reclamation identifies lost link equity and recovers it through strategic redirects:

1. Use a tool like Ahrefs to identify broken backlinks (external links pointing to 404 pages on your site)
2. Determine the most relevant existing page for each broken link
3. Implement 301 redirects from the broken URLs to these relevant pages

Advanced Technique: Don't just redirect to the homepage or another high-level page. Analyze the context of the linking page and redirect to the most topically relevant destination to maximize the passed equity.

3. Strategic Use of Rel Attributes

The rel attributes (nofollow, sponsored, UGC) control how link equity flows. Use them strategically:

• Default (followed): Use for most internal links to allow equity flow
• Nofollow: Use for links to untrustworthy sites or pages irrelevant to your topic
• Sponsored: Use for paid links or partnerships
• UGC: Use for user-generated content like comments

Important Detail: Modern Google treats these attributes as "hints" rather than directives. This means even nofollow links might pass some equity in certain contexts.

Advanced Implementation: On resource pages with many external links, consider applying nofollow to some less relevant external links to preserve more link equity for important internal and external destinations.

How to Measure Link Equity Beyond Basic Metrics

Understand how link equity impacts your site with these sophisticated measurement techniques:

1. Correlational Analysis of Link Acquisition and Ranking Changes

Track the relationship between new links and ranking improvements:

1. Record baseline rankings for target keywords
2. Document when new links are acquired (date, linking domain, destination URL)
3. Track ranking changes in the weeks following new link acquisition
4. Calculate the average ranking improvement per new linking root domain

This analysis helps quantify the approximate value of different types of links to your specific site in your specific niche.

2. Internal Link Impact Testing

Measure how internal linking changes affect underperforming pages:

1. Identify pages with strong commercial intent but poor rankings
2. Record baseline organic traffic to these pages
3. Add internal links from high-authority pages to these target pages
4. Measure traffic changes over the following 4-8 weeks
5. Calculate the percentage improvement in organic traffic

I've seen pages increase organic traffic by 150%+ simply after adding 5-8 internal links from high-authority pages, with no other changes to the page content or external link profile.

3. Authority Flow Visualization

Create visualizations of how authority flows through your site:

1. Export your site structure data from a crawling tool
2. Use a network visualization tool like Gephi to create a directed graph
3. Weight the nodes (pages) by their authority metrics
4. Analyze clusters, identify isolates, and visualize authority pathways

This visualization helps identify authority bottlenecks that might not be obvious in spreadsheet analysis.

Link Equity Strategies for Different Website Types

The best link equity strategy varies significantly based on your site type. Adapt these principles for different websites:

Common Link Equity Myths That Hold Back Your SEO

The SEO community promotes several myths about link equity that need correction:

Myth 1: "Nofollow Links Have No Value"

Reality: While nofollow links don't directly pass link equity in the traditional sense, they:

• Contribute to a natural link profile
• Drive referral traffic
• Increase brand visibility
• May indirectly influence rankings through increased brand searches
• Are treated as "hints" in Google's modern algorithm, potentially passing some value

Myth 2: "Internal Links Are Much Weaker Than External Links"

Reality: While external links bring new authority to your domain, strategic internal links can have dramatic ranking effects. The key difference is that internal links redistribute existing authority rather than creating new authority.

In many competitive niches, proper internal linking can produce faster ranking improvements than waiting for new external links, particularly for sites with strong domain authority but poor link distribution.

Myth 3: "Link Equity Evenly Distributes Across All Links"

Reality: Link equity distribution is influenced by:

• Link position (in-content links pass more equity than navigational links)
• Link prominence (links higher in the content typically pass more equity)
• Relevance of the linked page to the linking context
• Anchor text relevance to the linked page's content

This explains why adding a single contextual link from a relevant, high-authority page can sometimes outperform multiple links from less relevant contexts.

Myth 4: "More Links Always Equal Better Rankings"

Reality: Link quality and relevance exponentially outweigh quantity. Ten highly relevant, contextual links from authoritative sources in your industry will typically outperform hundreds of low-quality, irrelevant links.

This explains why sites with smaller but highly relevant link profiles often outrank competitors with larger but lower-quality link profiles.

Key Takeaway

Link equity isn't just about acquiring links—it's about engineering how authority flows throughout your site to achieve your specific business objectives. The most successful SEO strategies focus on both quality link acquisition and strategic distribution of that authority.

Focus on fixing technical issues first, optimize your internal link architecture, consolidate underperforming content, and then build strategic external links. This methodical approach will create a sustainable foundation that becomes increasingly difficult for competitors to replicate, allowing you to consistently outrank those who focus solely on link acquisition without considering the complete authority flow picture.