Link Equity (Link Juice)

Definition

Link equity (informally called 'link juice') is the concept that hyperlinks pass ranking value from one page to another. When a high-authority page links to another page, it shares some of its authority, helping the linked page rank better. Link equity flows through both internal links (within your site) and external links (from other sites). Several factors affect how much equity passes: the authority of the linking page, the number of outgoing links on the page (equity is divided among all links), the relevance of the linking page to the target, and whether the link is dofollow or nofollow. Nofollow links (rel='nofollow') signal to Google not to pass equity, though Google treats nofollow as a 'hint' rather than a directive. Redirect chains (301 → 301 → 301) can lose equity at each hop.