Link equity, also known as “link juice,” refers to the value or authority that a webpage passes to another page through hyperlinks. In simple terms, it’s how much power or influence a link gives to the page it connects to. Search engines use link equity as a way to measure how trustworthy or important a page is based on the links it receives.
Why is Link Equity Important?
Link equity plays a significant role in SEO because it helps:
- Improve rankings: Pages with more equity from high-quality links are more likely to rank higher in search results.
- Build authority: Links from trusted sources can make your website appear more credible.
- Increase visibility: More equity means better chances of appearing in front of your target audience.
Understanding and using link equity effectively can help you improve your site’s overall performance in search engines.
How Does Link Equity Work?
Link equity depends on several factors:
- Source authority: Links from reputable websites carry more equity.
- Relevance: A link from a page that is related to your content passes more value than one from an unrelated topic.
- Do-follow vs. no-follow: Do-follow links pass equity, while no-follow links do not.
- Link placement: Links in the main content area typically pass more equity than those in sidebars or footers.
- Number of links: If a page links to many other pages, the equity it passes is divided among those links.
How to Build Link Equity
You can increase the link equity to your website by:
- Creating high-quality content: Publish useful, engaging, and original content that others want to link to.
- Earning backlinks: Attract links naturally from reputable websites in your industry.
- Fixing broken links: Identify and fix links to your pages that are no longer working.
- Internal linking: Use links within your own website to distribute equity from high-authority pages to other pages.
- Guest posting: Write content for other websites with links pointing back to your site.
Common Misconceptions About Link Equity
- Not all links are equal: Links from spammy or low-quality sites can hurt rather than help.
- Equity is limited: A single page can only pass a certain amount of equity, which gets divided among all its outgoing links.
No-follow links are not useless: While they don’t pass equity, they can still drive traffic and signal relevance to search engines.