Link Equity
Link equity is the SEO value and authority that one page passes to another through a hyperlink. It is the same idea once called "link juice," and the amount transferred depends on the linking page's authority, relevance, and link placement.
- Link equity is the SEO value and authority one page passes to another through a link — the same concept formerly known as "link juice."
- How much is passed depends on the authority of the source page and domain, topical relevance, link placement, anchor text, and the number of links the page sends out.
- Links marked with nofollow, sponsored, or ugc generally pass no authority, and since 2019 Google treats these as hints rather than strict directives.
- Link equity feeds into PageRank, a confirmed Google ranking signal, so pages that receive more of it tend to rank higher.
- Linking out to other pages does not drain your own page's equity.
Definition
Link equity is the authority or value that one page passes through a hyperlink to the pages it points to. Ahrefs defines it as "the level of authority or value passed from the linking page to the page it links to." In practice it is the same idea as link juice, the informal term long used across the SEO industry; link equity is simply the more formal label preferred today.
Link Equity and PageRank
Link equity and PageRank are connected but not identical. PageRank is a measure of a page's relative importance, calculated from the link value it has received, whereas link equity is the value itself that actually moves between pages. The more a relevant, authoritative page passes equity to a target page through a link, the more that target page's PageRank rises. Because PageRank is a ranking signal Google has officially confirmed, the link equity a page receives ties directly to its search visibility.
Factors That Determine How Much Is Passed
Not every link passes the same amount of equity. The main factors cited by both Ahrefs and Search Engine Land are these.
- Authority of the source page: the more strong backlinks the linking page itself holds, the more equity it passes. A link from an established page is worth more than one from a brand-new page.
- Authority of the source domain: the overall strength of the site the page belongs to matters too, not just the page.
- Topical relevance: the closer the linking page's topic is to the target page, the more equity flows. A dog-food page, for example, passes more value to a page about canine diets than to a gardening page.
- Link placement: an editorial link sitting naturally within the body copy counts as a stronger endorsement than a link in the footer, sidebar, or navigation.
- Anchor text: anchor text that clearly describes the target page's topic carries more equity along with it.
- Crawlability and indexability: a search engine has to be able to discover and follow a link for equity to flow. No value reaches a page blocked by robots.txt or made uncrawlable by JavaScript issues.
- Number of outbound links: the equity a page can pass is divided across all the pages it links to. That said, linking out does not reduce your own page's equity.
Dofollow vs. Nofollow
Whether a link passes equity depends on its rel attribute. A default (dofollow) link passes equity, while a link carrying a nofollow-family attribute generally does not.
<!-- Passes equity (default) -->
<a href="https://example.com">dofollow link</a>
<!-- Does not pass equity (or treated as a hint) -->
<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">standard nofollow</a>
<a href="https://example.com" rel="sponsored">ad or paid link</a>
<a href="https://example.com" rel="ugc">user-generated content link</a>| Aspect | dofollow | nofollow / sponsored / ugc |
|---|---|---|
| rel attribute | none (default) | nofollow, sponsored, ugc |
| Passes link equity | Yes | Generally no |
| Typical use | Trusted, editorially endorsed natural links | Ads and sponsorships, user links in comments or forums, links you do not vouch for |
| How Google treats it | Counted as a ranking signal | Treated as a hint since September 2019 |
The 2019 Nofollow Change
On September 10, 2019, Google announced new ways to identify the nature of links. Alongside the existing nofollow, it introduced rel="sponsored" for advertising and sponsored links and rel="ugc" for user-generated content such as comments and forum posts. The more significant shift was in how they are handled. Where nofollow was once an absolute directive that excluded a link from search algorithms entirely, all three attributes are now treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude. For crawling and indexing, the hint model took effect on March 1, 2020, so a link that is normally not followed can still be discovered and crawled through a sitemap or a link from another site.
Measurement Metrics
Because Google does not publish per-page PageRank scores, SEO tools analyze backlink profiles to offer proxy metrics for link equity.
- Ahrefs: URL Rating (UR) reflects the backlink strength of an individual page, while Domain Rating (DR) reflects the backlink strength of the whole domain.
- Moz: Page Authority (PA) and Domain Authority (DA) estimate the ranking potential of a page and a domain, respectively, using Moz's own link graph.
- Semrush: Authority Score combines backlink strength (Link Power), organic search traffic, and spam signals into a single figure.
These scores are only estimates, but they are widely used as a benchmark for gauging the relative amount of link equity a given page holds and can pass on.
Link Equity in the AI Search Era
As generative AI search spreads, some have questioned whether link equity still matters, but Search Engine Land argues it remains a core signal. According to a 2024 study, the sources cited in AI Overviews matched the top 10 organic results about 99.5% of the time, and 99.58% of featured snippet URLs also appeared within the top 10. Those figures suggest the same authority signals shape both traditional search rankings and AI-generated answers and summaries.
Action Checklist
- Earn editorial backlinks from authoritative sites that are closely related to your topic.
- Connect important pages with contextual links inside body copy rather than relying on footer or sidebar links alone.
- Apply
rel="sponsored"to ad and sponsored links andrel="ugc"to user-generated content links, correctly and consistently. - Tune your internal linking so equity from authoritative pages flows to the pages that matter most for conversions.
- Check for sections where links cannot be crawled because of robots.txt blocks or JavaScript rendering problems.
- Track changes in your backlink profile regularly using metrics such as UR/DR, PA/DA, and Authority Score.