Link Juice & Link Equity: How Authority Flows
Link juice – more precisely link equity – is the sum of ranking signals that passes from one page to another through a link. The term is a model, not a value Google publishes. But it is a model that predicts surprisingly well which pages get crawled often and which ones rank. This guide explains the mechanics behind it and how to steer them internally.
1. What is link juice?
Every link is a recommendation. When page A links to page B, A passes part of its own standing to B. And it is not just "authority" that moves – several signals travel at once:
- Authority signal: the PageRank-style share the linking page gives up.
- Relevance signal: anchor text and surrounding copy say something about the target's topic.
- Discovery signal: the link makes the target URL known and raises its crawl priority.
- Context signal: position in the document – a link in the main body behaves differently from one in the footer.
So "link juice" describes the sum of these effects. The term is imprecise but useful, as long as you keep in mind that no single number sits behind it.
2. The origin: PageRank and the damping factor
The model comes from the PageRank algorithm Google launched with in 1998. Simplified:
PR(A) = (1 - d) + d * ( PR(T1)/C(T1) + PR(T2)/C(T2) + ... + PR(Tn)/C(Tn) )
PR(A) = PageRank of page A
T1..Tn = pages linking to A
C(Ti) = number of outbound links on page Ti
d = damping factor, 0.85 in the original paperTwo statements are embedded in that, and both still hold:
- The value gets divided. A page passes its standing across all outbound links, not in full to each one. Ten links mean one tenth per link.
- Something is lost at every step. The damping factor makes authority decay with each hop. That is why a link from the homepage carries more weight than one from the fifth click level.
Where things stand today: the publicly visible toolbar PageRank stopped being updated in 2013 and was switched off in 2016. Google has, however, confirmed repeatedly that PageRank remains an internal signal within its ranking systems – just one of many, and in a far more developed form. All third-party numbers (Domain Rating, Domain Authority) are reconstructions, not Google values.
3. What determines how much gets passed
Not every link transfers the same amount. The main factors, ordered by practical impact:
| Factor | Effect |
|---|---|
| Authority of the linking page | The stronger the source, the more gets passed on |
| Number of outbound links | The divisor in the formula – 200 links dilute every single one |
| Topical proximity | Relevant sources carry more weight than unrelated ones |
| Position in the document | Links in the main content are weighted above footer or sidebar links |
| Anchor text | Carries the relevance signal to the target |
| rel attributes | nofollow, sponsored, ugc reduce or suppress the
transfer |
| Indexability of the source | A page kept on noindex long term loses its ability to pass signals |
| Crawlability of the source | What Google may not crawl cannot pass anything on |
4. A worked example: distribution through navigation
Assume your homepage carries a relative value of 100 units. Two architectures compared:
| Scenario | Links on the homepage | Share per link | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mega menu with everything | 250 | 0.34 units | Everything equally weak, no discernible priority |
| Focused navigation | 40 | 2.1 units | Important categories receive six times as much |
Extend that across two levels and the gap becomes obvious: with a damping factor of 0.85 and a category page carrying 50 outbound links, roughly 0.036 units reach each product in the second scenario versus 0.006 in the first. That is why flat architectures with clear priorities work – not because "flat" is a virtue in itself, but because every level divides the value.
Do not over-read this: the calculation is a thinking tool, not a simulation of Google's systems. It is good for justifying architecture decisions – not for predicting rankings.
5. Where link equity gets lost
- Links that are not links:
<span onclick="...">,<button>or an<a>without anhreftransfer nothing. Google needs an<a href>with a resolvable URL – details in the rendering guide. - Blocked targets: if a link points to a URL blocked by robots.txt, Google cannot process the signals further. That share evaporates.
- 404 targets: links to pages that no longer exist are entirely lost equity – especially painful with external backlinks to deleted URLs.
- Redirect chains: every hop delays consolidation and costs crawl budget.
- Permanent noindex: Google effectively treats pages kept on
noindexlong term asnofollow. Using anoindexpage as a distribution hub does not work. - Non-canonical variants: external links to
?utm_source=variants only take effect once consolidation happens. See duplicate content.
6. nofollow, sponsored and ugc compared
Since March 2020 Google treats all three attributes as hints rather than strict directives. It may therefore take them into account for crawling and ranking, or ignore them:
| Attribute | Intended for | Passes equity? |
|---|---|---|
rel="nofollow" |
Links you do not want to vouch for | Generally not |
rel="sponsored" |
Paid links, advertising, affiliate | No – and disclosure is mandatory |
rel="ugc" |
User-generated content, comments, forums | Generally not |
| no rel attribute | Editorial recommendations | Yes |
<!-- Paid placement: sponsored is mandatory -->
<a href="https://partner.example.com" rel="sponsored">Partner offer</a>
<!-- User comment -->
<a href="https://example.org" rel="ugc nofollow">Source from the comment</a>
<!-- Editorial recommendation: no rel attribute -->
<a href="/en/wiki/link-analysis">Link analysis guide</a>7. Why PageRank sculpting no longer works
The idea was intuitive: mark unimportant internal links as nofollow so more equity flows to the
important pages. Google shut that down in 2009. Since then, the share belonging to a
nofollow link is not redistributed to the remaining links – it
evaporates.
Concretely: if a page has ten links and you set five to nofollow, the remaining five still
receive one tenth each – not one fifth. You have destroyed half your internal equity.
The alternative that works: remove the link instead of marking it
nofollow. If a page is not important enough for an internal link, it does not belong in the
navigation. For pages users need and search engines do not (login, cart, terms in the footer), the
discussion is not worth the effort – a handful of links costs nothing measurable.
8. Redirects: what really happens
An old rule of thumb claims a 301 costs 15 % of link equity. That is outdated. Google has
stated repeatedly that redirects cause no PageRank loss – provided they are implemented cleanly:
| Case | Consolidation | Note |
|---|---|---|
301 / 308 to a relevant target |
Complete | The standard case, no loss |
302 / 307 |
Happens, but delayed | Google keeps crawling the source URL indefinitely |
| Chain across several hops | Happens, but slower | Google follows a limited number of hops per crawl |
| Redirect to an unrelated target | Barely any | Treated like a soft 404 |
| Blanket redirect to the homepage | Practically none | The most common mistake in relaunches |
The consequence for relaunches: every old URL needs a topically equivalent target. Mass-redirecting
all old URLs to / throws away the equity you accumulated.
9. Steering equity internally
Internal links are the one part of the equation you control completely. Five levers, ordered by impact:
- Reduce click depth: every level divides and dampens. Important pages should be reachable within three clicks of the homepage.
- Build hub pages: a topical overview page that links all detail pages of a theme and is itself well linked distributes equity precisely within a cluster.
- Link from the main body: contextual links in running text are weighted above links in repeating modules. That is exactly why wiki and glossary structures work so well.
- Connect orphan pages: a URL with no internal link receives no equity, however good it is.
- Do not overload the footer: footer links do count, but more weakly – and they raise the divisor on every page of the site.
On the number of links per page: Google removed the old recommendation of at most 100 links per page from its guidelines long ago. There is no hard limit. The mathematical effect remains, though: more links mean less per link. The boundary is not "100" but "as many as the content genuinely justifies".
10. Anchor text: the relevance signal
Anchor text tells Google what the target page is about. Practical rules:
- Descriptive rather than generic: "crawl budget guide" instead of "click here".
- Vary it: always using the exact same anchor text for the same URL looks unnatural, particularly for external links.
- Do not over-optimise: internal links with stacked keywords ("cheap red women's shoes buy discount") are a classic spam pattern.
- Images need alt text: for linked images, the
altattribute takes on the role of anchor text. See image SEO.
One frequently observed behaviour that Google has never officially confirmed: where two links on the same page point to the same target, mainly the first link's anchor text is counted. Useful as a working assumption – not as grounds for an expensive rebuild.
11. Judging external link equity
For inbound links, quality matters far more than quantity. Check:
- Topical proximity of the linking domain to your subject.
- Editorial nature: was the link given freely, or bought or exchanged?
- Position: main body, author box, or a footer link list?
- Visibility to users: does anyone actually click it?
- Diversity of sources: 50 links from 50 domains behave differently from 500 links from one domain. That distinction is the subject of the domain popularity guide.
12. What you can measure – and what you cannot
There is no Google metric for link equity. What is available:
| Signal | Source | Usefulness |
|---|---|---|
| Internal links per URL | Search Console, Links report | High – shows your own prioritisation |
| Referring domains | Search Console, backlink tools | High |
| Crawl frequency of a URL | Server log files | A good proxy for perceived importance |
| Click depth | Your own crawl | High and directly actionable |
| Domain Rating / Authority | Third parties | Relative only, not a Google signal |
13. Internal link equity checklist
- Measure click depth for every revenue- or traffic-relevant page. Target: three clicks maximum.
- Identify orphan pages and either link or remove them.
- Fix internal links pointing to
404targets. - Resolve redirect chains in internal links and link the final target directly.
- Review internal
nofollowattributes and remove them in most cases. - Reduce internal links to blocked or
noindexURLs. - Replace generic anchors ("more", "here") with descriptive ones.
- Review the number of navigation and footer links critically.
- Create hub pages for your most important topic clusters.
- Find external backlinks pointing to
404URLs and redirect them – the fastest recovery of lost equity. - In relaunches, map every old URL individually; never blanket-redirect.
- Label paid and user-generated links correctly with
sponsoredorugc.
Pro tip: Rank-O-Saur lists every link on a page with its anchor text, rel attributes
and status code. You can see at once how many outbound links a page carries, which of them hit
redirects or error pages, and where nofollow is being used internally.
14. Frequently asked questions
Is link juice an official Google term?
No. Link juice and link equity are practitioner terms describing the model of signals passing through links. Google publishes no such value. The underlying PageRank principle is real, though, and according to Google still part of its ranking systems.
Does a 301 redirect lose 15 per cent of link strength?
No, that is an outdated rule of thumb. Google has stated repeatedly that clean redirects cause no PageRank loss. Losses come from other mistakes: long chains, using 302 instead of 301, or redirecting to topically unrelated targets.
Can I redirect link strength internally with nofollow?
No. Google shut down this PageRank sculpting in 2009. The share belonging to a nofollow link is not redistributed to the other links, it evaporates. If an internal link has no value, remove it rather than marking it nofollow.
How many links may a page have?
There is no fixed limit any more; Google removed the old 100-link recommendation from its guidelines. Mathematically the rule still holds: the more links, the smaller the share per link. Be guided by how many links the content genuinely justifies.
Do links from noindex pages pass equity?
In the short term yes, in the long term no. Google effectively treats pages kept on noindex permanently as nofollow. A noindex page is therefore not a suitable distribution hub for internal linking.
Do links generated by JavaScript count?
Yes, as long as a real a element with an href attribute is in the DOM after rendering. Click handlers on span or button elements and a elements without href do not count, because Google cannot derive a URL from them.
Are footer links worthless?
Not worthless, but weighted lower than links in the main content. The bigger issue is that footer links appear on every page of the site and therefore raise the divisor everywhere. A few targeted footer links beat long link lists.
What is the fastest way to recover lost link equity?
Find external backlinks pointing to 404 URLs on your domain and redirect those URLs to the topically matching target. That is usually the single most effective step, because the links already exist and are simply going nowhere.
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