What is Link Equity (Link Juice)?

Link equity, informally "link juice", is the ranking value that a link passes from one page to another. It depends on the linking page's authority, relevance, the link's placement and its rel attributes.

Link Equity (Link Juice) — SEO Library

Where the idea comes from#

Google’s original PageRank algorithm treated links as votes: a page shares part of its importance with the pages it links to. Google’s systems are far more complex today, but the core idea holds — links from important, relevant pages help more than links from obscure or unrelated ones.

What affects how much value a link passes#

Authority of the linking page (not just the domain).
Topical relevance between the two pages.
Placement: an editorial link in body content beats a footer or sidebar link.
Number of other links on the page.
rel attributes: nofollow, sponsored and ugc are hints that usually pass little or none.
Redirects: 301 redirects pass value, but long chains add risk.

Using internal link equity#

You control internal links completely. Link from your strongest pages (those with backlinks and traffic) to the pages you want to grow, using descriptive anchors. Remove or update links pointing to redirects and 404s so equity isn’t wasted.