Link Equity Explained: Top 9 Factors That Determine Link Equity Or Link Juice
What Is Link Equity: Link Equity or Link Juice is a ranking factor in search engines. It is based on the idea that links can pass on their authority or value to other links, both internal and external. It is basically the concept of passing on the ranking power of a web page to another web page on the same website or on even a different website. There are many factors on which link equity depends, like domain authority of the linking page, relevance of the links, etc.
Find Out How To Increase Domain Authority Here
Link Equity is similar to Google’s PageRank algorithm. PageRank worked on the assumption that websites which receive the maximum number of backlinks provides the most relevant information and hence, are very important. As a result, these websites were ranked on top of the search results.
Over the years, Google’s algorithm has become more complex and sophisticated. It now considers hundreds of factors to determine the importance and relevance of a web page and the website’s backlink profile is just one of them. Nevertheless, it is still a ranking factor and an important aspect of off-page SEO. Link Equity, however, contributes to both off-page and on-page SEO.
How Does Link Equity Works?
Let us say that you have just started your blog. It doesn’t have much visibility.
One of your well-researched articles gets noticed by someone from another blog of same niche but which is bigger and have more authority in that niche. They provide an external link to your blog post in one of their articles. As a result, their authority or value is passed on to your article.
How does it happen? Google, while crawling, realizes that your article has been linked from an authoritative site and considers it to be an important one. For Google, an authoritative site linking to your article is like a vote of confidence for that article, and hence, Google decides on improving its ranking.
Likewise, you can pass on the value or authority of your website to various web pages on it.
Factors On Which Link Equity Depends
It is not just linking a web page from another web page that contributes to passing of authority to the linked page. There are many factors on which link equity depends. Some of them are as under:
1. Authority Of The Linking Page
Earlier, getting backlinks from any website helped in improving the ranking of a page. But with passing time, Google’s algorithm has become smarter. Not all links contribute equally these days and some links are better than others and hence, pass more link equity. Websites which are authoritative and trusted are likely to pass more link juice to the linking page.
2. Relevancy Of The Links
If the linked website is entirely different from the linking website, say they are of altogether different niches, no link equity will be passed.
3. Nofollow Tag
The nofollow tag is included in the link, Google won’t crawl to the linked page from the linking page. Hence, no link juice will be passed.
4. JavaScript Links
If it is a JavaScript link, crawlers will not be able to discover that link and hence, link equity won’t be passed.
5. Too Many Links
Although there is not any maximum number of links that a page can have, if the linking page has too many links and yours is one, no link equity will be passed to your page.
6. Noindexed Linking Page
If the linking page is not indexed, i.e. it is not included in Google’s index, then you will not be benefitted from this linking.
7. Page Blocked With Robots.txt File
Crawlers do not go to pages that are blocked by robots.txt file. Hence, no link equity will be passed.
8. 302 Redirects
Many SEO Experts still believe that 302 redirects do not pass Link Equity even though Google says it is not the case.
9. Links In Footer Or Sidebar
Links that are included in the body of the content pass more link equity than the ones at in the footer or sidebar.
This, more or less, explains the concept of Link Equity. I hope you have got an idea about how exactly it helps in SEO.
If you have any query, drop a comment below and I will get back to you.