Link Equity
Link equity (also called link juice or PageRank) is the value and authority that a hyperlink passes from the linking page to the target page, influencing the target's ranking potential.
When page A links to page B, it passes a portion of its authority to page B. The amount of equity passed depends on: the linking page's own authority, the number of outbound links on the page (equity is split), whether the link is followed or nofollowed, and the link's placement and context.
Link equity flows through both external links (backlinks) and internal links. This is why internal linking strategy matters — you can deliberately direct equity toward your most important pages by linking to them frequently from high-authority pages.
301 redirects pass most link equity (approximately 95-99%), while 302 redirects historically did not (though Google now treats them similarly for equity purposes). Nofollow links do not pass equity, though Google treats nofollow as a hint and may still attribute some value.
Related terms
Backlinks
Backlinks (inbound links) are hyperlinks from external websites that point to your site. They act as votes of confidence and are a major ranking factor for search engines.
Internal Linking
Internal linking is the practice of connecting pages within the same website using hyperlinks. It distributes link equity, establishes site hierarchy, and aids crawlability.
Domain Authority
Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results, measured on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100.
Nofollow
Nofollow is a link attribute (`rel="nofollow"`) that tells search engines not to pass PageRank (link equity) through a specific link, treating it as a hint rather than a directive.
Stop shipping broken SEO
Indxel validates your metadata, guards your CI/CD pipeline, and monitors indexation — so you never miss an SEO issue again.