Link Juice

Link juice is an informal SEO term that describes the value, authority, or ranking power passed from one webpage to another through a hyperlink. When one page links to another, it can share some of its credibility — helping the linked page rank better in search engine results.

Although “link juice” isn’t an official term used by Google, it’s commonly used in the SEO community to explain how backlinks and internal links contribute to a site’s authority.

How link juice works

When a webpage has strong SEO signals — like high-quality content, backlinks from trusted sources, and domain authority — it builds up "link juice." When that page links to another page (either on the same site or a different one), some of that value is transferred through the link.

This process is part of why backlinks are so important in SEO. The more high-quality link juice a page receives, the more likely it is to rank well.

Factors that influence link juice

Several factors determine how much link juice is passed through a link:

• Follow vs. Nofollow: Only dofollow links pass link juice. Nofollow links do not.
• Link placement: Links in the main content carry more value than links in footers or sidebars.
• Page authority: Links from high-authority pages pass more juice.
• Relevance: Contextually relevant links provide more SEO benefit.
• Number of links on the page: The more links there are, the less juice each one passes.

HTML example: Dofollow vs. Nofollow

<!-- Dofollow link (passes link juice) -->
<a href="https://example.com">Visit this helpful guide</a>

<!-- Nofollow link (does NOT pass link juice) -->
<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">Sponsored resource</a>

In this example, the first link passes link juice because it’s a standard hyperlink. The second one uses rel="nofollow", which tells search engines not to pass link authority.

How to build and use link juice effectively

To get the most SEO benefit from link juice:

• Earn backlinks from high-authority, relevant websites
• Use internal links to pass juice from strong pages to important ones
• Update or fix broken links that should be passing value
• Avoid linking to low-quality or spammy sites
• Use descriptive anchor text that matches the content being linked

Link juice vs. link equity

The terms link juice and link equity are often used interchangeably. However:

Both refer to the same concept: the SEO value passed through links.

In summary, link juice is the ranking power passed from one webpage to another via hyperlinks. By building strong backlinks and optimizing internal linking, you can guide that value to the most important parts of your site — helping improve your visibility in search engines.