Link Equity

Why It Matters

Link equity remains one of the most powerful and hard-to-fake ranking signals in Google's algorithm. Pages receiving high-equity links from authoritative sources rank more strongly, and internal link architecture determines how imported link equity is distributed across a site. For AI visibility, high-equity pages are treated as more trustworthy citation sources-making link equity building directly beneficial for AI citation rates.

How It Works

Link equity flows directionally through followed hyperlinks, with each linking page distributing equity across all its outbound links proportionally. High-PageRank pages pass more equity per link. Nofollow links don't pass equity. Redirect chains reduce equity transfer (typically 15% loss per redirect hop). Internal linking concentrates equity on important pages by increasing the number and quality of internal links pointing to them.

Use Cases

• Auditing internal link structure to ensure highest-priority pages receive the most internal link equity
• Identifying pages with high external link equity that can be used to boost internal targets through contextual linking
• Calculating redirect chain equity loss during site migrations and restructuring
• Prioritizing link building outreach targets based on their potential equity contribution
• Removing nofollow attributes from internal links that should be passing equity within a site

Best Practices

• Build internal links from high-traffic, high-authority pages to strategically important target pages
• Minimize redirect chains-each hop reduces equity transfer and adds crawl complexity
• Audit internal nofollow links and remove nofollow from valuable internal links that should pass equity
• Create a link equity map showing which pages are receiving the most internal link equity
• Prioritize link building for pages that are important for both rankings and AI citation purposes
• Use descriptive anchor text for internal links to reinforce topical relevance signals alongside equity