Link Juice Explained: How Links Pass Value and How to Use It

Link juice is informal SEO slang for the ranking value that one page passes to another through a hyperlink. When a respected website links to your page, some of its authority flows to you, helping that page rank. The same principle applies inside your own site, where internal links spread value from strong pages to the ones you want to rank.

Google never uses the phrase itself, but the idea comes from its PageRank algorithm, and understanding it helps you build links and structure your site more effectively.

Where the idea of link juice comes from

Google's founders built PageRank on a simple idea: a link from one page to another is like a vote, and votes from important pages count for more. A page's importance is shared out through the links it contains, so a page with strong backlinks can pass value onward.

Modern Google uses far more than PageRank, but links remain one of its signals. Google's own guide to its ranking systems still lists link analysis systems and PageRank among the systems it uses. The SEO community started calling this flow of value "link juice" or "link equity", and the terms stuck. For a broader look at how links fit alongside crawling and indexing, see our explainer on how search engines work.

What affects how much link juice a link passes

Nobody outside Google knows the exact formula, but these factors are widely understood to matter:

Factor	Passes more value	Passes less value
Authority of the linking page	Well-linked, trusted pages	New, thin or spammy pages
Relevance	Related topic and audience	Unrelated sites
Placement	Inside the main body content	Footers, sidebars and sitewide blocks
Number of links on the page	Pages with a focused set of links	Pages with hundreds of outbound links
Link attributes	Standard followed links	rel="nofollow", "sponsored" or "ugc"
Editorial intent	Earned because the content is useful	Paid, exchanged or automated links

Nofollow, sponsored and UGC links

Site owners can tell search engines how to treat a link using rel attributes. In 2019 Google introduced "sponsored" for paid and affiliate links and "ugc" for user-generated content such as comments and forum posts, alongside the long-standing "nofollow". Google treats all three as hints rather than strict instructions, as explained in its documentation on qualifying outbound links.

In practice:

• Use sponsored on anything paid for, including affiliate links and sponsored posts. Not doing so can break Google's spam policies.
• Use ugc on links visitors add, such as comments.
• Use nofollow when you do not want to vouch for a link.
• Do not nofollow your own internal links to sculpt link juice. It does not save value for other links, and it can stop search engines discovering pages.

Directing link juice with internal links

Most sites have a few pages that attract most of the backlinks: the home page, popular guides or a well-known resource. Internal links let you share that strength with the pages that make money.

1. Find your strongest pages. Use Search Console's Links report or a backlink tool to see which pages have the most referring domains.
2. Link from them to priority pages. Add contextual links, inside the content, to related service or product pages.
3. Use descriptive anchor text. "Wedding video editing services" tells search engines far more than "learn more".
4. Keep important pages shallow. Pages several clicks deep from the home page tend to receive less internal value. Navigation, hubs and breadcrumbs help.
5. Fix orphan pages. Pages with no internal links receive none of your site's link equity and may not be found at all.

A practical way to put this into practice is the hub-and-spoke model. Create one strong hub page for each core topic, such as a service, and link it to every supporting article on that topic. Each article links back to the hub and to its closest siblings. Backlinks earned by any article then strengthen the whole cluster, and search engines get a clear picture of which page is the main authority on the subject. Review your hubs every few months as you publish new content, so fresh articles are not left disconnected.

Preserving link juice during changes

Link value is easy to lose by accident. The most common leaks:

• Deleting pages with backlinks. If a page returns a 404 error, the links pointing to it stop helping. Redirect it with a permanent 301 redirect to the most relevant live page.
• Redirect chains. Multiple hops slow crawling and add risk. Point old URLs straight to the final destination.
• Site migrations. Changing domains or URL structures without a full redirect map can wipe out years of accumulated authority.
• Broken internal links. They waste crawl effort and break the path value would take.

Earning more link juice the right way

Buying links, link exchanges at scale and automated link tools all violate Google's spam policies and can trigger ranking problems. Our article on backlink generators explains why they backfire. Sustainable ways to earn links include:

• Publishing original research, data or tools others want to cite.
• Creating genuinely useful guides and visual resources.
• Digital PR: offering expert commentary to journalists and industry publications.
• Partnerships with suppliers, clients, associations and local organizations.
• Reclaiming unlinked brand mentions by politely asking for a link.

If you need help on a budget, our guide to affordable link building services covers what to look for, and Pro Pixel's SEO services include internal linking audits and white-hat link building.

Frequently asked questions