What Is Link Juice And Why It's Important For Your Site? Semalt Gives The Answer

Table of Contents

  1. What is Link Juice?
  2. How Link Juice Works?
  3. Page Rank and Link Juice
  4. Factors Determining the Quality of Link Juice
  5. Link Juice is Important for Your Website. Why?
  6. Frequently Asked Questions
  7. Wrapping Up
Whether you are new or exists for a long time in this digital world, one thing you'll require to get everlasting success is links.

Links here means hyperlinks that your site or pages get from other websites and webpages. They help users to navigate between webpages and websites over the internet.

There are ways - direct and indirect - to get links from other websites. Direct methods include link building strategies like social media marketing, document sharing, press release publishing, guest posting, and more.

And indirect methods include presenting amazing content on a website so that readers themselves share it on different platforms over the internet. The linking of pages through indirect methods is also known as natural linking.

Today, Semalt experts are going to help you learn all the crucial things about links and their importance. 

What is Link Juice?

Link juice, also known as Link Equity, refers to the value one website or webpage provides to another. There is only one effective way to pass this value, and it is the use of hyperlinks.

Link juice is an important ranking factor because search engines consider links as the value provided by one or more websites or webpages to your page. It shows that your page or site is worth promoting, and therefore search engines rank it higher.

Nowadays, getting links from other sites is not enough to create that value. A combination of several factors like page authority, HTTP status, topical relevance, and more of the linking page is required.

How Link Juice Works?

Suppose that there are two websites - site A and site B. Now assume all ranking factors, except links, to be constant.

If site A gets one link and site B doesn't get any, then site A will appear higher on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). It is because site A is receiving the link juice when an external site links to it.

Let's look at another example. If site A gets links from five websites whereas site B gets links from only three websites, site A will rank higher than site B. It is because site A is getting more amount of link juice compared to site B.

A question most people ask is which site ranks higher when both of them gain the same number of links? In this case, ranking depends upon the value those links bring. Below, in this article, you'll learn about the factors responsible for the quality of link juice.

Page Rank and Link Juice

People think that there is a direct relation between PageRank and Link Juice/ Link Equity. There was a time when PR was the primary algorithm used by Google for determining the rank of a site in its Search Engine Results Page. 

The primary consideration while using the PR algorithm was the backlink profile of a website. Today, PageRank is not the only factor for determining a site's rank. There are hundreds of factors Google considers while ranking a website.  

Sometimes, a website gets less number of links than also it ranks higher in search results. It happens because those links come from high-quality and relevant/ authority websites.

Factors Determining the Quality of Link Juice

There are many factors to determine the quality of link juice a website is getting. Here are some primary ones:
  • Relevancy of the Link
If your website is about organic farming and you are getting a link from a webpage that contains information about celebrities, it won't be the relevant link. 

Google will realize this and might not rank your website higher in search results. Irrelevant links fail to provide value or authority.
  • Location of the Link on a Webpage
According to the Reasonable Surfer Model of Google, the position of a link on your page matters. 

If links on a webpage are present in the footer region or sidebar, they are not considered vital. But, links gain importance when they are located on a webpage's body.

Try to understand the logic behind it. Content useful for visitors is not placed in the footer or sidebar (ignore some exceptions). It is on the page's body, and links in that region will hold importance.  
  • Links from Authoritative Site
Links from sites that are trustworthy and have built their reputation as an authoritative website deliver more link juice. Completely new websites do not pass such kind of link equity/ juice.
  • No-Follow Link
When there are no-follow links on a page, crawlers get a signal to ignore those links. They do not contain link juice. It doesn't mean you should ignore such types of links. There are hidden values attached to no-follow links.
  • Crawlability of the Link
Certain pages are set not to be crawled. In this case, the robots.txt file is used to block crawlers. If your website is getting a link from one such page, that link will be of no value.
  • Number of Links on a Page
When it comes to the number of links on a webpage, there is no limit. Suppose that your page is getting a link from a webpage featuring hundreds of links.

That is not a valuable link because the presence of hundreds of links diminishes the chances that users will click your page's link.

Link Juice is Important for Your Website. Why?

Link juice is vital for a website in many ways. Some prime benefits link juice provides are:
  • Higher Organic Ranking
One of the main benefits it provides to your website is the higher organic rank in search results. It means your site must get relevant and high-quality links to top SERPs.
  • Boosts Traffic
When your website ranks higher in search results, the chances of users clicking on your links increase significantly. It means link juice, eventually, leads to boosting the traffic to a website.
  • Increase in Profits
A rise in profits is often seen when websites get more traffic. As link juice boosts traffic, you can say that it provides better and higher returns on your investments.
  • Builds Trust
Today, customers/ consumers focus much on the trust factor. They continue on a site only if they find it trustworthy. When your website gets high-quality link juice, it automatically becomes trustworthy.
  • Builds Brand
When other sites and pages mention your business and link to its website, it gains popularity. People start seeing the name of your business on different sites. As a result, your business no longer remains ordinary but transforms into a popular brand.   

Pages that deliver Link Juice

  • Having superior PageRank
  • Having relevant content
  • Containing quality content
  • Having a significantly low number of outbound links
  • Having user-generated content
  • Are popular amongst social media users/ audiences

Pages that do not deliver Link Juice

  • Have no-follow links to a website
  • Have several links, such as ad links and site-wide links
  • Have irrelevant content
  • Get links from an unranked site not having any content
  • Have paid links
  • Receive links in a kind of exchange scheme. For example, someone else links to your website because you'll also link to his site.  

Frequently Asked Questions

Semalt experts have answers to all SEO-related questions. Below some of the most frequently asked questions about link juice are answered.

1. Link juice contains which type of links?

Link juice can contain internal links as well as external links.

2. What is the difference between inbound and outbound links?

Inbound Links: These are the links coming from other websites or webpages to your website.

Outbound Links: These are the links going away from your website to other websites and webpages. 

3. What is the difference between do-follow and no-follow links?

No-Follow Links: These links prevent search engine spiders from following a link. You can determine these links by seeing a rel=nofollow attribute in their HTML code. 

Do-Follow Links: These are the links that tell search engine spiders to follow a link and provide necessary value to the destination. If you see the HTML code, you won't find any rel=dofollow attribute. So, there isn't anything like do-follow links. What do you say? 

4. Do websites require link juice?

When links come from other sites and pages, every website benefits. We can say that link juice is essential, but its requirement is subject to the type of site and its objective.

5. How to gain Link Juice?

 There are many ways to gain link juice:
  • Adding a sitemap to the homepage displays all pages of a website to search users as well as search engines.
  • Links coming from relevant and authoritative external sources is considered an efficient way to gain high-quality link juice.
  • Interlinking different pages of a website because it helps not only in improving the organic rank of a website but also reducing the bounce rate.

Wrapping Up

Link juice is essential for websites as it helps them top search engines organically. As you are now aware of link juice, its importance, and factors responsible for its quality, use this knowledge to strengthen your SEO efforts.


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