Off-page SEO
Link Juice
Last updated
What is Link Juice?
Link juice is an informal SEO term describing the ranking power or authority passed from one page to another through hyperlinks. When a high-authority page links to another page, it transfers a portion of its authority, helping the linked page rank better in search results. This concept is rooted in Google's original PageRank algorithm, which modeled the web as a graph and calculated page importance based on the number and quality of inbound links.
Link juice is diluted when it flows through many outbound links on a single page — a page with 100 outbound links passes less juice per link than one with only 5. Nofollow, sponsored, and ugc attributes ask search engines not to pass link juice through a link (Google treats them as hints). Internal linking strategy is largely about directing link juice from high-authority pages toward the pages you most want to rank.
Why it matters for SEO
Understanding how link juice flows through your site enables smarter internal linking decisions. Concentrating authority on your highest-priority pages by linking to them from your strongest-performing pages can produce ranking improvements without any new external backlinks.
Example
A homepage that many external sites link to carries a lot of ranking strength. If it links to five important category pages, each receives a meaningful share of that strength. If the same homepage footer links to 200 tag pages as well, the value passed through each individual link is spread much thinner. Trimming low-value links and pointing the remaining ones at priority pages concentrates the flow where it matters.
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