Link Equity
SEOAlso: Link Juice · Link Authority · Link Value
Quick definition
Link equity, also called link juice, is the ranking value a webpage passes to another page through a hyperlink. Search engines treat links as votes of confidence. A page with strong link equity carries more authority, and that authority flows to whatever it links to.
How it varies across Australia
Australian businesses in competitive categories like finance and legal typically need denser, higher-authority backlink profiles to rank than businesses in local or niche categories. Domestic link sources carry disproportionate weight for terms with local search intent, and thin local media coverage means link-building campaigns often take longer to compound here than in larger markets.
Explore SEO benchmarks across Australian industries →What actually passes equity
A trusted, well-established page passes more equity than a new or low-quality one.
A link from a page on a related topic counts for more than one from an unrelated niche.
The clickable text tells search engines what the linked page is about, reinforcing relevance.
Nofollow and similar tags tell search engines not to pass equity through that link at all.
What it actually means
Think of link equity like a reference letter. A recommendation from someone respected in the industry carries weight. A recommendation from a stranger with no track record carries almost none. Search engines treat hyperlinks the same way. When a high-authority page links to yours, some of its trust transfers across. When a low-quality or spammy page links to yours, you get very little, and sometimes it hurts you.
The concept traces back to Google's original PageRank algorithm, which modelled the web as a network of votes. Every page has a finite amount of equity to distribute across its outbound links. Link out to fifty pages and each one gets a sliver. Link out to three and each gets a much bigger share.
This is why backlink quality matters more than backlink quantity. One link from a genuinely authoritative, relevant site usually outperforms a hundred links from directories nobody visits. It's also why internal linking matters. You can direct equity you've already earned toward the pages that need it most, rather than waiting for external sites to notice them.
A link is not a link. It's a vote, and some votes count for a lot more than others.
How it shows up
Link equity shows up indirectly, mostly through ranking movement after a backlink is earned or lost. Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush estimate a proxy score (often called Domain Rating or Domain Authority) to approximate how much equity a site holds, though neither is the number Google actually uses internally. You'll also see it in internal link audits, where pages buried deep in a site structure with few internal links tend to rank worse than equally good content sitting closer to the homepage.
The Australian context
Australia's smaller web means fewer high-authority domains exist to link to Australian businesses compared to the volume available in the United States or United Kingdom. That scarcity makes each strong local backlink relatively more valuable, and it's part of why digital PR and local media coverage remain effective link-building levers here even as broader link-buying tactics get penalised more aggressively by Google's spam systems.
Where people get this wrong
Related terms
Common questions
Does link equity ever run out or get used up?
A page has a finite amount to distribute across its outbound links, so linking to fewer, more relevant pages passes more equity to each than linking out widely. The source page itself doesn't lose its own accumulated authority by linking out.
Do nofollow links pass any link equity at all?
Google has stated nofollow and similar tags are treated as hints rather than absolute directives, meaning some equity may pass in specific cases. For practical strategy, treat nofollow links as unlikely to pass meaningful ranking value and value them for referral traffic and brand exposure instead.
Can internal linking really replace earning backlinks?
No, but it multiplies the value of the backlinks you already have. Strong internal linking spreads equity earned from external sites to deeper pages that need ranking support, which is why orphaned pages with no internal links often underperform despite good content.
How do I check how much link equity a page has?
Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz offer proxy scores such as Domain Rating or Domain Authority. These estimate relative authority but aren't the actual figures Google uses internally, so treat them as directional comparisons rather than precise measurements.
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About New Rebellion
New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.
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