Link Equity

Link equity is the practical concept derived from PageRank: when a page links to another, it transfers a portion of its own authority to that target. The amount transferred depends on the authority of the source page, the number of other outbound links on that page (equity is divided among all links), and the relevance of the link context.

Link equity flows both from external sources (backlinks) and within the site (internal links). Internally, it concentrates on pages that receive many internal links and disperses from pages that link out extensively. A key SEO practice — structuring internal linking to ensure that important pages receive strong internal equity from high-authority site sections — is essentially a link equity management strategy.

For acquisition evaluation, understanding how link equity flows across a site helps identify whether the acquired backlink profile is being efficiently used. A domain with a strong link profile that points primarily to the homepage, with shallow internal linking beyond it, may be leaving significant ranking potential unrealized — an opportunity that a focused internal linking strategy can unlock post-acquisition.

A domain's homepage holds DR 60 and receives 400 backlinks. If the homepage links to only 3 internal pages, those pages each receive significant equity transfer. If those 3 pages then link to 20 others each, the equity dilutes rapidly as it moves through the site. The pages at the edge of the internal link structure receive negligible equity — even though the domain's aggregate link profile is strong.

Link equity cannot be precisely measured with any third-party tool — the actual PageRank values Google uses internally are not published. What tools like Ahrefs and Moz report (URL Rating, Page Authority) are proxies based on their own link indexes. Use these as directional signals, not precise measurements.