When you begin creating backlinks to your website, the goal is to maximize value or link equity. Adding strong and valuable links to your site is essential for any effective SEO strategy. This will help your site rank well in search results, drive organic web traffic, and help to improve your site’s domain authority.
No longer are search engines concerned with how many links you have. Quality over quantity is the rule of the day.
If your goal is to improve link quality to rank higher on Google, then it’s time to pay attention to link equity.
Link Equity Defined
You may hear link equity referred to as “link juice.” It’s an important search engine ranking factor and focuses on the fact that certain links will pass on authority and value from one page to another.
While link value depends on several factors, it’s important to remember that it’s possible to pass value between web pages using external and internal links.
Link Equity Principles
There are a few underlying principles that you must know. These include:
External Links Pass More Equity
External links offer more ranking value than internal links. This doesn’t mean that internal links aren’t important; however, they aren’t as valuable in the eyes of Google and other search engines.
Well-Linked Pages Pass on Higher Equity
Well-linked pages (those with internal and external links) are in a better position to pass link equity than poorly-linked-to pages. If one of your pages has a robust link profile, the page will be able to pass more quality than pages with weaker profiles easily.
Quality over Quantity
Link quality is more important than link quantity. Usually, a page with just a few value-driven links passes on more link equity than pages with more links. Because of this, link equity demands you only focus on the most valuable, important pieces of content.
The Falling Influence of the PageRank Algorithm
Google’s first ranking algorithm, PageRank, has a diminishing role today. Rather than focusing on the number of links (like in the past), more value is placed on the quality of links on your page.
Today, PageRank has evolved and focuses on link equity. Some assumed that the most valuable and relevant websites received the most links from other sites. Today, though, Google looks at other links, including quality, authority, placement, trust, and relevance.
Link Equity and What You Need to Know
Every link isn’t a good link. As you work to maximize your site’s link equity, it’s important to keep these factors in mind:
- Relevance
- Quantity
- Anchor text
- Linking site authority
- Location of the link on a page
- HTTP status of the linked page
- “Nofollow” attributes and crawlability
These must be considered as part of your link building strategy.
Creating Links on Your Website
There are more than a few factors to consider when it comes to building links. Be sure to keep link equity in mind, as it plays a huge role in how well your site ranks in SERPs.
By, Peter Roesler, President of Small Business SEO. 25+ years in marketing! Yippee.
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