Link juice is one of the many factors that affect the performance of your website. Essentially, it’s the value that transfers from one webpage to another via links in SEO. Developing a good understanding of link juice can help you boost your ranking and get more traffic. Here, we’ll provide everything you need to know about link juice and discuss how it affects your SEO marketing stratxegy.
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What is Link Juice?
Link juice is a term used in SEO that refers to the value that moves from one site to another through hyperlinks. Hyperlinks work like back doors leading to other websites where relevant information can be accessed.
The value a website gets from another isn’t always the same and depends on the content you are linking to. The higher the quality of information, the better the link juice!
Types of Links
There are two types of links you can find on a webpage – internal and external. Internal links refer to those that direct you to different pages of the same website. On the other hand, external links are those that take you to a page on a different website.
How Does Link Juice Affect SEO?
The number of links on your website can determine where your page falls in the search engine results pages (SERPs). However, not all links will give you the juice you need to rank higher in the SERPs.
Link juice comes from websites that have high-quality content that’s relevant to your site. You get more link juice from sites that are considered authoritative and credible than unrecognized sites. The more links to credible sites you have, the better your page will rank when prospects search for information online.
In situations where the quality of content is the same across competitors, the number and quality of links can be the defining factor. So, if you want to rank higher, use multiple high-authority links that can add credibility to your content.
How to Get Link Juice
Dofollow Links
External links can have either a dofollow or nofollow structure. Dofollow links let bots from the search engine access the linked page, transferring link juice to your website. The nofollow attribute (which was introduced in 2005) helps to flag comment spam. Nofollow links restrict search engine bots from following, preventing link juice from flowing.
This means that nofollow links don’t directly benefit your SEO strategy. Nevertheless, such links can still send referrals to your site, which is an advantage.
Some examples of authoritative sites that can improve your link juice include government, institution, and nonprofit organization websites.
Internal Links
Foreign websites aren’t the only place you can get link juice. If you have published high-quality content throughout your site, you already have a pool of link juice you can tap into. So, you don’t have to fill your content with links to other websites. Instead, direct searchers to your own pages as long as they are relevant and offer value.
How to Maintain Link Juice
You can maintain a good flow of link juice to your websites by practicing the following.
Fix Broken Links
Broken links refer to those that are no longer functional. Such links lead to errors like “the domain no longer exists,” “404 page not found,” firewall restrictions, and more. These links won’t do your website any favors because they won’t direct traffic throughout your site or others. You should replace broken links with new ones to relevant content or remove them altogether.
Avoid Harmful Backlinks
Unlike authoritative links, there are some which can negatively affect your website’s performance. Examples of these links are those that require payment, have unrelated content, or those from sites that aren’t indexed.
Create High-Quality Content
You can maintain link juice by creating high-quality content. As long as the information you provide is helpful to readers, you’ll get inbound links to your website. The best way to achieve this is by publishing information essential to your industry or niche. Plus, always be ready to update information whenever possible to ensure you provide accurate content.
Link juice is the contextual value that is shared by two websites when one links to the other. This value can differ depending on the type of website you’ve linked. Both external and internal links can provide juice to a webpage. With the right links, you can boost the position of your website on the SERPs and outdo your competitors.
