Link juice
Link juice is practitioners’ slang for the ranking value a link passes from one page to another, properly called link equity. The idea is real and comes from PageRank; most of the numbers attached to it are not. Here is the documented part, the folklore, and what to do with your own links.
By Théophile Louvart, founder of Porteur · Updated 15 September 2026 · Markdown
Where the idea comes from
PageRank, described by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998, treats a page’s importance as the sum of the importance of the pages linking to it, divided among the links each of those pages carries. A link from a page with few outgoing links therefore counts for more than one from a page with hundreds.
That division is the whole of the metaphor: a fixed amount of value, shared out along the links. Everything people say about juice is an elaboration of it.
What is documented
- PageRank in some form remains one of Google’s signals; the public toolbar score was retired in 2016.
- Value is divided among the links a page carries, so a page linking to five things passes more to each than a page linking to five hundred.
- The rel values nofollow, sponsored and ugc are hints that usually stop the value from flowing; since 2019 Google treats them as hints rather than directives.
- Redirects pass value: Google has said since 2016 that a 301 does not lose PageRank in itself.
What is folklore
- A precise percentage lost per hop or per link. No such figure is published and none of the tools can measure it.
- PageRank sculpting, adding nofollow to internal links to hoard value. Google changed how it treats that in 2009, and it has not worked since.
- Any tool’s score presented as the amount of value passed. Domain Rating, Domain Authority and Authority Score are models on private indexes, not Google’s figures.
- The idea that linking out drains a page. Citing sources is normal and Google’s guidance expects it.
What to do on your own site
Link from the pages that have the links
Your most linked page is your strongest. Check the Links report in Search Console, then link from that page to the pages you want to rank.
Prefer contextual links to footer links
A link inside a paragraph about the subject is worth more than the same link in a footer that appears on every page.
Keep the important pages within three clicks
Depth is the practical version of the same idea: a page reached from the home page in two clicks is crawled and valued more than one buried at six.
Stop worrying about the count
A page with forty sensible internal links is fine. There is no threshold to stay under, only a judgement about whether a reader would follow each one.
Questions
The underlying idea is real: links pass ranking value, and a page divides that value among its links. The word is slang and the precise numbers people attach to it are not documented anywhere.
Usually not. Since 2019 Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints rather than strict directives, so a nofollow link may still be considered, but you should not count on it.
Google has said since 2016 that redirects do not lose PageRank in themselves. The cost of a redirect is latency and crawling, not a tax on the value passed.
No. That is PageRank sculpting, and Google changed how it handles it in 2009. Internal nofollow today mostly wastes crawling and confuses your own reporting.
No. Citing your sources is normal and useful, and Google’s guidance on helpful content expects pages to reference where facts come from. Mark paid links with rel sponsored.
Check my site, free
The free check reads the links inside your site and names the pages that carry standing and pass it nowhere, in about thirty seconds.
- Free check, no card
- Read-only, your own accounts
- Readable by your agent