What is Link Juice? (& Why You Should Care)

Have you ever poured gasoline on fire? (figuratively or literally) Well, link juice is like that for your website. It’s a powerful resource that can boost your SEO and drive more traffic to your site.

Link juice is created from other websites linking to your pages. This is called “backlinking,” and if credible websites link back to yours, it shows Google and other search engines that your content is valuable. “Link juice” is the credibility shared from their page to yours.

Still a little confused about link juice? Let’s squeeze as much as possible from this topic and explain everything we know about link juice, where it comes from, and how you can generate more for your website.

For example, let’s say we owned a plumbing company and wrote a blog that answered common questions like “How to fix a leaky faucet.” Then, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and other home service retailers linked to our blog on their websites. That would signal to Google that our post is a credible resource that other websites view as an authority on that topic. In other words, when fixing a leaky faucet, most people – including other websites – turn to our brand for help.

Link juice can also work internally. That’s called “internal link juice,” and we’ll explore that concept below. 

Internal Link Juice

Internal links are links between pages on the same website. By link-building between your own pages, you show that you’ve created a lot of content related to the same topic. That demonstrates authority, which ultimately generates link juice.

Note: The number of internal links in your content is important. The more links you have on the same page, the less link juice is passed. When creating an internal linking strategy, be strategic about the number of links you use and try to link only to content related to the topic.

Now that we’ve discussed the two types of backlinks let’s examine an example of each.

Let’s look at a real-life example from our blog. Here’s one of our most popular blog posts:

Dozens of websites have a link to this page (here’s one example). By having other sites link to it, we generate link juice, which helps this post rank higher in search engines.

While external links are great for SEO, internal links are beneficial, too. Let’s take a look at a common internal linking strategy called the pillar/cluster model. 

Internal Link Juice Example

As we mentioned earlier, linking between pages is good for your site. But you shouldn’t add dozens of random links. Instead, take a strategic approach that links together content related to a core topic. 

A good strategy is the pillar/cluster model. Start with a high-level topic and create a page that covers the basics. For example, an HVAC company might choose “air conditioning” and explain what an air conditioner is, how it works, and where to buy one.

Then, create a series of smaller posts related to the same topic that cover more niche information. For our HVAC example, we might choose topics like “How to repair my A/C unit” and “When to replace my A/C filter.” These posts will link to each other and back to your original, high-level blog post. That shows Google that this content is related, and you have a series of pages dedicated to this topic.

Additional factors must be considered when it comes to link juice. Let’s review those in the section below. 

How Does Link Juice Work?

Linking strategies are tricky for a reason. Google doesn’t want websites to game the system by overloading users with random links. With that said, you should keep a few things in mind if you’re trying to generate link juice for your website. 

Links carry different values. 

Where your links come from matters a lot. You want websites with high authority to link to yours because it shows that credible organizations trust your business. 

Using an SEO tool like Semrush, you can check your links’ credibility. These tools have an “authority score” that ranks the website’s credibility. The higher the score, the more trustworthy it is. Here’s an example from Home Depot with an authority score of 99/100. 

If you got a bunch of links from Home Depot back to your site, that would likely generate link juice because Home Depot is a very credible website. 

There are different types of links. 

Did you know there are different types of hyperlinks? No-follow links instruct search engines to ignore their linked pages. Google sees the link but doesn’t click through to the next page. People use no-follow links to prevent pages from passing link juice to lower-quality websites. It protects their authority while adding links that might help the reader. 

How can you spot a no-follow link? If you want to get technical, open the webpage’s HTML. Find the link and look for the following attribute: rel=nofollow. This tells Google not to crawl the link and passes authority to the other site.

Internal linking should be natural and helpful. 

Google’s job is to provide relevant and trustworthy answers to its users’ questions. Therefore, your internal linking should be natural and helpful. Don’t stuff links into your page or pay someone to link to your site. Instead, look for relevant topics to link to and create content that provides a unique solution.

First-party data, like Thryv’s Small Business Index Report, is a great example. We surveyed hundreds of small business owners and put everything we learned into a report. When someone mentions our data, they’ll link back to the report, generating link juice. This data is helpful, which is why people link to it.

Data is one way to generate link juice for your website. In the next section, we’ll explore some other options. 

How to Get More Link Juice for Your Website

Like anything in SEO, link juice isn’t a perfect science. Adding links to your pages won’t randomly generate link juice. However, there are best practices you can follow to increase your search rankings and attract more visitors to your website.

1. Use SEO tools.

SEO tools have features to help you identify pages on your site with backlinks. Some even make suggestions to improve your linking strategy both internally and externally. These tools are important because they tell which pages are most valuable and who links to your site. That helps you assess their authority and see if the right companies link to your pages.

2. Add keywords to your content.

Anchor text is the text that you link on your web page. It’s the blue underlined text you see here. That text is important because it describes the link to Google. That makes it easier for Google to understand why the link is there and if it’s helpful.

A good strategy is to use keywords for your anchor text. Keywords are words or phrases people search for online. By including them as anchor text, you’ll have a better chance of ranking for that topic because people search for it on Google. Google will see that you have even more content about that keyword, improving your authority.

Tip: Use keyword research to identify keywords related to your business or industry. 

3. Pay attention to technical SEO. 

From a technical standpoint, you can do very simple things to increase link juice on your website. Don’t worry; you don’t need to be a developer to make these changes. These are small tweaks that pay off big over time.

Here’s what I recommend: 

• Fix Broken Links: Remove broken links from your website and replace them with ones that work. Broken links can negatively affect your search rankings.  
• Clean URL Structures: Your URL or web address should reflect the page’s topic. I recommend adding the primary keyword to your URL. 
• Avoid Redirect Chains: Redirects are when a URL automatically directs you to another webpage. Too many redirects can dilute link juice. 

4. Partner with other brands. 

Brand partnerships are a great way to generate backlinks for your site. You can work with other brands on joint marketing campaigns that share links between your web pages. Just make sure your links fit naturally in your content and serve a purpose to your reader. 

Here’s an example from Starbucks and Spotify. These brands teamed up for a marketing campaign and then shared links between their websites. The backlinks were helpful because they gave readers more information about the deal. 

5. Share stories with local news stations and online publications. 

Newspapers and online publications can also boost your website’s SEO. Try to get featured on these sites, and you should have opportunities to link back to your own. 

For example, guest blogging is particularly popular for this purpose. Write something for another website, like a story, testimonial, or guide, then link back to your own site to improve authority. Keep in mind that most publications will have rules around linking, so make sure you’re aware of these guidelines before you write any content. You may not want to invest this time if you can’t link your guest post to your site.

Boost Your Link Juice

Link juice is just one of many factors that affect your SEO. It’s great for building your search presence and improving your website’s authority. Follow these tips to fine-tune your SEO strategy and generate link juice that leads to more traffic for your business.