Link Juice.
Learn what Link Juice means in modern search and SEO.
The ranking power or authority passed from one web page to another through hyperlinks, derived from the concept of PageRank.
Link juice is an informal SEO term describing the ranking authority and trust that passes from one page to another through hyperlinks—formally grounded in Google's PageRank algorithm. When a high-authority page links to your content, it passes a portion of its PageRank ('juice') to your page, boosting its ability to rank. The more high-authority, relevant links a page receives, the more link juice it accumulates.
How Link Juice Flows
Link juice flows through both external links (backlinks from other domains) and internal links (links between your own pages). The total PageRank a page can pass is divided among all the pages it links to—so a page with 10 outbound links passes less juice per link than a page with 2 outbound links. This is why internal link architecture matters: ensuring that important pages receive links from high-PageRank pages on your site (like the homepage) boosts their ranking potential.
Nofollow Links and Link Juice
Nofollow links (carrying the `rel='nofollow'` attribute) traditionally didn't pass link juice. In 2019, Google changed its treatment of nofollow to a 'hint' rather than a directive—meaning some nofollow links may now pass partial link juice. Sponsored and ugc rel attributes were also introduced for greater granularity. For practical link building purposes, dofollow links from authoritative sources remain the primary goal.
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