In SEO, two concepts—Link Equity and Backlinks—often go hand in hand. If you’re a website manager or SEO expert, understanding it can help you optimize your backlink strategy. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
What is link equity?
Link equity, also known as “link juice,” refers to the value passed from one webpage to another through links. When website A links to website B, a portion of website A’s SEO value is transferred to website B. This transfer can help website B improve its search engine ranking.
Why is Link Equity Important?
It plays a critical role in SEO because it impacts how webpages rank on search engines. Pages with high links are more likely to appear higher on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), leading to increased traffic and opportunities to convert visitors into customers.
In general, it indicates the strength of a backlink. By understanding how these links work, you can focus your link-building efforts on getting high-quality links that will move the needle.
How Link Equity Affects SEO
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Page Rankings: Pages receiving more links are perceived as more authoritative, improving their rankings in search engine results.
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Content Discoverability: Links help search engines discover new pages, boosting their chance of being indexed and ranked.
User Navigation: Proper internal linking ensures users (and crawlers) can navigate your website efficiently, which indirectly enhances SEO performance.
Types of Link Equity
Dofollow Links
These links pass links from one website to another. Dofollow links are the most common type used in backlink building.
Nofollow Links
In contrast, nofollow links do not pass links. These links instruct search engines not to consider them for ranking purposes. While they don’t boost SEO rankings, they can still drive traffic.
Internal Links
Internal links not only pass links between pages on the same website but also help users navigate effectively. Ensure your internal linking structure is logical and user-friendly.
How to Optimize Link Equity?
Here are some tips for optimizing links on your website:
a. Build Backlinks from Trusted Sources
Aim to acquire links from authoritative websites recognized in your industry. Blog posts, forums, or product reviews on reputable websites can significantly boost value.
b. Use Optimized Anchor Text
Anchor text should describe the linked content clearly. Using relevant, descriptive anchor text can improve click-through rates and boost value.
c. Create High-Quality Content
Engaging, high-quality content is crucial for attracting backlinks. Great content naturally earns links from other websites.
d. Check and Fix Broken Links
Broken links can harm user experience and reduce your website’s SEO value. Regularly monitor and remove broken links from your website.
To simplify these tips without investing much time and effort, you can consider using some SEO apps.
- Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO tool designed to help businesses and digital marketers improve their website’s search engine performance. Known for its powerful backlink analysis and keyword research capabilities, Ahrefs has become one of the most trusted tools in the SEO industry.
Ahrefs provide users with detailed insights into backlink analysis, keyword research, and overall website performance.
2. SearchPie SEO & Speed optimize
SearchPie is one of the most powerful and multi-use SEO apps in the Shopify App Store, it offers almost everything merchants need for link equity in SEO: optimize anchor text, AI content creation and remarkably broken links management.
All you have to do is going to the Google Authority, choose Analytics to check your total backlinks’ status.
To check if there is any store you wish to submit articles to and exchange backlinks on your store website, please go to the Requests section for further check. You should check their DA, total backlinks, and view their draft articles carefully before deciding to reject or publish their articles on your website.
Common Mistakes in Link Equity
SEO practitioners often make these mistakes:
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Focusing Solely on Quantity: Chasing a high number of backlinks without considering their quality.
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Ignoring Link Placement: Overlooking the impact of link placement on its value.
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Neglecting Content Quality: Poor content fails to attract valuable backlinks and link equity
To fix this problem, Shopify merchants should focus on quality of backlink instead of quantity, and balance types of links. Especially, remember that the final purpose of publishing link equity is to attract organic traffic and increase page ranking, so you need to keep users on the website for as long as possible. And to attain it, the best method is high content quality.
Summarize
Focusing on link equity, you can add value in your SEO strategy. By understanding how links flow and implementing strategies such as acquiring high-quality backlinks, optimizing internal links, and maintaining a clean link profile, you can maximize the value of your site.