Link equity
Link equity is the ranking value that passes from one page to another through a link. It's the mechanism behind why links from other websites improve search visibility, and why losing or breaking them costs you.
In practice
The underlying idea is that a link is a vote of confidence, and votes from trusted sources count for more. A link from a well-regarded trade publication carries more weight than one from a directory nobody reads. That accumulated weight across a whole domain is roughly what domain authority scores attempt to estimate.
For an established B2B company this is usually the least understood part of search, because it's the part you can't fix by editing your own site. You can write a better page whenever you like. You cannot decide that other people will link to it. That asymmetry is why two companies with comparable content can sit pages apart in the results.
Equity moves internally as well as externally, which is the part worth acting on. Links between your own pages distribute value around the site, so a page nothing links to is largely invisible no matter how good it is. Deciding which pages deserve prominent internal links is a real editorial decision, not housekeeping.
Migrations are where equity gets destroyed. Every external link pointing at an old URL is an asset somebody else built for you, and it keeps paying only if that URL still resolves or redirects to the right place. Drop the redirect and the value evaporates, along with any chance of it coming back, because you can't ask a publication to update a link from 2019.
What actually earns it, in our experience, is having something worth citing rather than having asked nicely. Original data, a genuinely useful tool, or a number nobody else can produce gets referenced. A well-written overview of a topic already covered elsewhere rarely does, however good it is.
Common questions
What is link equity?
The ranking value a link passes to the page it points at. Links from trusted, relevant sources pass more, which is why a handful of good links can outweigh a large number of weak ones.
Do internal links pass link equity?
Yes. Links between your own pages distribute value across the site, which is why a page with no internal links pointing at it tends to underperform regardless of quality.
How do you lose link equity?
Most commonly by changing URLs without redirects during a redesign, so every external link pointing at the old address now hits a dead page. Long redirect chains and removed pages cost you too.