Links to good, relevant sites are a normal part of the web. The worry is links to spam, hidden links and links that pass credit to sites you cannot vouch for. Link Signals does not predict rankings and does not speak for any search engine, so it cannot say how any particular link affects a position.
What Link Signals does measure
| What is recorded | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Where each link leads | Whether a destination is broken, parked, unregistered, expired, risky or out of context. |
| How each link is marked | Followed, nofollow, sponsored or ugc, as set out in should I nofollow external links. |
| How many flagged links are followed | The ranking credit panel counts links that still pass credit to a flagged destination. It counts links, not an amount of credit, because search engines do not publish what a link is worth. |
What is link equity?
It is a loose name for the idea that a link passes value from one page to another. The glossary explains it. In Link Signals it is only a way of describing why a followed link to a flagged site is worth looking at.
What LinkSignal is, and is not
LinkSignal is Link Signals’ own score out of 100 for a site’s outbound links. It is based only on this tool’s findings and rules. It is not connected to any search engine or third-party score, it is not PageRank, and it does not try to match anything a search engine shows. See what is LinkSignal.
A note on HTTPS and HSTS
Secure pages are a lightweight search signal, but the HSTS header is mainly a security measure. Link Signals reports it for the sake of your visitors, not to predict a ranking.
Where to read more
The question of rankings is bigger than what a scan can show, so these are the places to go next.
- Ranking credit: how Link Signals counts followed links to flagged sites.
- Which rel should a link have: when to leave a link alone and when to mark it.
- What is a hidden link: the kind of outbound link most clearly against search guidance.
- Qualify your outbound links to Google: Google’s guidance on when and how to mark a link.
- Google’s spam policies: where hidden links and link spam are described.
Questions
Can removing a flagged link improve my position?
Link Signals cannot say. It can show that a page passes credit to a parked, unregistered or risky site, and that clearing it up makes the page safer for visitors. What a search engine does with that is its own decision.
Is the ranking credit panel a ranking score?
No. It is a count of followed links to flagged destinations, grouped by kind. A low LinkSignal and a panel that says None can both be true at once, because the score covers more than ranking credit.
Should I stop linking to other sites?
No. Citing good sources is normal. The report is about the destinations that should not be there: ones that are hidden, lapsed, parked, unsafe or unrelated to the page.
Run a scan and the report shows which flagged links are still followed.
