Backlink vs Link Equity: The Core Distinction
A backlink is a hyperlink on an external website that points to a page on your site. It is a countable, observable object — you can list every backlink in a crawl report and verify each one exists. Link equity, by contrast, is the SEO value that travels through a backlink from the linking page to the destination page. One is the pipe; the other is what flows through the pipe.
The distinction matters in practice because not every backlink carries the same link equity, and some carry none at all. A link tagged with the rel='nofollow' attribute is still a backlink — it appears in your link profile, it can drive referral traffic — but Google treats it as ineligible to pass equity. Counting backlinks and measuring link equity are two different analyses that answer two different questions.
How Backlinks Are Measured
Backlinks are measured by count and by source characteristics: total referring domains, the authority of those domains, the anchor text used, and whether the links are follow or nofollow. Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz crawl the web and index these links, giving you a raw inventory. The number itself is a structural fact about your site's position in the web graph.
For ecommerce operators, the most actionable backlink metrics are referring domain count and the ratio of branded-to-keyword anchor text. A site with 500 backlinks from 500 unique domains is structurally stronger than one with 500 backlinks from 10 domains. The backlink count alone does not tell you how much ranking benefit any individual link is delivering — that requires thinking in terms of equity.
How Link Equity Is Measured
Link equity has no universally agreed unit. Google's original PageRank algorithm computed it mathematically — a function of the linking page's own authority divided by its total number of outbound links. Modern SEO tools approximate this with proprietary scores: Ahrefs' URL Rating, Moz's Page Authority, and Semrush's Authority Score all proxy for the equity a page is likely to transfer. These scores are estimates, not direct measurements.
Equity is diluted by competition. If a high-authority page links to 100 destinations, each destination receives roughly one-hundredth of the available equity from that page. This is why a single backlink from a dedicated resource page with few outlinks is more valuable than a sitewide footer link that shares equity across hundreds of pages. The number of backlinks on a linking page is as important as the linking page's own authority.
Internal link structure also distributes link equity received from external backlinks. When an external site links to your homepage, that equity does not automatically reach your category or product pages. A deliberate internal linking strategy passes homepage equity downstream to pages that need ranking support.
Where They Overlap and Where They Diverge
Every do-follow backlink from a page with any authority carries some link equity — that is where the two concepts overlap completely. In this scenario, acquiring a backlink and acquiring link equity are the same action. The divergence appears at the margins: nofollow links, sponsored links, UGC-tagged links, and links from pages with zero crawlable authority are backlinks without meaningful equity transfer.
Spam links illustrate the divergence clearly. A site can accumulate thousands of backlinks from low-quality directories and link farms. The backlink count rises; the link equity received is negligible or negative in effect because Google discounts or ignores those sources. An ecommerce store with 200 backlinks from relevant industry publishers will outrank a competitor with 2,000 backlinks from irrelevant or penalized sites, because the equity behind those 200 links is real and the equity behind the 2,000 is not.
Redirects add another layer. When a page that has accumulated backlinks is redirected with a 301, the backlinks remain pointing at the old URL, but the link equity passes through to the destination. The backlinks and the equity they carry can now live at different URLs — a distinction that matters during site migrations.
Practical Application for Ecommerce SEO
Link-building campaigns for ecommerce stores should evaluate both dimensions separately. When prospecting for backlinks, filter by source authority and relevance — these are proxies for how much equity the link will pass. When auditing an existing link profile, separate the equity-passing links from the decorative ones before drawing conclusions about why a page ranks where it does.
Product and category pages rarely attract backlinks naturally at the same rate as editorial content. The standard approach is to build backlinks to content assets — buying guides, comparison articles, data pages — and then use internal links to route that equity to the commercial pages that need it. This two-step process treats backlink acquisition and equity distribution as distinct tasks with distinct tactics.
When negotiating link placements or partnerships, ask the placement vendor how many outbound links appear on the target page. A backlink from a page with three outbound links passes far more equity than the same backlink from a page with sixty. This negotiation point only becomes visible when you think about equity, not just backlink count.