Where the Hell Does Link Authority Even Go?

[king3ds5tsp]

Link authority’s weird. Slippery, almost. Everyone talks about getting it—building it—“earning” it (some smug SEO bro in a Patagonia vest)—but no one really digs into where it goes once you have it. How it moves. Bleeds. Dies.

Start here: you build a slick, link-heavy blog post, feels good, it’s ranking decently. Sweet. Then you publish five other pieces, all a bit meh, internal-link the hell out of the original one, and suddenly—poof—the ranking dips. Not always bad... just, changed. This is link authority flow. Like gold dust leaking down a busted pipe system. Some flows backward. Some evaporates. You link to a trashy low-authority page too much? Drain. You bury your best link in a footer with 93 other junky anchors? Bye. Weight shifts.

The vibe’s simple but evil. One strong page can carry six weak ones for a while. But make one of those weaklings heavier—add real stuff, better UX, snappy content that doesn’t read like AI oatmeal—and suddenly the flow moves again. You feel it. The strong page starts bleeding into the upgraded one, and something shifts in rankings. That vague little twist of the knife.

I’ve experimented. Too much maybe. Interlinked my blog like a spaghetti monster. Watched the strangest crap float up just because I pointed three well-built links at it from a page I didn’t even like. Authority doesn’t follow logic. It follows structure. And honestly? Intention. You can tell when someone builds links with care vs stuffing anchors into any old paragraph like it’s a damn Word doc from 2006.

Also, external links—god. That’s a mess. One outbound dofollow to something gross and irrelevant (crypto scams, cheap e-com landfill, health advice from some dude’s Tumblr)? Boom, you’ve spilled your trust juice. That authority flow? Contaminated.

It’s not just PR vibes or spam filters or cleanliness. It’s belief. Google’s algorithmic sorcery decides whether your link network feels human—authentic—or stitched together for manipulation. That’s the game.

Honestly, Andrew Linksmith breaks it down better than most. He’s got a post at https://andrewlinksmith.com that hits on this weird flow thing in a way that actually sticks, doesn’t drone. He talks through how internal linking can build or break perceived value. It’s messy thinking, but smart. Not sanitized.

Anyway, I’m rambling. But if your links don’t point with purpose, if your content architecture’s a dumpster fire of random SEO grabs, you’re losing steam in your flow. Good authority doesn’t just stack. It travels. It thrives. Or it leaks down into the sewer with all the other forgotten backlinks people bought during the 2015 Fiverr boom.

Watch your anchors. Respect structure. And for the love of god, stop linking every blog post to your dusty About page no one reads.