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Does linking to your privacy/terms pages waste link equity?

  • Published November 6, 2026
  • Linked from 1 answer
  • In a cluster of 3

No, not in any way worth managing. Footer links to privacy, terms and contact pages are standard parts of a site, and the fear that they drain value from important pages comes from an old picture of links in which every link on a page split a fixed amount of value. Google has not described link value working that way today, and the main tactic built on that picture, nofollowing low-value links, stopped redistributing anything years ago, a change Google explained publicly in 2009.

What the utility links do

Effect
For visitors They find policies, contact details and terms where they expect them
For trust Clear policies and contact information are part of what makes a site look accountable
For Google Ordinary links in the site template, pointing to pages that are part of the site
On your important pages No documented cost from sharing a footer with these links

Visitors who want to know who runs a site, how their data is handled or how to complain look for these pages. Removing or hiding them to save value trades something visitors and reviewers use for a benefit no one has measured.

Leave these links alone

  • Do not nofollow the links to these pages; it does not move value elsewhere, and whether to nofollow internal links to low-value pages explains why.
  • Do not remove them from the footer to reduce the link count.
  • Do not noindex your privacy or contact page out of habit; people search for them, and they should be found.

Where the attention should go

If a template carries a very long block of links, review it for links visitors do not use, but for clarity, not for equity. The links worth your effort are the ones in your content, from related pages, with anchors that describe the destination, along with the menus, breadcrumbs and hub pages that give visitors and Google a route to those pages. Keep the utility links where visitors expect them and spend the effort there.

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