What is link value?

What is link value and how is it calculated?

Now, there is a small question!

I assume what you are asking is "what does the phrase 'link value' mean?

There may be a different answer in a slightly different context, but basically "how good the link is for your needs" would be roughly the answer.

How is it calculated?

Fundamentally and finally, it is 'secretly' calculated by search engine algorithms, but apparently takes into consideration a number of aspects - a couple of which are:

The 'LINK PATH' (who is linking to the page that the link is on - and who is linking to the page who is linking to the page that is linking to that page, etc. etc.) and whether that link path topic is relevant to that final link to your site. (How many and WHAT QUALITY sites are involved in that chain is a big part of the weight)

The 'ANCHOR TEXT' (what it says) - if the link says 'click here' is is unlikely to be of top (some, but not top) 'value' for getting you ranked for something like 'cheap televisions' (anchor text saying 'cheap televisions' would be better).

I hope that is a good starting point to answering your question (and is accurate!)