When discussing link-building strategies, internal links often get the short end of the stick. Why?
Many site owners and SEOs view internal links one-dimensionally: a hassle to create and less beneficial than backlinks.
However, they overlook that internal linking is just as critical for search engine optimization in its own right.
Don’t take it from me, here’s what John Mueller said:
“I think it’s one of the biggest things that you can do on a website to kind of guide Google and guide visitors to the pages that you think are important.“
Screenshot of John Mueller during the SEO Office-hours Hangout (March 4, 2022)
In other words, they benefit a website differently. For example, they boost the user experience by giving readers access to relevant content. These links also establish a website’s internal link structure, helping search engines understand the relationship between web pages.
Despite the benefits, one thing remains true. Building on-site links remains a physically demanding and time-consuming activity.
But automated internal links seek to change that.
Let’s talk about it here.
What are automated internal links?
Automated internal links are contextual links created within a website using a plugin or software.
Internal links are essential for SEO. These SEO tools help site owners manage their internal linking campaigns and automate the internal link-building process. This includes:
- Providing sitewide internal link suggestions
- Identifying the most significant SEO issues on the website
- Optimizing anchor texts
Using these automation tools alleviates the burden on website owners from going through blog posts to manually find linking opportunities. The main goal is to expedite the creation of a well-connected website, allowing site owners to focus on other tasks.
Benefits of automated internal linking
We brushed over some of the functionalities of automated link builders earlier. But we’ve yet to understand how valuable they are for a website. Here are some of the advantages of automating the internal linking process.
Enhance page authority and sitewide performance
One crucial aspect often overlooked about contextual links is they also pass on link juice or SEO value from the source to the target page, just like inbound links.
When site owners skimp on building relevant links, they miss out on boosting the PageRank of some related blog posts. This might limit their potential improvement in search engine rankings.
This changes when you have a tool by your side.
Internal linking plugins extract all possible internal link opportunities within a website. This maximizes the distribution of link equity, so no page gets left behind.
Streamline website navigation
An internal link strategy centers on interconnecting all relevant content. This is called a “content silo” or “topical cluster” strategy. It involves creating clusters of interrelated content that serve as informational hubs.
Interlinking within each silo is easy. Building links across different silos is a different story. According to inLinks, site owners miss 82% of internal linking opportunities. It’s not the same case when using software.
Internal linking tools can find hidden connections between seemingly distinct blog posts.
These powerful tools find viable anchor texts within the content body. Anchor texts then become placeholders for automatic link insertion.
By maintaining a well-connected website, websites can boost user navigation. This increases their dwell time and enhances user experience.
Uncover issues within the website
Some internal link plugins exceed expectations in boosting a website’s SEO performance. In addition to link suggestions, they may provide in-depth link reporting about website problems.
For example, some automated tools may show which links are dead or broken. Broken links are one of the most fatal errors on a website because they take users to nonexistent links. A tool may identify these links and suggest replacement URLs— a process called broken link building.
On the other hand, some tools may also reveal an issue with content, like having too many links per post. Take a look at the example below:
Screenshot taken from Google’s Spam Policies
Spamming your post with internal links can overwhelm users and cause decision fatigue. While some users might look past those links, others might exit your website. This balloons your bounce rate, affecting your site’s image in Google’s eyes.
Decrease labor cost
Investing in a tool is much more economical than maintaining an in-house team or outsourcing a freelancer to build internal links manually.
Here’s why:
People working in the human resources department are paid by the hour. Since finding and creating internal links in larger websites takes time, the process might take weeks to complete. Humans are also predisposed to fatigue, so reliability in quality might decline.
Conversely, SEO tools can extract all possible automatic link suggestions in a few minutes. Site owners need only accept or reject those opportunities, depending on their preference. Using an automatic linking tool, internal link-building will only take a few hours.
Case in point: Steve Hutt, CEO of eCommerce Fastlane, reviewed over 43,000 internal link suggestions using LinkStorm in only 2 hours.
Here’s what he had to say:
Screenshot provided by the author
Check out LinkStorm’s case study here.
In other words, you also save money aside from convenience.
Free up valuable resources
Piggybacking off the previous point, having an internal linking tool frees up your valuable resources. These are time, money, and energy.
Here’s how:
Time
Auto links take minutes to generate on a website. Doing this manually can take days or weeks. Site owners can then dedicate this available time to more income-generating activities. They also achieve their internal linking campaign goals much quicker.
Money
While internal linking plugins require an initial investment, they are more economical in the long run. You no longer need to maintain a group of SEO specialists to do your bidding. This means the money you’d have spent can be allocated to other business activities, like marketing.
Energy
Some tools, like Link Whisper and Internal Link Juicer, can be configured to embed links automatically when the text mentions a specific keyword. This automatic link insertion lets you dedicate your energy elsewhere.
Plus, you save energy from people management since no team is maintained. Site owners also don’t have to keep stressing about their internal linking structure because the tool does it on their behalf.
An internal link plugin lets you refocus your resources on more critical business facets.
Potential challenges of automated internal linking
It’s easy to fixate on the benefits of auto internal links without considering their drawbacks. These tools may have advanced features. However, mistakes can still negatively impact your internal linking strategy.
Take a look at the challenges of using internal linking tools:
Risk of irrelevant links
Many internal linking plugins only use “content matching” to find link opportunities. This means they depend on exact-match keywords in the content body to identify link connections between two web pages. Without these keywords, even contextually relevant pages might not be linked together.
If keywords are the only qualifying criteria for linking, the tools may suggest a connection between contextually irrelevant content. People clicking those links will be sent to blog posts that need to be consistent with their search journey.
If this happens, you risk ruining the user experience instead of enriching it.
Over-optimization
Internal linking plugins need to understand how many internal links per page are ideal.
The tool may embed countless links on a page. And this poses a problem.
The tool might end up embedding countless links on a page, which poses a problem. Too many on-page links can cause issues with content, such as decision fatigue or overwhelming UI. Moreover, they can also limit the distribution of link equity among linked pages.
A source page’s authority is equally distributed among its links. In other words, more outbound links mean each link receives a lower equity.
Lack of personalization
Unlike humans, we understand the nuances associated with language and content. Adding links is more complex than embedding the URL on a selected anchor text. Sometimes, we visit the content editor and modify the copy around a link to make the content more seamless and integrated.
Not many tools offer this capability.
Often, the tools offer automatic link suggestions, which site owners accept or reject accordingly.
Technical issues
Playing with tech always comes with associated risks. Internal linking tools are no exception.
If you encounter an issue-ridden tool with limited support, you risk ending up with a problematic website. For example, the accepted links may not lead to the intended destination, or the link may target the wrong anchor text.
When these issues happen, your only saving grace is having eager customer support to assist you.
Do you need automated internal links for your website?
Considering all the above pros and cons, do you feel compelled to invest in internal linking software?
It’s not as simple as a “yes” or “no” answer. It depends on many factors.
If you aim to improve your SEO and internal link structure as hassle-free as possible, then yes.
An automatic linking tool can help you achieve your link-building campaign goals faster. This can save manual work hours and improve performance. Humans are more likely to feel tired and be unable to keep up with the workload.
However, an automatic linking plugin may not be an option if you have a small website and few pieces of content. Tools may cause over-optimization or include irrelevant links. In this case, you may prefer internal linking yourself.
Whether or not you need automated internal links depends on your needs and goals.
Should you decide to invest in an internal links tool, explore the reminders written below:
Best practices for using internal linking tools
1. Understand your website’s structure
Studying your website’s content organization and contextual hierarchy before letting a tool do its magic is advisable.
By doing so, you can configure the tool to identify potential linking opportunities that are logical and consistent with your website’s original design. This also prevents the tool from suggesting (or warns you from accepting) link opportunities that are irrelevant or confusing.
To be safe, you may pick a tool that only considers contextual links. This way, the linking suggestions will only be limited to blog posts or resources.
2. Set clear goals
What are your specific objectives for using an automatic linking tool?
Do you aim to improve SEO, enhance user experience, or both? Whatever it is, having clear goals will guide which tool you select and how you will use it.
3. Choose a tool that ticks most of the boxes
Only some tools have all the bells and whistles you want in software or plugins. There will always be compromises, whether that be price, basic features, support, or something else.
Take a look at your fundamental reason for using an internal link builder.
Do you prefer absolute convenience? Do you want complete control over which link suggestions to accept? Is artificial intelligence integration your non-negotiable?
It all boils down to your preferences, needs, and the goals you set in #2.
4. Monitor and analyze results
The effectiveness of a tool is not measured by how many features it has. But by how it impacts your website and lets you achieve your goals.
It’s essential to track the performance of internal links regularly using in-app analytics tools (if they offer such). You may also use standalone tools like Google Analytics or Google Search Console.
Concentrate on SEO metrics like average SERP position to see if internal links increase visibility. Consider other parameters, too, such as time on site or dwell time, clicks, bounce rate, and page view per session.
5. Never leave everything up to the machine
Finally, if there’s one thing I’ve learned after using SEO tools, none are perfect. Even with artificial intelligence, they lack the “human touch.” The same story applies to internal linking tools.
While invaluable, don’t rely solely on automated internal link builders. Review the links manually and adjust them as needed, ensuring they are relevant, natural, and aligned with your goals.
Only when “machine” and “human” collide can you have an excellent tool at your disposal.
So, which internal linking tool are you getting?
