Internal linking is one of the tasks that all SEO experts agree is important, yet most of the time, neglected. But how to build those juicy internal links?
Some SEO experts suggest manual internal linking as being a solid SEO habit, but the question would be: wouldn’t that be a painful chore especially if the site has thousands of pages?
On the other hand, most internal linking tools that come with automated link insertion are prone to error. Blindly using them can actually create more problems, from duplicate links (imagine you had a hard-coded link in your post) to linking to the wrong destination pages, over-optimization, and unnatural link insertion (in the case of inserting links with AI).
Let’s confess, the automated internal linking tools come with their own benefits one of which is to “save you time and effort” from audit to actually building links but they are not foolproof and have to be used with care and moderation.
Automated link insertion is often powered by a Java Script link insertion script, meaning your links might be lost once you stop using those tools, like if you uninstall their plugin or unsubscribe. More to that, as you might already know most AI crawlers are not JavaScript enabled so if you want your links to be seen by AI search engines like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and else you would rather have hard-coded internal links than JS-inserted ones.
I think everyone can agree that manually auditing and creating internal links is a real pain so let’s see how SEOs are building internal links these days.
Manual Linking: (Still!) the Gold Standard
A lot of SEO professionals still build internal links manually. Why?
Because it works.
You can keep a list of pages you would like to boost and manually link to those when writing or creating new pages. A very simple, but yet effective solution.
Manually interlinking your pages comes with a few benefits:
- Keep the context natural
- Choose relevant anchor text
- Avoid linking to junk or irrelevant pages
The only downside is that it can get really painful when your site starts growing or in case the site you are optimizing has a lot of pages. But that pain, or better say the required effort, could be exactly why Google might reward it. It’s a quality signal (they know you did the hard work.)
Semi-Automation: The Happy Middle Ground
Most SEO professionals aren’t these days doing everything manually anymore. They’re using AI, automation, and tools such as specialized internal linking software, like Twylu to audit and suggest internal links, then manually reviewing and placing the ones that make sense.
Here are some of the tools you can use for a Semi-automation interlinking of your pages:
- Twylu: It does a great job at crawling your entire site and then auditing existing internal links, suggesting new internal links, and finding internal linking issues. Twylu is extremely affordable and gives 15,000 credits per month with the entry $29 solo plan. You can go through Twylu’s internal link suggestions, or issues it finds and add them as a Task using its Task management feature. Then you can manually build the suggested internal links if they fit well and when you mark a task as done, Twylu will recrawl the page and let you know if the implementation has any issues if not it improves the IAS (Internal Authority Score) of the page which is Twylu’s unique way to monitor your progress or find pages that need help with internal links.
- Screaming Frog: Run a full site crawl, search your content for keywords, and scan for linking opportunities. You might need to enable JavaScript rendering as if the site uses one of those internal linking tools that automatically insert internal links using JavaScript you might miss those links in your analysis. Moreover, with JS-enabled crawling, you can even preview the page layout without opening the page on your browser every time.
- Custom-built Scripts: You can even create your own internal linking script to crawl, audit, find, and suggest internal links but why invent the wheel again when there are many great tools out there that are specifically built for this?
When using a semi-automated internal linking approach, focus on boosting underperforming pages by linking from your high-authority pages.
Full Automation: Scalable, Fragile, and Risky
If you’ve got thousands of pages or if you manage multiple sites, manual internal linking might not be the best approach or scalable or even manageable.
That’s where automation tools come into your help:
- Twylu – Again your best bet is to automate internal link auditing and suggestion with a task management feature, you can hire a VA to implement the changes for you, and Twylu task management will tell you if they have implemented the changes correctly. It’s not based on JS link insertion so the internal links will stay even if you stop using Twylu.
- Link Whisper (WordPress) – A popular tool that scans your content and suggests internal links. Some users find its suggestions hit-or-miss, especially with awkward anchor text.
- LinkBoss – Reportedly better than Link Whisper when it comes to relevancy and natural-sounding suggestions.
- Linkstorm – Another automation tool some users mentioned as helpful.
- Related Articles Sections – Some CMS platforms or AI-based plugins automatically recommend 2–3 related articles at the bottom of each post. One user on a Reddit thread has said they’ve racked up 57K internal links on their site with this approach without lifting a finger. But be aware that these related articles might be as effective as the internal links placed within the content of the site.
- Breadcrumb Navigation – Great for e-commerce and large blogs with hierarchical structures. Adds internal links automatically to every page of the website but these links are not contextual links they are more of the navigational kind.
The key? Use automation to audit internal links and identify opportunities, not as a blind linking machine. Let it surface the options. You still get the final say.
What Actually Works (and What to Avoid)
A few tips that I think most SEO professionals agree on when it comes to internal linking:
- Don’t link just for the sake of it: Linking to low-quality or irrelevant pages won’t help and might even hurt.
- Be selective: Too many internal links on a page dilute the value each link passes. Focus on your top 20–30 pages that actually have a shot at ranking.
- Use exact-match anchor text but wisely: Especially for competitive terms.
- Don’t ignore the alt text and anchor associations: Google sometimes associates the wrong page with a keyword. Strategic internal links can fix that.
Check out my other blog post with a complete list of internal linking mistakes to avoid.
What’s the Best Way to Build Internal Links?
Let’s face it just like anything else, internal linking won’t come with a one-size-fits-all solution. The choice of manual vs. semi-automation, vs. fully automation might depend on various factors including the number of pages your site has:
- If you have only up to 100 pages, a manual should be the best way, you might only want to use a tool like Twylu to surface your internal linking opportunities and issues.
- If you have over 1,000 pages a semi-automation might be necessary. But still, focus your attention on a couple of pages that have the best chance to improve with internal links and avoid just building internal links to the pages that won’t have any chance of rankings anyway. Again certainly using a tool that can help you audit your internal links, find issues, and suggest new internal links will be vital.
- If you have over 100,00 pages, you would better try to automate the discovery phase using an internal link auditing tool like Twylu and spending your time on high-impact linking.
Always remember that internal links are not just for the sake of SEO, they also should add value for the site’s readers. If the internal links you add are helpful for the users, relevant to the context of the both source and destination pages, and naturally placed within the content of the designation page, you’re doing it right.
How are you handling internal links on your blog? Do you have a favorite tool, workflow, or rule of thumb? Share your setup in the comments.
Let me know if you’d like any features to be added to Twylu, we are all ear at Twylu and will listen to the users to improve your platform. Our goal is always to be the #1 internal linking tool for SEO teams of any size, big or small.
