Internal linking has always been one of the most underrated approaches for search engine optimization.
With content marketing and link-building taking the spotlight, it’s easy for SEOs and website owners to leave internal linking on the back burner. And for good reason!
Unlike building backlinks, internal linking has a more muted impact on SEO while still being equally labor-intensive and time-consuming.
That’s where automated internal linking swoops in.
Today, let’s look at the good and bad of automating internal links and, more importantly, discover the best tool for this process.
What Is Internal Linking?
Internal linking is the systematic process of creating interconnections between web pages under a single domain.
As opposed to external or inbound links that involve external websites, internal links are, as the name suggests, purely operate within a website.
What is Automated Internal Linking
Automated internal linking uses specialized software or tools to speed up the process of finding internal link opportunities within a site.
This process modernizes the traditional procedure of manually creating internal links that positively impact a website’s SEO performance.
Internal links come in various formats, but the most common are contextual links. These contextual links support a user’s search journey by providing additional resources regarding their search query.
Internal Links and Search Engine Optimization
Aside from serving users’ search interests, internal links directly impact search engine optimization.
Internal links transfer PageRank or link juice from the source to the linked page, boosting the page authority of the target URL. Studies show a good correlation between page authority and search rankings.
Googlebot also uses internal links as entry points for crawling and indexing websites, indirectly impacting SEO. After all, how can web pages rank on Google if they are not indexed in the first place?
The Good: Benefits of Automated Internal Linking
There’s no question. Internal links matter for SEO.
However, there’s one problem: internal linking takes time and money.
But automated internal linking seeks to change this. Below, you’ll find the advantages of automating the internal linking process.
1. Speeds up the internal linking process
The most significant advantage of using an internal linking software is unrivaled convenience.
Automated internal linking tools liberate users from manually scanning websites and finding internal links. If done manually, creating pertinent interconnections among pages may take weeks or months for some large sites with multiple web pages.
Meanwhile, armed with software, web admins can find internal links within minutes. Moreover, these internal linking tools are powered by complex algorithms that find internal links that would have otherwise been buried in hindsight.
2. Cost-effective in the long run
It’s no secret that automated internal linking tools, like other SaaS, require upfront costs. While this adds an additional burden in the short run, digital tools eventually prove more cost-effective.
In this case, automated internal linking software does in a snap what even experts would take quite some time to complete. Instead of spending valuable hours, website owners can focus more on their business’s revenue-generating activities. As the old adage goes, “Time is money.”
Since the tool does almost everything, users can also build internal links themselves— no need to hire an in-house marketer or a third-party SEO team to do your bidding.
3. Consistency and accuracy
Even if a website owner succeeds in manually building internal links on a site, it is not guaranteed that they have extracted every viable internal link opportunity.
Humans are predisposed to commit human errors. The more time spent on a menial task, the higher the chances of making mistakes. In this case, failing to maximize all possible internal links on a website.
On the other hand, digital tools are less likely to commit errors. Unlike humans, their efficiency and accuracy remain top-notch for hours on end. Automated tools extract all possible internal link opportunities in a site.
The Bad: Disadvantages of Internal Linking Software
While automated internal linking tools have perks, they may not always be ideal for a site owner. Below, we’ll look at the disadvantages of internal linking software:
1. Upfront subscription cost
We’ve already talked about this above, but it deserves another mention on this list.
Using automated internal linking tools involves upfront costs. While these tools are cost-effective in the long term, the initial cost may be a heavy burden for many small and medium businesses.
For example, a business owner on a tight budget is better off using the money as a runway instead of investing in tools. Conversely, site owners may use the funding for activities with more SEO value, like link-building or content marketing.
Investing the company’s last dime or runway budget on tools is ill-advised.
2. Necessity depends on the website’s scale
Having internal linking software at your behest is always good.
But is it always necessary? No.
The necessity of an automated internal linking tool increases as the website grows. This entails having more content and web pages making up the site’s overall structure.
Buying software may be unnecessary if you have less than 100 websites. Site owners can always manually build internal links, completing the process relatively quickly.
However, an automated tool alleviates the pain of internal linking if you’re a blogger or news site managing thousands of web pages.
Don’t get me wrong.
I’m not pointing out the efficacy but rather the necessity of owning a tool. If your budget allows, you can always invest in internal linking tools regardless of your website’s scale.
3. Limited Control and Flexibility
Despite their sophistication, internal linking software still requires human participation to be used effectively. No technology gives internal linking tools “cruise control” to manage internal links independently according to your SEO campaign.
Indiscriminate use of internal linking tools takes your control and flexibility over your strategy. As a result, you might miss opportunities for creative linking or struggle to tailor the linking approach for specific content types.
Moreover, internal linking software uses your existing web pages and content as the ingredients for linking. In other words, the tool is limited by your website’s available content and anchor texts.
Humans can easily create content or write extra copy that allows contextual links to be inserted. On the other hand, being entirely dependent on automated tools removes this sense of creativity from users. This may cause users to miss some linking opportunities between relevant pages if no prominent anchor texts connect them.
Users must still be ‘one with the tool’ for the best results.
The Best: Which Tech Stands Above the Rest?
Today, countless internal linking tools are already flooding the SEO marketplace. Each one has its respective pros and cons.
Sadly, many existing software merely add internal linking to their whole feature set rather than developing specialized tools. In other words, automating the internal linking process is simply an afterthought added to the original program, not its primary goal.
We’ve reviewed tons of internal linking software and found one to stand above the rest: LinkStorm.
Unlike its competitors, LinkStorm integrates AI into its core algorithm. This allows the tool to suggest highly relevant internal links between web pages using machine learning and semantic analysis. The tool can spot viable placeholders for contextually relevant links, even without anchor texts or seed keywords on the content.
Users may also use the Issues tab in LinkStorm to examine their site’s internal linking problems. This includes broken links, redirects, and links with no-follow attributes.
The Anchor tab shows users all the anchor texts used on the site for external and internal links, which site owners can use to optimize anchor texts.
Finally, the Links tab lists all of the internal and external links on the site, plus the anchor text used for those links.
Instead of an add-on, LinkStorm is a specialized tool dedicated strictly to internal linking efforts. This, and all its features, elevated it from the competition.
In Conclusion
With AI’s advent, automation will soon take over the digital marketing landscape. The rise of automated internal linking tools is proof of that rapid advancement.
Automated internal linking is a massive leap forward aimed at helping website owners manage their internal linking campaigns. While it has considerable benefits, internal linking software also has disadvantages.
Your participation as a user will be crucial in mitigating these drawbacks while maximizing the results.
Should you pursue an internal linking software for your business, compare the available tools and find one that perfectly suits your needs (and budget!).
Happy linking!
