Looking for the best internal linking plugins to help improve your SEO?
I remember the tedious days of manually searching through old posts to add relevant internal links. It wasn't fun at all. That's precisely why I started using internal linking plugins for my WordPress sites about seven years ago.
Since then, I've helped thousands of website owners improve their search engine optimization (SEO) through better internal linking strategies. The right plugin can automatically suggest and add relevant links, improve your site structure, and help search engines understand your content better.
I've researched and tested the most popular internal linking plugins on the market to bring you this carefully curated list. These plugins stand out for their ease of use, effectiveness, and ability to save you precious time while boosting your SEO.
In This Article
The Importance of Internal Links in SEO
Internal links are links between pages or posts on your site, and they play a huge role in on-page SEO because, among other things, they:
- Pass PageRank (SEO value)
- Give search engines topical context of a page
- Contribute to site architecture
- Give users a better experience
- Help increase time on page
- Improves crawlability and results in better indexing
Internal links are more important than they’re usually given credit for. But they’re a powerful way to boost your SEO, which is why you'll find them on every on-page SEO checklist out there.
While WordPress provides an easy way to add links to your blog posts and pages, it’s a manual method. This means it is time-consuming and can increase the chances of you missing an opportunity to link to an important page.
And that’s why having an internal linking plugin comes in handy. It helps ensure you can strategically add links between your posts and pages, even at scale.
How I Selected the Internal Linking Plugins
When recommending internal linking plugins, I always focus on a few key factors:
- Diverse use cases: We know one size doesn't fit all. That's why we included tools that excel at tasks like suggesting links, optimizing existing ones, automating link insertion, or showcasing related content.
- Hands-on testing: We only recommend plugins we've personally used on WPBeginner or thoroughly tested on demo sites. We also factor in real-user feedback to ensure reliability.
- User-friendly design: Since the goal is to save you time, we prioritized plugins with intuitive interfaces that are easy to use.
7 Best Internal Linking Plugins for WordPress: Our Expert Picks
We’ve curated a list of expertly picked WordPress plugins to help make internal linking easy. This will boost your on-page SEO and drive more traffic to your site. Let’s dive right into it, shall we?
1. All In One SEO (AIOSEO)
AIOSEO is a powerful yet easy-to-use SEO plugin that has been downloaded over 100 million times. Millions of smart business owners use AIOSEO to help them boost their search engine rankings and drive qualified site traffic.
For step-by-step instructions on how to install AIOSEO, check out our installation guide.
One feature that makes this possible is Link Assistant.
Link Assistant is an AI-powered tool that crawls your website and provides a detailed report of the links on your WordPress website and the number of internal links, outbound links, and affiliate links on your site. It also shows you the number of orphaned pages you have, so you can create links to and from them.
However, Link Assistant does more than audit the links on your site. It also shows you internal linking opportunities under the Links Report.
Once you click on the Linking Opportunities tab, the report shows you all the outbound internal and inbound internal links you can add to your posts. It also shows you the exact phrase and the anchor text on which Link Assistant will create the link.
If everything looks good, all it takes to add the link is to click the Add Link button. If you need to edit the anchor text or move the link to a better phrase, simply click the pencil icon, and you can edit the anchor text. You don’t even need to open the blog post in editor mode.
Link Assistant makes finding internal links a breeze. Plus, it gives you complete control of your internal link building, making it the most powerful internal linking plugin for WordPress.
For step-by-step instructions, check out our guide on using Link Assistant. It's a huge time-saver for your internal linking.
Pricing: Starts at $49.60. Free version available.
2. MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, designed to help you track your site's metrics. It also has a Popular Post option that highlights your best articles. Using the Inline Popular Post feature, you can effortlessly display top-performing blog posts within your content, making it easier for you to create strategic internal links.
Beyond just display, MonsterInsights provides crucial insights for your internal linking strategy. It offers reports detailing which areas of your site need more links and helps identify your most engaging pages through detailed analytics. While it doesn't directly manage link suggestions and placements, its comprehensive data on user behavior and page performance is invaluable for strategic link placement.
I found MonsterInsights' greatest strength to be tracking affiliate and outbound link clicks, which helped me better understand user interaction. This data informs my link-building strategy, as I use it to create links from high-traffic pages to those that I want to drive traffic to.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $99.60. Free version also available.
3. Link Whisper
Link Whisper is a premium WordPress plugin designed to help automate internal link building on your site. The plugin is easy to use and works right inside the WordPress editor.
Link Whisper suggests relevant internal links as you type your content. It can also help you find orphan pages and posts and then suggests links to add to them. The plugin also gives detailed reports of all the links on your site, including all internal and external links plus broken links.
With Link Whisper, you can build strategic internal links quickly, helping to boost your content to the top of the SERPs.
Pricing: Starts at $77 for a single site license.
4. Internal Link Juicer
Internal Link Juicer is another WordPress internal linking plugin to have on your radar. It’s a free plugin making it a great alternative if you’re on a shoestring budget. However, despite being free, it’s still an excellent tool for automatically building internal links in your content.
You can add specific keywords and phrases in the plugin, and it will automatically add links for you. This has the advantage of giving you more control over your internal links. For example, it helps you diversify your anchor text, ensuring all links are natural and don’t appear computer-generated.
Internal Link Juicer also lets you blacklist and whitelist specific posts from internal linking. It also allows you to limit the number of links per post.
Pricing: Free.
5. Rank Math
Rank Math is another WordPress SEO plugin that comes with basic features that help boost your internal link building strategy.
Like AIOSEO, the plugin scans your website for links and looks for internal linking opportunities. Unlike AIOSEO, however, Rank Math's link builder isn’t automatic, it’s manual. Linking suggestions are shown in your WordPress content editor, then you have to manually copy the suggested link and insert it into your text.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $59/year.
6. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is another popular WordPress SEO plugin designed to help users optimize their sites to rank high in search results. The plugin also features a basic internal linking tool for premium users. The tool scans your content for internal links and checks for linking opportunities.
Yoast, like Rank Math, does not automate internal link building. Instead, it offers linking suggestions, and then you copy the suggested link and embed it in your post.
Not sure which WordPress plugin to choose between AIOSEO, Yoast, and Rank Math?
Here's a detailed comparison of Yoast vs. Rank Math vs. AIOSEO to help you see which is the clear winner.
Pricing: $99/year for the core plugin. Addons are purchased separately.
7. YARPP
YARPP (Yet Another Related Posts Plugin) is a free and effective solution for automating internal linking by showcasing your top content. As your website expands, essential pages can get lost. YARPP ensures they remain visible to visitors and easily discoverable by search engines through automatically generated related content sections.
This plugin stands out by allowing you to display not just related pages but also blog posts, media files, and even calls to action, all contributing to a richer internal link structure. YARPP is user-friendly, offering customizable algorithms to determine related content and pre-built themes that can be tailored to your site's design.
While YARPP excels at automatically displaying related posts at the end of articles, encouraging deeper user exploration and thus indirect internal linking, it offers less direct control over specific internal linking strategies than other tools. The links are presented as suggestions rather than directly embedded within the post content, meaning the SEO benefit for internal linking is primarily indirect.
The Best Internal Linking Plugin for WordPress: Your FAQs Answered
What is an internal linking plugin?
An internal linking plugin is designed to help website owners and developers manage and optimize internal links within their websites. It facilitates connecting different pages or posts within the same site to enhance navigation and SEO.
Why is internal linking important for SEO?
Internal linking is crucial for SEO as it helps search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your website. It also distributes page authority and helps users navigate through your content, improving user experience.
Which are the best internal linking plugins for WordPress?
All In One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best internal linking plugin for WordPress. It uses AI to parse your site and identify linking opportunities. Plus, you can add internal links automatically without opening the pages in editing mode.
The Best Internal Linking Plugins for WordPress: Our Top Pick
Our top pick for the best internal linking plugin for WordPress is AIOSEO. The plugin has a powerful AI-powered algorithm that discovers linking opportunities and suggests the perfect placement. And because link insertion is automatic, scaling your internal linking is a breeze.
Besides internal link building, AIOSEO is packed with several user-friendly and powerful on-page SEO tools, like an SEO title tag generator, meta descriptions tools, and checklists to improve readability. With AIOSEO, you reduce the plugin count on your site while powering it for success.
We hope this post helped you find the best internal linking plugin for WordPress. You may also want to check out other articles on our blog, like our ultimate link building guide or our tutorial on starting a small business blog.
For additional resource on improving your on-page SEO, check out the following articles:
- How to Write SEO Title Tags
- How to Write Meta Descriptions
- What Is a Slug in SEO?
- Best Permalink Structure for WordPress
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