How to make the best internal links?

[Frequencies]

I once read somewhere that you can better create internal links manually terms SEO instead of using a plugin. What are the disadvantages besides that your site is slower with a plugin?

To avoid a slow loading site, I prefer to minimize plugins. But an internal link plugin can save a lot of time at a larger website. I also place related post manually because I can not find a quick plugin. What do you think is the fastest/best internal link plugin?

Thank you in advance!

 

[CCarter]

It depends on the plugin, here are the most common scenarios:

1. Javascript plugin - this applies the links AFTER the page loads. Meaning they are not actually "<a></a>" links, so Google does not pick them up for SEO.

Most plugins do this, you can check by disabling javascript then visiting the post that was suppose to be interlinked. If there are no links - that means you are using a javascript plugin. The advantage of this is for usability to create links that Google doesn't render (member login areas). But it can be used as a form of "cloaking".

Now-a-days Google has started indexing javascript, so there is very little cloaking benefit left - unless you know what you are doing. If you want the SEO benefit - don't use javascript plugins. If you don't care about the SEO benefit but just want the usability benefit, then use javascript plugins.

2. Post modification plugins - these are ones that edit the post on your behalf and insert links within the actual post. They'll never show up on-run time, they work within the backend. These are great for SEO benefits. When disabling javascript you should be able to see these links within your post still.

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Final Note: All interlinking should be silo-ed and done by hand. Trust me. You should be interlinking as you are implementing and reading the content created. The reason is so you understand what the user's mood is like and what best article will help capture that mood. There is an emotional aspect to interlinking for the user's standpoint. Most people completely miss this, even though the user is the one buying products. People do it more for SEO, which creates a bad user experience just because people are lazy.

What I do is have a spreadsheet of all my articles and posts, and have columns which correspond with the rowID to know what article interlinks with what article. I silo my content for maximum SEO benefit, but I do all this by hand since throwing up an article is not my style. There is a style, rhythm, and vibration to everything - everything is an art form, converting a visitor into a buying customer is an art - interlinking is A CRUCIAL component to this art, a plugin cannot mimic art.

Notice how I link to BruceClay's siloing article - why cause I know there are people that have no idea what "siloing" means even though they've heard of it. And once they read about it, their minds are going to explode since they'll understand how Google understands their website - Get into the reader's mind, and understand where they are at, then link properly to content - It would be better for interlinking if I had a siloing article already prepared and then link to mine onsite instead of outbound - but outbound also shows I'm willing to give my users information from a trusted source.

So would I use an interlinking plugin - for parasites or tiered sites yes - for money site, HELL NO!

 

[Frequencies]

Thanks for the detailed explanation and tips. Am currently busy sorting of keywords in a spreadsheet. Hereafter I will make the site structure in a spreadsheet and will continue to make the links manually.

 

[Devil Anse]

Do it by hand as you go. Link to pages you want to rank or send traffic towards. If the page you just published is one of those, search your old pages and add links to them to the new one. Simple as that. Use anchors that get people to click or ones that use the words you want to rank for.