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Internal link building is one of those boring SEO tasks every site builder knows that they should be doing, but frequently neglect.
I've definitely been guilty of that over the years.
There's a bunch of ways to do it, but there's no way around it- it's a boring obligation.
So, when Spencer Haws from NichePursuits released Link Whisper over a year ago, my ears perked up.
I bought it immediately. It was the perfect solution I needed at the time- a quick, automatic way to implement internal linking.
So What Does Link Whisper Do?
Link Whisper is a WordPress plugin that lets you quickly create tons of targeted, keyword-rich internal links.
While the primary benefit everyone's looking for is is increased organic search traffic, internal links can improve some other important things as well.
Things like user experience, session duration, pages per session, email sign-ups, etc.
Generally, user engagement and conversion stats should improve as you invite visitors to delve deeper into your content.
Spencer Haws, Link Whisper Creator
Proof: Internal Links Matter
But the big, potential win is their SEO benefit.
Ahrefs recently published a case study demonstrating how Ninja Outreach increased search traffic by 40% just through internal linking:
Credit: Ahrefs.com
Ahrefs explains that:
"Internal links also aid the flow of PageRank around your site. That’s a big deal. Generally speaking, the more internal links a page has, the higher it’s PageRank. However, it’s not all about quantity; the quality of the link also plays a vital role."
Besides helping Google discover your content, internal linking confers 'link equity' to your pages, helping them to rank higher in the search engines.
Video Overview: How It Works
What I Like
Easy to quickly add automatic internal links
You can see that when you install Link Whisper and navigate to Auto Linking, you'll get a view like this below (click to enlarge):
You can choose a keyword and select what you want it to link to (1 and 2).
Every time the word "marketing" (3) is mentioned, for example, I'm linking to a post about marketing templates.
This also works going forward: every time I mention "marketing" in a future post, it will link to that marketing template.
You can also limit the number of times a keyword is linked from a Post. For example, if you mention the word "marketing" 50 times in a single Post, you don't want to link EVERY single time it's mentioned.
Post specific suggestions
Within every individual Post view, beneath the content editor, you'll get some suggestions for internal links to add from the post:
In this example Link Whisper is suggesting that the term "home kit" from the post I'm working on link to another post on my website.
You can even toggle the "Only Show Link Suggestions in the Same Category as This Post" option so that your internal linking is "silo style".
That is to say, you only link to Posts within a certain Category and not outside of it.
To be honest, I don't use this feature much. Mainly because I installed Link Whisper on mature websites with lots of content.
This feature is more useful if you're actively publishing and can incorporate the internal linking into your standard publication process.
I find it's easier to use the Auto Linking feature rather than modify hundreds of existing posts one by one.
Plus, I can get more creative with link anchor text using the Auto method than this Post-specific style, which can sometimes lack sufficient link suggestions.
Lifetime links
If you deactivate Link Whisper, the links stay live.
That's a great feature.
In my case, I have a 3-site license and for smaller sites.
I'll sometimes install it and quickly get 50 internal links created, before deleting the plugin and reactivating it on one of my primary sites.
What I Don’t Like
Auto suggestions
Link Whisper's automatic suggestions can be kind of weak.
I don't really use this feature too much. I prefer to define my own anchor text and generate the internal link opportunities that way.
Sometimes you'll Publish a post that's highly related to other content on your site and Link Whisper will provide somewhat anemic internal link opportunities.
However, Link Whisper gets a lot of updates, so it's likely that this feature will improve. I purchased it right at the beginning and I've seen its capabilities improve dramatically over the past year and change.
Not a 'one click' solution
This is good and bad.
A lot of people might expect a completely turnkey solution.
This is pretty close to being that. But, really, you do want to spend some time choosing which keywords link where.
Because it's not just about 'SEO' value.
Say you're selling SEO services, for example.
If you have one page on your site that earns you a ton of money, say a 'contact form', you'd want to prioritize sending traffic to that page rather than linking to some random Post you wrote 4 years ago that earns you nothing.
If this were completely automated, you'd end up randomly linking within your site and sacrifice an important revenue opportunity.
Read More Of My Niche Reports
Summing Up
Link Whisper provides a pretty handy solution for a mundane SEO task.
If you're looking for an actionable quick win to get more search traffic to your site and improve user engagement statistics, it gets my unreserved recommendation.
Last Updated on August 18, 2021 by Ryan Nelson