Plugins for linking a WordPress blog. Linking pages for a blog on WordPress

Hello, dear friends.

I haven’t written anything on the blog for a long time and this has greatly affected the rate of repeat visits.

I’m starting to improve and in this article I will do an analysis and comparison of the most popular solutions on the market of automatic linking plugins for WordPress.

I already did a similar type of article, where I looked at it and this article quite well attracts traffic to the site and helps you choose the most convenient and successful plugin for your site.

I hope that this material will have a similar response. In any case, when there are a lot of solutions, in addition to the usual consideration of plugins, it is also worth making a final verdict in a comparison article in order to decide which plugin is better for website promotion.

So, you can see the list of the most popular solutions in the field of automatic linking for the WordPress engine and the order of their analysis in the content.

This is the list of solutions that I will analyze. There are also other plugins, but I consider these 3 additions to be the most common and I must discuss them, since a situation occurs when a beginner, instead of filling the site with content, begins to delve into everything himself and eventually settles on a plugin that does not need in settings. But in fact, this is bad, because the settings help set the plugin the tasks that we should extract from its work.

In my analysis, I will be guided by many factors:

The most important thing is that I will rely on the click-through rate parameter. A plugin that will provide the maximum number of clicks on links and will be in first place, even if the other parameters are unsatisfactory, since clickability = maximum efficiency;
Functionality for customization to perform the necessary tasks;
Load and clogging of the site itself (extra code and so on).

Now, in fact, let’s move on to the analysis itself and start with the linking plugin, which is on my website and is located on the first point of content of this material.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Many may think that because of its superiority over other solutions, I installed this plugin for myself. But that's not true. Yes, it works well and copes with its tasks, but there are also disadvantages that I really like now. Therefore, do not rush to install it right away if you have not studied this article to the very end.

The only indisputable advantage of the YARPP plugin is the constant analysis of existing and new materials based on the criterion of their similarity to each other in order to place only relevant records in the block of similar posts. This is undoubtedly a plus, since the visitor is unlikely to be interested in links to articles that are not relevant to his problem. He only needs thematic materials that can solve his problem or provide additional information on the issue he is looking for. But there is a drawback in the work of such an analysis, since the plugin does not always place thematic materials in its block. The fact is that it analyzes the text of the article and compares it with the text of other articles. But a situation may happen when in the text of some article you use a word (phrase) relevant to some material and it will connect such an article with another. As a result, such material will not be thematic, but all because in the text we they used a lot of relevant words (which were needed) and they made the article, in the opinion of the plugin, relevant to some material.
I can give the following example:
There is an article about plugins for WordPress, in which we use the name of the engine many times. This is logical. And there is other material, for example about instructions for logging into the admin panel of the same engine. It is logical to also use a large number of occurrences of the engine name in this article. Most likely, this will happen when writing content.
Thus, the plugin will link these texts as relevant from the point of view of search engines. But this will not play any role in terms of click-through rate, since the link will not be of interest to the user. The materials are on different topics.

I really didn’t like this moment when I saw a similar situation in myself. Due to the large number of similar words in both articles, the plugin considered them relevant. Although there was at least one material on the topic of a similar article and it could replace the last link in a block of similar posts, which would be 100% correct from the point of view of effective linking.
The second advantage is that the plugin code is quite clean, which saves the site from unnecessary garbage in the page source code. Apart from the line pointing to the path to the plugin styles file, there is nothing else and that’s good.

Now about the cons.

So, we are done with the first plugin. Let's move on to the next one.

WordPress related posts

Honestly, knowing all the intricacies of these plugins, I would now switch to it because it allows you to more flexibly manage a block of similar posts. This is one of its main advantages, which we now move on to describe.

I don’t really want to talk about the shortcomings, since I can only highlight the addition of a small piece of code to the source code of the page.

The red frame highlights the code that is always added using standard engine tools. The green frame highlights the styles that are written in the source code if we use the edit styles item in the plugin settings menu, as I showed earlier.

But such a small additional code is nothing compared to the capabilities that this solution provides, namely the independent selection of records for a block of similar materials. If you use this moment correctly, you can reap good fruits even without manual linking.

Well, now about the last plugin.

Conclusion

As I already wrote in the lines above, I will not recommend the last plugin. But you can work with the first linking plugins for WordPress.

There are 2 options here:

Maximum efficiency;
Lazy.

The most effective option is provided by the second Related posts plugin, since you can choose similar posts for each piece of content on the site. This is cool, both from the point of view of maximum clickability to achieve the most powerful efficiency, and for the constant improvement of automatic linking. First, we put one list of records. Next, we analyze their clickability through analytics systems (for example, Yandex Metrics). If no one clicks on a link, we immediately change it to another thematic one and again monitor its effectiveness. In this way, you can constantly improve your site, which will certainly affect your positions in search engines.
The lazy option involves using the Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, since you will not need to select the required list of similar materials in the block after the text. The advantage is that the plugin analyzes all materials and links them according to the criterion of relevance, but it may not link in exactly the way we need (I wrote about this above). Therefore, there will not always be correct links in the block of similar posts. In addition, they cannot be changed. Of course, you can set a rigid value for the similarity criterion in the plugin and then it is more likely that relevant posts will be included, but then there is a high probability that very often in all articles there will be only one thumbnail for similar material.

I installed this plugin and so far I don’t regret it. Although, if now there was a choice between Related posts and YARPP, then my choice would fall on the first without any doubt. But then you will have to work more on the site in terms of automatic linking, since new materials are constantly being added and you will need to edit blocks in existing articles. More suitable articles will appear. You constantly need to choose the most successful links.

Ideally, you need to add a separate person for this task. You can do it yourself, but it’s quite stressful. If you are ready to sacrifice such forces for the sake of efficiency, then, as they say, “welcome”. If not, then install YARPP and the automatic process is guaranteed.

I'm not saying anything about the third plugin. There is no selection of your own list of records or determination of relevance and construction of a block of similar records based on its analysis. Everything is arranged arbitrarily. This option is suitable in 2 cases:

If you have a new website and need to speed up page indexing;
If every day a lot of materials are added to a resource that need to be quickly indexed. So that the search robot can quickly detect them all and put them into the index, it should constantly show new entries, which will randomly and constantly appear in other materials where the robot visits.

So, the conclusion in brief: we want maximum efficiency - we use Related posts, setting up our list of the most effective links, constantly monitoring click statistics and thereby improving automatic linking. We want to automate this process, install YARPP.

Personally, I recommend working with Related posts, but this is only on the condition that you use its capabilities and do not just leave the plugin to work by itself. For beginners, this option may be difficult. If you are not confident in your strengths and motivation, then only YARPP.

Well then, friends. Here is a comparison article. Maybe I haven’t touched on some other popular plugins in this industry. It’s just that these are the ones I met most often. As well as the most instructions on them, I also saw the most examples of use on various sites.

If there are any other plugins worthy of attention, then write in the comments, and I will make separate detailed manuals for them describing all the intricacies of the work. And, if the plugin is worthy of attention, I will add it to the list of this article and add it to the comparison.

By the way, what plugin do you use for automatic linking?

Well then. The material has come to an end. I look forward to your opinions in the comments. If you liked this option for presenting the material (comparison article), then share the article with your friends on social networks and leave your ratings using the rating below.

And next up is another comparison material on plugins in the area of article ratings. There are also many solutions here and you need to choose something from their abundance.

That's it, guys. See you in the next article.

Best regards, Konstantin Khmelev!

For SEO (optimization to rank higher in search results), links play a decisive role. Well, almost, because every month search bots are getting smarter and smarter (I’m sure that if AI appears, it will be the grandson of the search bot). But what to do when linking all your articles manually is difficult, time-consuming and tedious... but it’s necessary.

Terms Descriptions — A plugin for a website powered by WordPress is designed to automatically add links to the body of an already published (and unpublished) article using certain words (terms).

In other words, it looks for the word you specify in all previously published articles (and when a new one is published) and replaces it with the link.

Download and install:

Through the admin panel: Plugins -> Add new: Terms Descriptions(install, activate);
Or download: From off. site - Terms Descriptions (move and unzip to your_site/wp-content/plugins).

Description Terms Descriptions (TD)

Completely in Russian;
Does not load the hosting (the load is only during link building - terms);
The ability to change the display of a link, highlight it separately, make it different from, for example, “manual” links;
Easy setup, but

You can cause trouble, more on that below...

Detailed TD setting

So, installed and activated.

A corresponding button will appear in the WP settings admin panel.

Let's move on: “Terms” -> Settings

Target: automatically replace words with corresponding links in all articles (past and future), replace just one word in an article.

How is this configured...

« Convert first» — one word converted in text in one link. Otherwise - the corresponding number of times. “-1” — all specified words.

Only such settings are justified in the eyes of the CEO. Otherwise, interest in them from search engines decreases. Reference duplicates are very harmful! I saw how a friendly site fell under the Yandex filter because of them. All pages except the main page were excluded from the search.

But it is possible that you need to force the user to follow a specific link. In this case, we think about the risks. Should such a page be blocked from search engines first?

« Open link in new new tab"—open the link in a new window. Useful when the user forgets to close the page from which he came. And the search engine will take into account the time, saying that he stayed on this page for a long time, which means it is good.

(If you use Google Analyst: I experimentally confirmed the above. The percentage of “refuses” decreased by 10%).

« Parser“Many people are puzzled. It’s simple: in the second case, it also takes into account parentheses (php, in which WP is written, has a special attitude towards parentheses; in this case, another, more “heavy” search function for future terms is enabled). In the third: advantage to shorter terms. We choose: “Simple parser”.

! "Change"

How to set up terms in Terms: Terms Descriptions

1. I have an article “The best premium template for WordPress: Avada” and so on. link to it: “http://site/luchshij-shablon-vordpress-avada/”;

2. I want the link to the above to automatically appear in another article:

3. To do this, in Terms -> terms:

I'll give it ( It didn't work out the first time, I forgot ):

Notes on these settings:

1. In the “2” field, you can write an arbitrary word to find the necessary article to which you want auto-linking. In the drop-down list " Link to“You can choose other parameters, everything is simple there.

I partially discussed this point in the topic about.

First, let's find out what it is and why it is needed.

Interlinking is the creation of internal links between pages of one site. It allows us not only to simplify navigation for the visitor, but also to distribute the transmitted weight of the pages where we need them and helps in promoting articles

For beginners - we will talk more about the weight of pages later, don’t worry too much about it for now) Just keep in mind that the more weight our page has, the more interesting it is for search engines. And it grows from the quantity and quality of incoming links to the page, and decreases from outgoing ones.

How is internal linking done on a WordPress site?

There are several solutions. This is automatic linking using plugins, and manual linking using pens and the head :) Of course, it is preferable to do it manually, but this requires experience, time and some effort. Let's look at the simple option first.

Linking plugin Yet Another Related Posts

It’s a very good plugin, I want to note that I use it myself, and in principle I’m happy with it. However, in the future I will abandon it when I get more involved in manual linking. It allows you to display links to your other articles at the end of articles. You can see an example of his work by scrolling down the page to the end of the post under the title Related posts.

However, this method has its drawbacks.

Firstly, there must be moderation in everything, and a large number of internal links on the page (as well as external ones) can have the opposite effect.
Secondly, all these links will have the same anchors, and the value will decrease as their number increases. But we will fix this issue.
Thirdly, the weight of the page will be divided equally among all links, and if there are a lot of them, then the transmitted weight will be very small. This way you won't be able to manually adjust the transfer of weight to other articles.

The number of links depends on the number of characters in the article; the larger the article, the more links you can insert into it.

Using the plugin, I recommend displaying 3-4 links maximum, this is quite enough.

However, despite all these shortcomings, this plugin improves behavioral factors, entices visitors to burrow deeper into the wilds of our site and travel through articles, increasing their visit time. This, in turn, has a beneficial effect on website promotion, sales (if you are selling something) and advertising revenue.

In addition, this is the easiest and fastest way for beginners who are not familiar with SEO and do not want to waste time on manually adding links.

So decide for yourself whether you need this plugin, or whether you will do everything yourself)

Manual linking of a website on WordPress.

This option is, of course, preferable, but for beginners it can be quite difficult to implement. But let’s be honest, I haven’t fully figured out the linking of my site yet, I’m putting it off for later, I’m lazy :)

This process is not easy and requires time and some effort. There are several schemes by which you can do internal linking of a site. These schemes were not invented by me, but by experienced and experienced SEO optimizers.

However, not all of these schemes are suitable for a new blog ( and I think most of those reading this post are newbies).

So for you (for us 🙂) the ring scheme will be the most optimal. In a simplified version it will look something like this:

I apologize for the quality, I’m not exactly an artist :) Its meaning boils down to the fact that the distributed weight of the pages follows the links, from one page to another and closes in a circle, and does not go to nowhere, or to external pages.

Of course, in practice this will rarely be possible, that there is only one link on the entire page, so everything will have to be looped, and this will not always happen right away, but you need to strive for this)

There may be more articles in a ring, 5 or 10, etc. However, remember, the more articles there are, the greater the chance that the ring will break if some page falls out of the index, and all the weight will float away into nowhere.

Another scheme that is suitable for new blogs looks like this:

In this scheme, each of the participating pages links to each other. This scheme works less efficiently due to the large number of links. However, this scheme has an advantage - if suddenly some page falls out of the index, then you will not lose the weight of the entire scheme, as in the previous version, but only a small part of it.

Other linking schemes are more suitable for high-frequency queries (i.e. for more mature blogs) and it makes no sense to consider them until ours gets back on its feet)

Well, do you think you are confused with all this leapfrog with links? 🙂 Nothing like that, that’s what he was definitely confused about:

Quick navigation on this page:

The question of how to do cross-linking correctly and how much it is needed at all has long been haunting the minds of webmasters. Let us also turn our attention to it, especially since the issue is really very important.

On the issue of the importance of linking

Linking has at least two extremely important meanings for a site:

Weight distribution and page promotion

As you know, each page has its own weight, which is calculated using a complex formula based on the weight of links incoming to this page (both external and internal) and outgoing links from this page.

If, let’s say, you have 50 entries on your blog, and somewhere on the fourth page of the list of entries there is a post to which no one links except this fourth page of pagination, then you can imagine how much weight this page has. This weight tends to zero. Such a page will not rank highly in search results (among other similar pages from other sites); moreover, not being in demand and not having incoming links, such a page may fall out of the index altogether.

In this regard, internal linking is a critical tool in distributing weight between the pages of your site. In addition, this tool helps to promote keywords in search results.

Benefits for visitors

Strictly speaking, this point should be put in first place, since the main task of each site is to benefit visitors.

The outline of an ideal site for me looks something like this:

Benefits for visitors
Increase in traffic and page views due to the fact that the resource is useful
PROFIT!!!

On the contrary, the “create a GS -> ... -> Profit” scheme is gradually becoming a thing of the past, and rightly so.

Accordingly, if you think about the visitor, then if you mention in the article what is possible, then it would be nice for the user to provide a link to this article - if he is interested, he will read it.

Automatic tools

Of course, the most useful thing for both the visitor and promotion is the manual insertion of relevant links in the content. But sometimes there is simply not enough time for this, and sometimes it is not very appropriate (especially in small articles).

For these reasons, the system of automatic linking has long existed and flourished. Most often, it is formatted as a list of links to similar or interesting articles at the end of the post. Some webmasters use self-written scripts that add to the page a list of links to other posts, the anchors of which are not article titles, but keywords. In my opinion, from the point of view of caring for the user, this is not the best option.

If we talk about our favorite CMS, WordPress linking is represented by many plugins that create a block of similar posts. For a long time, the most popular of them was a plugin called Related Posts, but from my point of view, its competitor, Yet Another Related Posts, is currently the most convenient and functional.

Yet Another Related Posts plugin

What is its advantage? This is a WordPress linking plugin that has all the necessary functions, and at the same time its most important advantage is the search algorithm for similar posts - it looks not only at titles, but also at the content of other pages and therefore produces fairly relevant results.

Relevance is adjusted using the “Similarity Threshold” option, which can be set in the range from 1 to 5. For most blogs, a threshold of 3-4 is suitable, since at a threshold of 5 the plugin has very high requirements for relevance, and for many posts it simply may not find similar entries.

Oddly enough, finding this option is not so easy. For some reason, the developers did not include it in the list of default settings, which is why it has to be enabled in the “screen settings” tab (top right corner of the WP admin panel). After you check the “Similarity Criteria” checkbox, this setting will appear on the screen and you can set the threshold you need.

Another advantage of this plugin is the ability to conveniently configure the external output of displayed links. To do this, YARP has several ways to display links on the screen - in a list, with pictures, or using user-created PHP code. To define your own code, you need a file called yarpp-template-example.php, yarpp-template-list.php, etc. (a complete list of files and sample code are included in the YARP archive) place in your blog's theme folder.

As you can see, this is a very convenient and functional plugin with which you can easily link your blog pages!

And one way or another we returned to the issue of optimizing this process. Today we will talk about an absolutely useful tool – the WordPress pre-linking plugin WP-MFC Linkator. We will look at its functionality, settings and find out what positively distinguishes this solution from other analogues.

When can WP-MFC Linkator be useful?

The task of linking pages can serve different purposes:

speed up the process of blog indexing by search robots;
promote pages across the entire range of queries;
transfer weight to the page;
organize the path of movement of the visitor within the site before implementation.

If you are faced with one of these tasks and at the same time your project is measured in a small number of pages, internal linking plugins are probably of no use to you. But if your blog has hundreds of posts, building links will take a very long time.

Let's say your project is about installing windows. You are creating a series of articles about the types of windows based on the material they are made of: wood, metal-plastic, etc. The next block of publications is about the classification of windows by purpose: soundproofing, energy-saving, etc. And this series of records can already be linked to the first one. Following these, a series of articles will appear on classifications based on other parameters and on the conditions of cooperation.

A situation arises when it is necessary to go through all publications again and add links from one post to another manually. It’s especially difficult if the project is not done by you yourself, but by someone else, for example a content manager, or vice versa, you got a site that lacks linking. Also, great difficulties can arise if you have to deal with a blog, where out of hundreds of posts there is a link with one anchor to one of the pages. From a search engine optimization point of view, this is also wrong.

In order to solve this kind of problems for sites on the CMS WordPress, the WP-MFC Linkator plugin was developed. Its authors are the domestic Wp-MFC Team, which is engaged in the professional development of technical solutions for WordPress projects.

WP-MFC Linkator is a very convenient plugin for quickly linking pages and posts on WordPress in any volume. Why is it unique for the Russian segment and attractive to us:

significant time savings. The developers claim that using the plugin it is possible to link a medium-sized resource within 1 day;
ease of use. The settings are extremely simple, the interface is intuitive, Russian-language;
“smart” morphological search. The solution is adapted for Runet, so it is possible to search pages by word, phrase or part of a word, taking into account the peculiarities of the Russian language;
ability to use on an unlimited number of domains.

Working with the plugin: step-by-step instructions

Let's now take a closer look at the functionality of the WordPress WP-MFC Linkator internal linking plugin.

Installation is standard: from the admin panel or by uploading the archive to the appropriate directory of the site. After activating the plugin, the “Linkator” menu item appears in the console in the “Settings” section. We follow it and get to the settings page.

In the first field we are asked to specify a search phrase. Here I would like to note that this WordPress linking plugin was developed with the maximum possible range of morphological search within the database of the CMS itself. The point is that in the Russian language we have cases and endings, and it is very difficult to search for entire phrases. In Linkator this is implemented in such a way that we can specify the stems of words without endings to search for, both individually and in a phrase. For example, instead of “wooden windows” we will indicate in the field “wooden windows”. The search will be carried out based on the occurrence of both word forms at once, taking into account the different endings.

To implement this task, the following field is used - “Additional words”. Here you can enter function words and intermediate prepositions that must be taken into account by the Linkator plugin when searching.

This plugin search for phrases for linking is a way to make maximum use of MySQL capabilities without using external morphological solutions.

In the “Page URL to insert” field, indicate the address of the page on which we will insert the link from other posts. Click "Find".

WP-MFC Linkator returns a list of pages with the searched text occurrences. To create a link to one of them, you need to click on the “Edit” button. If a link has already been placed on one of the pages, we will see the inscription “link” next to its title.

The “Edit” link takes us to the selected page. A menu will be placed on the right. It presents blocks within the current article, which contain occurrences of the word form that we were looking for. Blocks are essentially links that you can follow. Why is this done? Agree, it is very convenient to see the general context of a phrase in order to place an anchor in the most suitable block of the page.

Each block has its own text editor. This makes it possible to correct the text on the fly: change endings or word order, dilute the anchor. The request itself is highlighted. All we have to do is select the phrase we need and press the “link” button - and the link is provided. So that all the changes made by our plugin for linking WordPres pages s, went to the database, click “Save”.

When we return to the list, we will see that the “Edit” button next to the entries to which we made changes has turned red. This way we will understand which publications have already been worked on.

If we find that there is internal spam on one of the posts or there are a large number of links to a page that no longer exists, the WordPress Linkator plugin will help solve this problem. To do this, at the top of the settings page you need to select “Search for links”. And then repeat almost the same steps.

Although Linkator cannot be called a plugin for automatic linking of WordPress, it significantly speeds up the process of link formation. Moreover, this solution allows for interlinking to be carried out harmoniously from the standpoint of the syntax and morphological features of our language, as well as to maintain the literacy of the website as a whole.

The plugin continues to be developed, its authors promptly respond to feedback from users, who, in turn, leave the best reviews about WP-MFC Linkator. It has proven itself to be understandable, convenient and optimal in functionality for solving the issue of linking projects of varying complexity.

Against the background of so many obvious advantages, it doesn’t seem like a minus at all that WP-MFC Linkator cannot be downloaded for free. available for $20 with the ability to install on an unlimited number of sites. At the same time, the development company periodically provides discounts on this product through promotions and promotional codes.

Whatever your purpose for linking to WordPress, the Linkator plugin will help make this routine process less labor-intensive and more productive.