Internal Link Analysis + Generation

What This Skill Does

Two functions:

Good internal linking:

• Helps Google find all your pages
• Distributes "link juice" (ranking power) to important pages
• Guides users through your content

Why Internal Links Matter

• Orphan pages (no internal links) = Google can't find them = not indexed
• Deep pages (6+ clicks from homepage) = Google thinks they're not important
• Link hoarding (homepage links to everything) = diluted equity per link
• Poor anchor text = Google doesn't understand what the linked page is about

Check Categories

1. Orphan Pages

Pages with ZERO internal links pointing to them.

How to find:

1. Crawl entire site to find all pages
2. Check which pages have no inbound internal links
3. Cross-reference with sitemap (orphan pages often only accessible via sitemap)

Severity:

• Orphan + in sitemap = Medium (Google can find via sitemap, but weak)
• Orphan + not in sitemap = Critical (Google may never find it)

2. Click Depth Analysis

Rule: Important pages should be within 3 clicks of homepage.

3. Internal Link Distribution

PageRank flow analysis:

• Which pages receive the most internal links?
• Which pages receive the fewest?
• Does distribution match business priority?

Common problems:

4. Anchor Text Analysis

Good anchor text:

• Descriptive of target page content
• Contains relevant keywords naturally
• Varies across different linking pages

Bad anchor text patterns:

5. Broken Internal Links

Links pointing to 404 pages within your own site.

Impact:

• Wastes link equity
• Bad user experience
• Wastes crawl budget

6. Nofollow on Internal Links

Using rel="nofollow" on internal links = bad practice.

When it's wrong:

• Regular content links marked nofollow
• Navigation links marked nofollow

When it's acceptable:

• User-generated content (comments)
• Login/signup pages (PageRank sculpting is dead, but still ok)

7. Link Equity Sinks

Pages that receive lots of internal links but provide no value:

• Thank you pages
• Login pages
• Terms of service (linked from every page footer)

Solution: Add nofollow or reduce links to low-value pages.

8. Contextual vs Navigation Links

Goal: Important pages should have BOTH navigation AND contextual links.

Analysis Method

Step 1: Crawl Site

• Use crawler to discover all pages
• Record all internal links (source URL, target URL, anchor text)

Step 2: Build Link Graph

• Create adjacency matrix of page relationships
• Calculate inbound/outbound link counts per page

Step 3: Calculate Metrics

• Click depth: BFS from homepage
• Internal PageRank: Simplified PageRank calculation
• Orphan detection: Pages with 0 inbound links

Step 4: Cross-Reference with Goals

• Which pages should rank? (money pages, pillar content)
• Do those pages have strong internal link support?

Output Format

Internal Link Health Score: XX/100

Site Structure Overview

Total pages: XXX
Total internal links: XXX
Average links per page: XX
Max click depth: X

Link Distribution:
├── Depth 1: XX pages (XX%)
├── Depth 2: XX pages (XX%)
├── Depth 3: XX pages (XX%)
├── Depth 4+: XX pages (XX%)
└── Orphans: XX pages (XX%)

Critical Issues

Orphan Pages (XX found)

Deep Pages (6+ clicks) (XX found)

| URL | Current Depth | Suggested Link From |

Broken Internal Links (XX found)

| Source URL | Broken Link | Suggested Fix |

Link Equity Analysis

Top 10 Pages by Internal Links

| URL | Inbound Links | Is Priority Page? |

Under-Linked Priority Pages

| URL | Current Links | Recommended Links |

Anchor Text Report

Over-Optimized Anchors

| Anchor Text | Count | Target Pages |

Generic Anchors (fix these)

| Anchor Text | Count | Better Alternative |

Recommendations

1. [Specific fix instructions based on findings]

Part 2: Link Generation Mode

When to Use

After writing a new article and unsure where to link.

Input

1. New article content (or URL)
2. Site existing page list (or website URL to crawl)

Process

Step 1: Analyze New Article

• Extract article topic, keywords
• Identify linkable concepts/terms

Step 2: Match with Existing Pages

• Find existing pages related to new article topic
• Sort by relevance

Step 3: Generate Suggestions

Output 3 types of suggestions:

Output Format

# Internal Link Suggestions

## New Article Info
- Title: [Article title]
- URL: [Article URL]
- Topic: [Main topic]
- Keywords: [Keyword list]

## Outbound Links (New Article → Existing Pages)

| Link Location | Target Page | Suggested Anchor | Reason |
|---------------|-------------|------------------|--------|
| Paragraph 2 "SEO optimization" | /seo-guide | "SEO optimization guide" | Topic related |
| Paragraph 5 "keyword research" | /keyword-research | "keyword research methods" | Deep reading |
| Ending CTA | /services | "our services" | Conversion |

## Inbound Links (Existing Pages → New Article)

| Source Page | Suggested Location | Suggested Anchor |
|-------------|-------------------|------------------|
| /seo-guide | "internal links" related paragraph | "internal link strategy" |
| /blog-index | Latest articles list | [Article title] |

## Implementation Checklist

- [ ] Add link to /seo-guide in new article paragraph 2
- [ ] Add link to /keyword-research in new article paragraph 5
- [ ] Update /seo-guide to add backlink

Example

User: I wrote an article about "Core Web Vitals optimization", where should I link?

Claude: [Read article content]
        [Read site existing pages]
        [Match related pages]

Output:
- Link to /technical-seo ("technical SEO")
- Link to /page-speed ("page speed optimization")
- Link to /google-ranking-factors ("Google ranking factors")
- Suggest /technical-seo backlink to this new article

Commands

[PROTOCOL]: Update this header on changes, then check CLAUDE.md