7 Best SEO Links Plugins for WordPress (Free and Paid)
While managing our websites, we have consistently found that internal links are an essential part of a successful SEO strategy. They act as bridges that guide users and search engines through your website’s content, boosting its visibility and authority.
The problem is that manually managing all those links can feel like an endless game of connect-the-dots. That’s where the power of WordPress SEO links plugins comes in.
Whether you’re looking to automate your internal linking, gain data-driven insights into your site structure, or simply make the linking process less frustrating, the right SEO links plugin can be a game-changer.
At WPBeginner, we rely on All in One SEO for our link-building, but we understand that every website is different. That is why we tested a variety of other options to help bloggers and business owners find the perfect SEO plugin for their unique needs.
In this article, we’ll explore the best WordPress SEO links plugins, comparing their features and ease of use to help you find the perfect tool to boost your website’s SEO and user experience.
Overview of the Best SEO Links Plugins for WordPress
If you are in a hurry, then this comparison table will help you quickly learn which SEO links plugin best suits your website.
How SEO Links Plugins Can Improve Your Search Ranking
Internal links are used to connect the posts and pages on your website, allowing users to discover more information about the topic they are reading about. This can help increase pageviews and reduce the bounce rate on your WordPress website.
Take WPBeginner as an example. Let’s say that one of our visitors is reading a post about SEO tips for beginners. We find that they will stay engaged longer if they can click on words like ‘keywords’ and ‘backlinks’ to learn more about those topics on the interconnected pages.
Internal links are also super important for WordPress SEO (search engine optimization) and can help your content rank better in search results. When Google crawls your website, it can follow these links to discover more of your content and make it available in searches.
The more links you have connecting your pages, the faster and easier it is for Google to find and index all of your content.
The problem is that adding internal links to every single post and page on your site can take forever. Plus, it is easy to forget to link to something important.
SEO links plugins for WordPress make the process much easier, ensuring that every page on your site gets the attention it deserves:
- They suggest relevant pages you can link to while you are writing a post and maintain a helpful list of linking opportunities that you can review later as your site grows.
- They find any ‘orphaned’ pages that no other posts link to and suggest ways to connect them to the rest of your site.
- Some can even automatically link certain keywords on your site to specific pages, so you don’t have to do it manually every time.
So, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the best SEO links plugins for WordPress and how they can help you create better connections throughout your site.
How We Test and Review the Best SEO Links Plugins
Before we recommend any SEO links plugin to our readers, we first test and evaluate it thoroughly. In fact, we have used several of them on a long-term basis here on WPBeginner.
While testing, we pay special attention to:
- The quality, relevance, and number of internal linking opportunities it discovered
- How easily it lets us add the links they were recommending
- Any additional features offered by the plugin to ensure that internal links had the most positive impact on SEO
With that being said, let’s take a look at some of the best SEO links plugins for WordPress.
Why Trust WPBeginner?
The WPBeginner team brings over 16 years of real-world experience in blogging and building successful WordPress websites.
We rigorously test each plugin to make sure it meets our high standards for performance, ease of use, and value before we consider recommending them.
For more details, see our editorial process.
1. All in One SEO
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best SEO plugin for WordPress, and is used by over 3 million people. In fact, we’ve used it on lots of WordPress sites over the years.
Based on first-hand experience, we even wrote a complete All in One SEO review, which you may want to check out for more comprehensive details.
We like All in One SEO because it can help you improve SEO even if you don’t have any technical knowledge. It offers a powerful Link Assistant that makes it easy to build better internal links.
It starts by giving you a detailed report of the links it crawled on your website, including internal links, outbound links, and affiliate links for each post and page.
It also provides smart internal link suggestions based on your existing content.
It shows you which posts it recommends for internal linking and even automatically generates a phrase and anchor text for each link. Simply clicking on ‘+ Add Link’ will add the entire phrase along with the link to the correct blog post.
You can do the same with every orphaned page on your website. These pages currently have no internal links pointing to them, so adding links will let search engines quickly index them, improving your SEO.
AIOSEO lets you quickly add links from the content editor by simply searching for their title and provides options to add nofollow, sponsored, and UGC (user-generated content) tags.
Besides that, AIOSEO helps you find and fix broken links, optimizes your site for rich snippets, and much more.
Pros of All in One SEO:
- Makes it easy to find internal linking opportunities
- Identifies pages with few or no internal links
- Analyzes which pages have the most link equity and uses that power to boost other pages
Cons of All in One SEO:
- Link Assistant is not included in the free version of AIOSEO
Why we chose All in One SEO: AIOSEO is an affordable and beginner-friendly SEO plugin that provides numerous ways of improving links to boost your SEO. Its Link Assistant feature acts as a data-driven command center for optimizing your entire site structure.
The ability to analyze link strength, automatically identify orphaned content, and get real-time suggestions as you write makes AIOSEO the best choice for anyone serious about maximizing their SEO impact through internal linking.
Bonus plugin: You might also consider using the Broken Link Checker plugin created by the AIOSEO team. It’s an essential tool for making sure your internal links are working correctly.
For more information, check out our complete Broken Link Checker review or get started with the free version.
2. Yoast
Yoast is a popular WordPress SEO tool that competes with AIOSEO. Its premium plugin comes with basic internal linking features.
We have researched and written about this plugin in depth in our Yoast review and our comparison of Yoast SEO vs AIOSEO, so you may want to check those out if you’re interested in more information.
When it comes to internal links features, Yoast scans your content and then provides suggestions for improving them from within the WordPress block editor.
This plugin also has limited orphaned content detection and counts the number of internal links used on a page, but overall, its linking functionality is not as comprehensive as All in One SEO’s Link Assistant.
While we used this plugin on WPBeginner for many years, we decided to switch away from Yoast to All in One SEO because of its better Link Assistant tool, redirection manager, sitewide SEO audit, enhanced image SEO, and more.
With that in mind, you may be interested in our list of the best Yoast SEO alternatives for WordPress.
Pros of Yoast:
- Suggests linking opportunities in the sidebar as you write a post
- Orphaned content detection
- Counts internal links on a page
Cons of Yoast:
- SEO links features are not available in the free version
- SEO links features are more limited than AIOSEO
Why we chose Yoast: Yoast is a popular SEO plugin that includes several SEO links features. Its suggestions for internal links feel organic as you write.
3. Rank Math
Rank Math is another WordPress SEO plugin with basic SEO links features. We have extensive experience with this tool and created a full Rank Math review to give our users an in-depth analysis of all its features.
In terms of internal linking, we like how this plugin can quickly scan your website and then provide you with suggestions for adding internal links.
These link suggestions are displayed in your settings panel as you write your posts. You simply copy a link and manually paste it into your text.
In our testing, we also found this plugin effectively identifies orphaned pages and provides suggestions for improvement.
However, like Yoast, Rank Math’s SEO links features are not as comprehensive as AIOSEO’s.
Pros of Rank Math:
- Basic link suggestions are available in the free version
- Uses context to suggest relevant internal links
- Identifies orphaned content
Cons of Rank Math:
- More advanced SEO links features require the premium version
- SEO links features are more limited than AIOSEO
Why we chose Rank Math: Rank Math offers internal linking suggestions in its free version. We find that this plugin offers good value for money, so it may suit website owners who are on a budget or just starting with SEO.
4. Link Whisper
Link Whisper is a premium WordPress plugin that is specifically designed to help you create internal links for your website that boost your search engine rankings. The free version includes tons of excellent SEO links features and may be enough for some users.
For example, we like how the free plugin analyzes your content so it can suggest relevant internal links as you write, and lets you add these links with just a couple of clicks.
It can also identify orphaned pages, offers helpful reports about your website’s internal linking structure, lets you add internal links in bulk, and checks for broken links.
When you upgrade to the premium version, the plugin will also suggest anchor text you can use. Plus, it adds external links to its reports.
Pros of Link Whisper:
- User-friendly and efficient
- Suggests internal linking opportunities
- Internal links reporting
- Monitors and fixes broken links
- Many SEO links features are available in the free version
Cons of Link Whisper:
- This plugin is focused on SEO links and offers few other SEO features
Why we chose Link Whisper: Link Whisper is a beginner-friendly plugin with powerful internal linking features. It can easily streamline and optimize your internal linking strategy.
5. Internal Link Juicer
Internal Link Juicer works differently from the other plugins on this list. It uses automation to build internal links to your most important content. This way, you can increase traffic and interactions on your site.
You simply add a list of specific keywords and phrases along with the page URLs you want to direct those keywords to, and it will automatically add links wherever it finds the keywords.
We are impressed with the way the plugin analyzes your content to place links naturally within the text and allows you to vary the anchor text so it doesn’t appear to be computer-generated.
Other free features include the ability to blacklist and whitelist specific posts from internal linking, an option to limit the number of links per post, and basic link reporting to give you an overview of your internal links.
There is also a premium version that allows you to add unlimited keywords for automatic links, has advanced linking rules, checks for broken links, and more.
Pros of Internal Link Juicer:
- Automatically creates internal links based on keywords
- Intelligently inserts links within your content
- Customizable anchor text that can be varied
- The free version may be all you need
Cons of Internal Link Juicer:
- Doesn’t include link suggestions
- Advanced features are only available in the premium version
- Does not offer other SEO tools
Why we chose Internal Link Juicer: In our opinion, Internal Link Juicer is a good option if you want to automate your internal linking. The free version provides a solid foundation, while the premium version unlocks advanced controls for larger sites and specific SEO strategies.
However, keep in mind that Internal Link Juicer doesn’t offer features like real-time link suggestions as you write. That said, you might choose it if you prefer a set-and-forget approach.
6. SEOPress
SEOPress is a simple and affordable WordPress SEO plugin. It includes all the features you would expect from an SEO plugin, such as meta title, description, Open Graph support, image and content XML sitemaps, redirects, and more.
While it is comparable to other top WordPress SEO plugins on the market, we were disappointed that its internal linking features are not the strongest.
One serious limitation we found is that it only offers a maximum of 5 internal linking suggestions from its SEO metabox. You can view the suggestions and copy any link with a single click.
In its paid version, SEOPress also offers a broken link checker. Finding and fixing broken links is essential for a healthy site structure and good user experience. Doing so will indirectly benefit your SEO.
Pros of SEOPress:
- Suggests internal linking opportunities
- Identifies broken links
- Lightweight and fast
- Affordable premium plan
Cons of SEOPress:
- Only offers the basic SEO links features
- It is limited to only 5 link suggestions at a time
- These are only available in the premium version
Why we chose SEOPress: While SEOPress doesn’t offer advanced internal linking features, it is a solid and affordable SEO plugin that offers basic SEO links features and a broken link checker.
7. Bonus: YARPP
YARPP (or Yet Another Related Posts Plugin) is a free plugin that can automatically display posts and pages that are related to the content your visitor is reading.
This will improve user engagement and pageviews, which indirectly improves SEO. But, since the links are not actually added to your posts, it will not help search engines index your content.
YARPP is easy to use, and it offers useful options so you can customize which pages and posts are shown. It includes pre-built themes that you can customize to match your website’s design.
Pros of YARPP:
- Automatically displays relevant internal links to your content
- Keeps visitors engaged
- Free
Cons of YARPP:
- Doesn’t recommend internal link opportunities
- Doesn’t actually add internal links to your content
Why we chose YARPP: YARPP can improve user experience and encourage content discovery while automatically adding relevant internal links to your content. However, it doesn’t offer specific SEO links features like the other plugins on our list.
8. Bonus: MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics solution for WordPress, allowing you to track important metrics right from your WordPress dashboard.
We have plenty of first-hand experience with this tool, so you might want to check out our comprehensive MonsterInsights review for more in-depth details.
MonsterInsights can help you improve the SEO of your links because it helps you track link and button clicks so you can see the performance of affiliate link clicks, outbound link clicks, and more.
While this won’t directly improve your links SEO, we like the way it shows you which links are performing well and which are not so you can improve them.
For example, you can see the outbound links you are tracking in WordPress by visiting Insights » Reports and clicking the ‘Publishers’ tab. You can scroll down to see the ‘Top Affiliate Links’ report which shows the links your visitors click most often.
MonsterInsights also helps you identify your most popular content. This can guide your internal linking strategy, allowing you to strategically link to high-performing pages from other relevant content.
Pros of MonsterInsights:
- Tracks link clicks in WordPress
- Lets you see which links are performing and which are not
- Provides data to improve your links SEO
- The free version includes outbound link tracking
Cons of MonsterInsights:
- Does not include links SEO features such as automated internal linking or anchor text optimization like many of our other recommendations
Why we chose MonsterInsights: While MonsterInsights will not directly improve your links SEO, when used alongside one of the other plugins, it can provide data and metrics that can inform your linking strategy.
What Is the Best SEO Links Plugin?
If you are using a comprehensive SEO plugin, then chances are that it includes some useful SEO links features. Out of these, All in One SEO‘s Link Assistant is outstanding and offers the most complete set of features available.
It offers helpful internal linking suggestions both inside the WordPress content editor and in a central location. These can be added to your posts with the simple click of a mouse.
Beyond that, AIOSEO gives you detailed reports of your links, identifies orphaned pages, and simply makes it easier to add links to your posts and pages.
If you are not already using an SEO plugin, or if you are using one with weak SEO link features, then Link Whisper lets you add many of the same internal linking features that AIOSEO does.
But be aware that because it doesn’t include any other SEO features, you’re going to need a more full-featured SEO plugin like AIOSEO anyway.
Finally, if you simply want to automatically create internal links to your most important pages, then Internal Link Juicer will automate this process with minimal setup. While it lacks almost all of the SEO links features offered by AIOSEO, it offers the best set-and-forget solution.
FAQs About SEO Links Plugins for WordPress
Here are answers to some common questions you might have about using SEO links plugins for your WordPress website:
What exactly do SEO links plugins do?
SEO links plugins for WordPress help you improve your website’s internal linking structure, which is a network of links connecting your pages to each other.
They can do this by automatically adding links based on keywords, suggesting links relevant to your content, identifying orphaned pages that have no links pointing to them, and more.
Why is internal linking important for SEO?
Search engines like Google use internal links to discover and index content and understand your site structure.
This allows them to display your content on search results pages and lets them know which content you see as most important so they can prioritize it in search results.
Can’t I just add internal links manually? Why use a plugin?
You can, but it’s time-consuming, especially for larger websites.
Plugins streamline the process, saving you time with automation and suggestions – giving data-driven insights so you can continue to improve your linking strategy.
Will using an SEO links plugin guarantee higher rankings?
While a good internal linking strategy is essential, SEO involves many factors. SEO links plugins are tools to help you, but they don’t guarantee top rankings.
Besides internal linking, other ranking factors include high-quality content, positive user experience, on-page SEO optimization, backlinks, and WordPress performance.
Best WordPress Guides for SEO
Now that you have seen the best SEO links plugins for WordPress, you may like to check out some other articles related to WordPress SEO:
We hope this tutorial helped you find the best SEO links plugins for WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on internal linking for SEO or our expert pick of the best WordPress SEO plugins and tools that you should use.
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