Automated Internal Links - Good or Bad?

[ErrlyBird]

A co-worker is suggesting we use an automated internal linking system. I like having control over it manually. He does bring up good points about expanding our menu and categories in the future though and how revisiting and redoing all internal links if we change URLs or add stuff will be more time consuming and difficult than redoing rules for automated links.

Do you use automated internal links?

Why or why not?

Is it hard for you to manage in either case?

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Most content management systems take care of your navigational links automatically. They add links where you'd expect them, like a link to an article in the right category. Automated is great for these.

Those "related pages" automated internal links at the bottom of a page can help improve bounce rates but they don't always link to the ideal pages. Better than nothing but not perfect.

Google understands both of these types of links as they are quite common.

You can also automate internal links within the content either by linking specific phrases or by inserting links to similar pages between paragraphs, but I don't recommend it.

My advice is to do the internal linking from within the content manually. Automated methods tend to change the links as you ad content or add them via javascript meaning they disapear if the plugin is turned off. This can cause problems too. Hand curate the internal links within content so they are the most helpful possible to that particular page and it's hard to go wrong.

Good luck.

[ErrlyBird]

@Sgt_Kickaxe Thank you for the response. I did forget to mention I was focusing on category description content. Not meta but the actual cat description that's customer facing. And I am glad to hear someone say manual process is preferred. I am sure other have opinions on it, but your view lines up with mine.