Best Internal Linking Plugins for WordPress in 2026: What Each One Does to Your Posts
A WordPress internal linking plugin adds links between the posts and pages of your own site, and what sets one apart is whether it places each link itself or only suggests it. This page compares the 16 plugins that place links themselves, from inside WordPress, as of October 8, 2026. Of those 16, 9 write the link into the post and 6 add it only when the page is served, so their links go away when the plugin stops. Three can change your text to fit a link.
This page is published by the maker of Autolinker, one of the 16. Its row follows the same rule and lists what it does not do. No link to another plugin on this page is an affiliate link.
What does an internal linking plugin do, and which ones made this table?
An internal linking plugin is a WordPress plugin that adds links from one post on your site to another, by placing them or by suggesting where they could go. This table keeps those that place them.
The rule for this table: the plugin itself puts the link inside the text of your post, from WordPress, either by writing it into the post or by adding it when the page is served. Approving a batch of suggestions or setting a keyword rule counts; pasting, dragging or inserting each link yourself in the editor does not, and neither does a service that adds links from outside WordPress.
Four kinds of tool share the name and fail it: plugins whose suggestions you insert yourself, services that link from outside WordPress, related posts blocks placed under the post, and link analysis tools. All are named below the table. To place a link by hand, see how to add internal links in WordPress.
16 WordPress plugins that place internal links themselves
Sixteen WordPress plugins placed internal links themselves when we checked them on October 8, 2026, out of 24 tools we examined (the free versions of Rank Math and Link Whisper count with their paid rows). For each one we read the WordPress.org listing and figures, the pricing page where there is one, and either the code WordPress.org serves (9 plugins, files and lines below the table) or, where the code is not public, the maker's docs (7 plugins, marked per its maker). We installed nothing, measured nothing, created no account and clicked no buy button. Rows list the plugins with a WordPress.org listing of their own, then the paid plugins without one, each group in alphabetical order. The order is not a ranking, and no row is recommended in the table.
| Plugin | How the link is placed | Where the link lives | Anchor, and can your text change | AI, and who pays | Entry price (Oct 8, 2026) | WordPress.org installs | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI Internal Links (bonappstudio) | One click per post in the classic editor places every link; you save the post | Written into the post when you save | AI picks it; can change: the model's HTML replaces your text without a check | Your OpenAI key, gpt-4o-mini by default; Pro adds five more providers | Free; Pro EUR 39 one-time, 1 domain | 200 | Choosing your AI provider, one-time Pro price |
| Arcio (GetArcio) | After you approve, one at a time or in bulk; auto-insert off by default | Written into the post, with a revision for each link | AI picks it; rejected unless it is in your text; text untouched | Included: Arcio's relay to Google Gemini, no key; posts pass through the relay | Free: 10 analyses a month; $9.99/mo or $89/yr | Fewer than 10 | AI linking with no API key, anchor from your text |
| Autolinker (Web & SEO), this site's plugin | Automatically when a post is published (on by default), plus one click to run all existing posts; no review queue | Written into the post (a revision is saved first); stays if you uninstall | Picked by AI, kept only if it appears word for word in your text; your text is never rewritten; first match only | OpenAI only, with your key, billed by OpenAI (GPT-6 Sol picks anchors); none of your posts go to us | Free, no link cap; Autolinker Pro $29/yr, 1 site | 20 | AI-chosen links written into the post, anchors word for word from your text |
| Automatic Internal Links for SEO (Pagup) | Automatically, from focus keywords already in your SEO plugin; free version syncs on a button | Added when the page is served; gone if you deactivate | Focus keywords from Yoast, Rank Math, SEOPress or AIOSEO, plus your rules; text untouched | None | Free; Pro $98.88/yr, 1 site | 1,000 | Links from focus keywords you already entered |
| Interlink (ReadyGo Tools) | After you approve, one at a time or in bulk; optional rules, off by default | Written into the post; stays if you uninstall | An existing phrase (Rank Math keyword, else the title), editable; never rewrites, per its maker | Optional, off by default: your OpenAI or Gemini key | Free; a Pro add-on with AI credits is offered in the plugin, price shown only at checkout | 40 | Free, local by default, undo link by link |
| Internal Link Juicer (Team Updraft) | Automatically, from keywords you attach to each target | Added when the page is served; gone if you deactivate | Your keyword where it appears; text untouched | None | Free; Pro $69.99/yr, 1 site | 90,000 | Free keyword rules across the whole site, no AI |
| Internal Links Manager (webraketen) | Automatically, from keyword and URL rules | Added when the page is served; gone if you deactivate | Your keyword as typed; text untouched | None | Free; Pro $79.99/yr, 1 site | 10,000 | Free keyword rules with blacklists and HTML exclusions |
| Link Manager (DAEXT) | Automatically, from keyword rules | Added when the page is served; gone if you deactivate | Your keyword as typed; text untouched | None | Free; Pro $59/yr, 1 site | 1,000 | Free keyword rules, the maintained successor to Interlinks Manager |
| LinkBoss (ZVENTURES) | After you approve a preview table, in bulk | Written into the post; stays if you remove the plugin | Proposed by its NLP; can change: one mode rephrases a sentence, another adds 2 to 3 AI sentences | Included in credits, run on its servers, posts synced there; model not named | Free: 50 credits once; from $11/mo, or $87/yr with unlimited credits for up to 1,000 pages, 1 site | 2,000 | Bulk linking from a preview table, even where no sentence fits |
| AIOSEO Link Assistant (All in One SEO Pro) | After you click Add Link, one at a time or in bulk from its Links Report | Written into the post, per its docs | An existing phrase that matches words in another post's title; no rewrite described | Advertised as AI; its docs describe word matching; no provider named | AIOSEO Pro $399/yr, 10 sites ($199.50 the first year, as listed) | No listing (add-on to AIOSEO Pro) | A full per-post link report in an SEO suite you already pay for |
| Easy Content Linker (paid version) | Automatically on every publish, in both directions | Added when the page is displayed, per its maker, so gone if you deactivate | GPT picks an existing phrase; text never modified, per its maker | Your OpenAI key, GPT-5 mini by default; about $0.20 to $0.50 per 100 links, per its maker | Free: 50 articles, 20 links a month; $59/yr, 1 site | Lite listing: 20, suggestions only | Two-way links on every publish without touching the stored post |
| Link Whisper Premium (Spencer Haws) | After you tick suggestions, in bulk; keyword auto-linking, review mode by default | Written into the post; stays if you cancel, per its maker | Preselected in an existing sentence; you can change it or edit the sentence before inserting | Your OpenAI key or its credits: 2,000 a year included, then $20 per 1,000 on demand or $10 a month per 1,000 | $97/yr, 1 site; free version only suggests | 30,000, free version | Bulk review of suggestions, with 15 page builders documented |
| Linkilo | After you confirm in a review queue; keyword Auto Links; optional auto-apply above a confidence score | Written into the post; stays if you cancel, per its maker | Your Auto Links keywords, or 2 to 6 words the AI picks from your sentence, with its reason; editable; not rewritten | Optional: your OpenAI or OpenRouter key; $1 to $2 for a 500-post site, per its maker | $59/yr launch price (list $149), 1 site; no free plan | No listing | A review queue that explains each anchor |
| Linksy (Plugli) | Suggestions, keyword auto-links, or bulk Automation Turbo | Written into the post; stays if you uninstall, per its maker | Keywords you type, import or generate, and phrases its AI finds; can change: a snippet rewriter, in beta | Included: 300 GenAI credits a month; posts processed on its servers; provider not named | $79/yr, 1 site; no free plan | No listing | Orphan and no-outbound reports with bulk linking, WPML and Polylang |
| Rank Math PRO (AI Link Genius) | After a preview, from keyword-to-URL maps; optional auto-link on publish, per its maker | Not documented | The keyword or its variations, only where it already appears | Keyword maps need no AI; AI variations and suggestions need a Rank Math AI plan, from EUR 5.99/mo billed yearly, before tax | EUR 7.99/mo billed yearly, before tax, first year; unlimited personal sites | No listing (free Rank Math: 4,000,000, without keyword maps) | Keyword maps with preview, per-post cap and rollback |
| Tasty Links (WP Tasty) | Automatically, from keyword and URL | Added when the page loads, per its docs, so gone if it stops | Your keyword as typed; text untouched | None | $49/yr intro price (normally $99), 1 site | No listing | Affiliate and keyword links for bloggers, nofollow or sponsored per link |
Left out, and why
These plugins came up in our research and fail the rule:
- Suggestions you insert yourself: Yoast SEO Premium (you drag or copy each link; $118.80/yr before tax), SEOPress PRO, Rank Math's free version (up to 5 posts marked "Pillar", and an empty list without one), Link Whisper's free version (copy and paste), LinkWeaver (one click per link in the block editor, on GitHub) and Internal Post Linker.
- Linking from outside WordPress: WPLink.AI, where a desktop app writes the links through the WordPress REST API, and LinkStorm, whose plugin loads a script that adds links in the visitor's browser; those links stop with the subscription. Both belong with other internal linking tools.
- Not inside the text: YARPP, a related posts block (100,000 installs, last updated November 2024).
- Analysis only: Interlinks Manager, replaced by Link Manager (in the table) and maintained until July 8, 2027, then removed from WordPress.org.
Link Whisper's features page says plans start at $119/yr; the table quotes its pricing page.
Files and pages we read
All read on October 8, 2026. Code: the version WordPress.org serves, linked on Trac.
- Internal Link Juicer,
internal-links2.26.0: core/app.php:674. - Link Whisper, free
link-whisper0.9.7: readme.txt:34; core/Wpil/LinkMapping.php:359-361. Premium: linkwhisper.com/pricing/, /features/. - Internal Links Manager,
seo-automated-link-building3.1.1: src/Plugin.php:176, :194. - LinkBoss,
semantic-linkboss2.8.5: semantic-linkboss.php:37-44; includes/Classes/class-update-posts.php:695-699. - Automatic Internal Links for SEO,
automatic-internal-links-for-seo2.0.12: admin/controllers/ReplaceController.php:18. - Link Manager,
daext-autolinks-manager1.10.16: public/class-daextam-public.php:36-44. - AI Internal Links,
ai-internal-links1.0.15: assets/js/tinymce-plugin.js:86-87, :134-162; includes/class-aiil-link-generator.php:117-131; includes/class-aiil-content-analyzer.php:42-43, :55-58. - Interlink,
interlink0.1.2: includes/class-rgt-sil-inserter.php:151-154; includes/class-rgt-sil-rules.php:128-131; includes/class-rgt-sil-settings.php:36. - Arcio,
arcio3.2.3: includes/class-arcio-linker.php:55, :66-72; includes/class-arcio-relay-client.php:32; admin/views/settings-page.php:210-213. - Autolinker,
web-seo-autolinker0.3.3: includes/class-aial-content-locator.php:39-66; includes/class-aial-anchor-selector.php:10-21; includes/class-aial-plugin.php:173. - Makers' docs: aioseo.com/docs/link-assistant/, easycontentlinker.com/us/, linkilo.co/knowledge-base/, linksyai.com/linksy-changelog/, rankmath.com/kb/how-to-automate-internal-linking/, wptasty.com/knowledge-base/getting-started-with-tasty-links, linkwhisper.com/knowledge-base/.
Where does each plugin put the link, and what is left if you uninstall?
Nine of the 16 WordPress internal linking plugins compared here write each link into the post, where it stays if you remove the plugin; six add it each time the page is served, so those links disappear when the plugin stops, and Rank Math PRO does not document which it does (checked October 8, 2026).
Automatic internal linking at display time is what Internal Link Juicer, Internal Links Manager, Link Manager, Automatic Internal Links for SEO, Tasty Links and Easy Content Linker do. In the four whose code we read, a filter on the_content inserts the links as the page goes out, and the stored post never contains them; the other two describe the same mechanism in their docs. Internal Link Juicer, the most installed of the 16 at 90,000 active installs, works this way, so moving to an Internal Link Juicer alternative means writing its links into your posts first.
The nine that write the link leave ordinary HTML in your posts. Autolinker saves a WordPress revision before each change, and Arcio and Interlink go through the normal WordPress update, which keeps one, so a post can be rolled back from its history; LinkBoss writes to the database directly and offers its own rollback instead.
Who picks the anchor, and can the plugin change your text?
In WordPress internal linking plugins, the anchor comes from you or from an AI: of the 16 compared here, 6 link a keyword you type, 5 let an AI pick a phrase in your text, 2 match words without AI and 3 do both; 3 can change your wording to fit a link, and 2 of the AI-based ones check in their code that the anchor is already in your text.
The three that can change your words: LinkBoss can rephrase a sentence or add two to three AI-written ones, and Linksy has a snippet rewriter in beta, per their makers; in the code of AI Internal Links, the model's HTML replaces the matched text with no check that the words match. The two that check are Arcio and Autolinker: an anchor the AI proposes is dropped unless it already appears in the post, and the link wraps your original words. Linkilo and Easy Content Linker promise the same in their docs. Link Whisper lets you edit the sentence yourself before inserting.
Autolinker adds at most 3 links per post by default; see how Autolinker picks an anchor. Choosing the words is covered under internal link anchor text.
Which AI do these plugins use, who pays for it, and where do your posts go?
AI is on offer in 11 of these 16 WordPress internal linking plugins, as an option, a separate plan or a label in 4 of them, and absent from 5: 5 run on your own API key, 3 on the maker's credits or servers, Link Whisper on either, and Rank Math on a separate AI plan, while 3 send your posts through the maker's servers by design, and Link Whisper does when it runs on its credits.
An AI internal linking plugin sends some of your text to a model. Seven name their provider at the source: OpenAI for Autolinker, Link Whisper, Linkilo, Easy Content Linker, AI Internal Links and Interlink, Google Gemini for Arcio and Interlink. Four do not: LinkBoss, Linksy, Rank Math's AI plan and AIOSEO, whose feature page advertises AI suggestions while its docs describe matching words from other posts' titles. LinkBoss syncs posts to its own API, Arcio's relay passes them to Google Gemini, Linksy analyzes them on its servers, and, in its free code, Link Whisper's credit mode sends them to its API.
With your own key, the provider bills you. Per their makers, that bill runs $1 to $2 for a 500-post site with Linkilo, and $0.20 to $0.50 per 100 links with Easy Content Linker on GPT-5 mini. How a model picks a target is explained under AI internal linking.
What do the free versions actually do?
A free version that places links with no volume cap exists for 7 of the 16 WordPress internal linking plugins compared in October 2026; 3 more have a capped free plan, and 6 have no free version that places links.
Uncapped: Internal Link Juicer, Internal Links Manager, Link Manager, Interlink, Automatic Internal Links for SEO (rules sync when you press a button), Autolinker and AI Internal Links, the last two with an OpenAI key you pay for. The first five run without AI by default: a free internal linking plugin for WordPress with no usage bill is among them. Capped: Arcio at 10 analyses a month, Easy Content Linker at 50 articles and 20 links a month, LinkBoss at 50 credits once.
No free version that places links: Linkilo, Linksy, Tasty Links, AIOSEO, Rank Math PRO and Link Whisper, whose free version suggests links you copy and paste; anyone wanting a Link Whisper alternative for that reason can start with the free rows above.
Orphan pages, broken links, languages and page builders
Ten of the 16 WordPress internal linking plugins we checked on October 8, 2026 document an orphan-page report, but one of those whose code we read, Arcio, counts orphans against its own links only.
Arcio counts only links Arcio applied, so a post you linked by hand can still show as an orphan; Interlink's free report, by contrast, reads every link in the post, and Autolinker Pro counts the links you wrote yourself since Autolinker 0.3.3. To find orphan pages in WordPress, use a report that reads every link. Arcio's listing also advertises a broken-link view absent from the code WordPress.org serves (3.2.3).
Autolinker and Internal Link Juicer keep links within one language under WPML and Polylang in their code, and Link Whisper per its docs; Linksy documents WPML and Polylang support, and Linkilo works in one language per site. AI Internal Links switches off the Polylang and WPML filters when it looks for targets, although its docs say it works with all translation plugins. More on internal linking on a multilingual WordPress site.
Elementor is documented by Link Whisper, LinkBoss, Linkilo, Easy Content Linker, Linksy and AI Internal Links (Pro); Autolinker links its text editor widgets only and does not handle SeedProd.
Which internal linking plugin for which job
No plugin here was installed or tested, so the right internal linking plugin depends on the job; each pick follows a fact in the table, not a ranking.
Use Autolinker if you want an AI to choose links between posts that already exist, write them into the post, and take every anchor word for word from a sentence you wrote, with your own OpenAI key. Its limits: no keyword rules, no review queue (it links on publish unless you turn that off), OpenAI only, Elementor text editor widgets only, no nofollow or new-tab attributes, and 20 active installs as of October 19, 2026.
Another row fits better for:
- Approving each link first: Link Whisper Premium, Linkilo, Arcio, Interlink or AIOSEO.
- Free keyword links site-wide, no AI: Internal Link Juicer, Link Manager or Internal Links Manager, whose links disappear if the plugin stops.
- Keyword links that stay in the post: Interlink, Link Whisper Premium, Linkilo or Linksy.
- No API key: Arcio, LinkBoss, Linksy or Link Whisper on its credits, which pass your posts through their servers.
- Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder or Oxygen pages: Link Whisper Premium, LinkBoss, Linkilo or Linksy.
- An SEO suite you already pay for: AIOSEO Pro or Rank Math PRO.
- Affiliate links on keywords, nofollow or sponsored per link: Tasty Links.
- No sentence fits and generated text is fine: LinkBoss, which then changes your text.
- Your choice of AI provider, paid once: AI Internal Links Pro, though its free version needs the classic editor, its model can change your text and its targets span all languages.
An install count says how many sites run a plugin, not how well it works; that holds for Autolinker and Arcio alike.
Questions about WordPress internal linking plugins
Do related posts plugins like YARPP count as internal linking plugins?
Not here: a related posts block adds links under the post, not inside your sentences. YARPP has 100,000 active installs and was last updated in November 2024.
Is there a free internal linking plugin on GitHub?
Yes. LinkWeaver is distributed on GitHub, not WordPress.org. It suggests links in the block editor, you insert each one with a click, and it needs your own OpenAI key.
Do links added by JavaScript count for Google?
Google says it can crawl links added with JavaScript as long as they are standard <a href> links, and that it sees them once it renders the page, a step it queues (crawlable links, JavaScript SEO basics). Tools that add links this way work from outside WordPress, so none is in the table.
Will an internal linking plugin slow down my site?
We measured nothing, so only the mechanism: a plugin that adds links when the page is served does that work on each page view your cache misses; a link written into the post is written once.
Can I keep Yoast or Rank Math alongside one of these?
Yes. Automatic Internal Links for SEO builds its links from the focus keywords you set in Yoast, Rank Math, SEOPress or AIOSEO, and Interlink uses a Rank Math focus keyword as its preferred anchor. Neither Yoast SEO Premium nor Rank Math's free version places links itself.
How many internal links should a plugin add per post?
Plugins set caps, not answers: Autolinker and Rank Math's keyword maps both default to 3 links per post, and both let you change it. The right number depends on the post; see how many internal links per page.
Try Autolinker on your own posts
The free plugin is in the WordPress plugin directory. It needs your own OpenAI key, and it writes each link into the post, where it stays if you uninstall.