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Link Whisper Review. Worth The Price? | Internal Links Made Easy

Are you struggling with tedious internal linking for your WordPress site? In this Link Whisper review, you will discover how this tool can automate link suggestions, saving you time and boosting your SEO strategy. I’ll also give a free alternative if you don’t have the budget for a paid tool.

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Link Whisper Review Key Points

  • A WordPress plugin for internal link building.

  • It is priced from $97 annually.

  • Features automatic linking, link reporting, and finding broken links.

  • Works with most major editors.

  • Link Whisper won’t slow down your website.

Introduction to Link Whisper

Link Whisper is a WordPress plugin designed for bloggers, and its job is to simplify internal link building.

I discovered it on Blow Growth Engine, and ever since then, it has been part of my blogging toolkit, saving me time when building internal links.

But it’s not without its quirks, which we’ll touch on in a bit.

What is Internal Linking?

What is Internal Linking

Internal linking connects pages on your website, unlike external links, which lead traffic to pages on a different domain.

Internal links serve three main purposes:

  1. Move readers between your site pages (navigation).

  2. Define which content is important in your site.

  3. Distribute ‘link juice,’ improving SEO and organic search ranking.

Internal vs External Links
What Does ‘Link Juice’ Mean?

‘Link juice’ is the value (authority) one webpage passes to another through links.

Why Internal Linking Matters

Internal linking (link architecture) is essential if you want your website to rank well in search results.

What Google Says About Internal Links

Google tells us it is a ranking factor: ‘Link architecture— is a crucial step in site design if you want your website indexed by search engines.

Source: Google Search Central

If used properly, internal links can boost the PageRank of important pages and help search engines find all pages on your site.

However, manually creating internal links is a pain in the rear end. It’s boring and time-consuming.

Manual Internal Link Building

So, why’s it so hard to do?

Well, let me show you how I do manual internal linking. Then, you’ll get why you need automation tools to make it easier.

Finding Internal Links (Method 1):

I find target keywords in two or more blog posts and link them together.

Finding internal links
  1. Open blog post (A) in one web browser

  2. Open a related blog post (B) in a separate browser

  3. Search for your target keywords in both blog posts

  4. If you find them, add an internal link from A to B (or B to A)

Finding Internal Links (Method 2):

I also find internal link opportunities using the Google ‘site‘ command.

Google Search 'site' operator
  1. Open a Chrome browser.

  2. Type in the search bar site:https://yourwebsite.com/ “keyword”

  3. Enter

Google shows me blog posts on my site that have that target keyword.

It’s not a perfect way of doing internal linking, but it works.

What’s a better way? Enter Link Whisper.

Say Hi to Link Whisper!

Those manual methods aren’t going to cut it once you have more than a handful of posts.

Using AI to identify which pages on your website can be linked, Link Whisper automates the most challenging part of the internal linking strategy: finding relevant links.

Link Whisper price plans start from $97 per year for one site, making it one of the least expensive subscriptions I pay for my website ($8/mo).

I think this is a fair price point for an internal links manager with this many cool features.

At the time of writing this post, Link Whisper was offering a 20% discount. They run promotions a few times a year, so check now if you can grab a bargain.

Although the pricing has increased slightly over the years, they have added a lot of new features, and the plugin keeps getting better over time.

It would be nice to offer a free version or trial, but they don’t. However, they have a good 30-day guarantee, so you can get your money back if you’re unsatisfied.

So, is Link Whisper worth the price?

To answer that, we need to see it in action.

Installing Link Whisper

Purchase your license for Link Whisper and download the plugin.

Copy the License Key; you’ll need it in step 7.

To upload the plugin, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the WordPress Admin area

  2. Go to Plugins

  3. Select ‘Add New

  4. Use the ‘Upload Plugin’ button

  5. After uploading, click on ‘Install Now.

  6. Click on ‘Activate Plugin

  7. Enter the License Key.

The last step is to perform an initial link scan, which checks out the site’s content for possible links.

How to Use Link Whisper

Link Whisper Dashboard

I think they did a great job keeping the dashboard simple and clutter-free. You can quickly identify issues like broken links or load a report.

From the dashboard, you can access:

  1. Dashboard

  2. Link Report

  3. Domains Report

  4. Clicks Report

  5. Error Report

It is a user-friendly interface that makes sense. I like that the colors are muted, and the tooltips explain what each option does.

Creating Outbound Internal Links

To create outbound internal links, open any page in your chosen editor and scroll to the bottom of the page.

You will find two tabs;

  1. The Target Keywords tab

  2. The Suggested Links tab

Outbound internal links

The Target Keywords come from Google (GSC), an SEO plugin (e.g., Yoast SEO/Rank Math), or a list of custom phrases you add yourself.

The Suggested Links tab shows which pages the plugin has identified as possible internal links.

link suggestions

The left side shows potential outbound links, and the right side shows which page they will link to.

Review the suggestions and select the ones you want to use.

edit URL text

The plugin will highlight the text (in blue) that will be turned into a link.

You can edit the text selection by clicking the words you want to add or remove from the URL.

In the Advance Settings, you can tell Link Whisper the default anchor text length.

anchor text length

I like mine set to 3-5 words per URL, but you can always change it manually if necessary.

outbound and inbound buttons

Don’t forget to click ‘Insert Links into Post‘ — I’ve made that mistake a few times (they should add an auto-save feature) 😫

I like using silos to build my internal linking strategy, and Link Whisper makes this easy to do. Some of the options include;

  • Posts in the same category

  • Orphaned posts

  • Posts in the same tag

link filter options

Creating Inbound Internal Links

Let’s say you have a blog post—maybe a pillar post — that you want to build internal links to. How do you do that?

If you are in the page editor, you can click the ‘Add Inbound Links’ button in the plugin.

The other way is from the dashboard;

  1. Click the Links Report tab

  2. Find the Title you want to add links to

  3. In the Inbound Internal Links column, click ‘Add

  4. From the link suggestion list, check the ones you want to insert

  5. Click the ‘Add links‘ button.

inbound internal links list

I wanted to improve the inbound link count for my blog post about ‘making money with AI side hustles. In a few clicks, I had 13 possible inbound links to add.

Job done; move on to something else. ✅

But what else does it offer? Here are some key features that make Link Whisper stand out from other internal linking plugins.

Link Whisper Key Features

Link Whisper comes packed with features that make internal link management a breeze. The key features are:

  • Automatic linking tool

  • Advanced Reporting

  • Simple URL Changer

  • Link Ignoring

Link Whisper Auto-Linking Feature

Even though Link Whisper does a great job of suggesting which pages to link together, you still need to review the suggestions manually. But what about automatic linking?

That’s where the Auto-Linking feature comes in.

automatic internal linking

You can create an auto-link rule, and Link Whisper will automatically insert an internal link to a specific page whenever it finds the keyword in any of your posts.

auto-linking settings

You have complete control over how often it will create the link, priority, case sensitivity, etc.

Adding automatic links is a big time saver and helps you create consistency using the rules feature.

Link Whisper Reporting

Some SEO tools are too complicated to be helpful. 😵‍💫 That’s not the case with Link Whisper; they keep it simple.

Reports dashboard

From the dashboard, you can view your reports:

  1. Links Report

  2. Domains Report

  3. Clicks Report

  4. Error Report

I like that the dashboard stats are visual and give you an overview of the numbers.

You can see that our site’s internal and external links are split roughly 50:50. That’s great; I think it’s a good balance that helps keep our hard-earned link juice.

I love the Link Stats Report. I can see broken links and 404 errors without doing anything, which is a massive WIN. 🙌

When you open the Links Report, you see a detailed breakdown of the internal and external link numbers for each page on your site.

internal links report dashboard

I start by sorting the report by which post has the fewest internal or external links. That way, I can quickly pick out any orphaned posts and add new internal links to them.

add links

I like doing my internal linking from within the Links Report because it shows me where I need to improve most without going through each post one by one.

The Domain Report shows which external websites you link to the most.

Domain Report

I don’t use the Domain report in my workflow, but it could be useful. You could reach out to those website owners and suggest collaboration opportunities, for example.

The Error Report is critical. Broken links give your readers a lousy user experience and tell search engines that your content might be outdated.

Link Whisper Error Report

In this example, I can see that the URL no longer exists, and I need to go into that post and update the broken link in the content.

Do you want to know which of your pages gets the most clicks? The Link Whisper Clicks Report does exactly that.

Link Whisper Clicks Report

It also improves affiliate marketing revenue because you can quickly spot broken affiliate links and fix them before you lose any money.

I like that it also tells you which link gets the most clicks. That is powerful info, especially if you are an affiliate marketer 🤑

The links reporting in Link Whisper is thorough but not overwhelming. Most reports can be exported as CSV files for use outside the plugin.

On the downside, some internal link reports can take a long time to run, but the wait is worth it.

URL Changer

Bulk URL changer

If you have ever changed your site’s URL structure, you know how painful it is to set up all the redirects and update every internal link one link at a time.

The URL changer lets you quickly change all your internal links with just a few clicks.

Note

Changing your site structure is tricky. Please don’t do it unless you know what you are doing.

Ignoring Links

Can you ignore link suggestions for posts you don’t want to send link juice to?

Yip, no problem.

Link Whisper’s suggested links have an option to ‘Ignore Link.’ Clicking that will stop the plugin from suggesting links to that page.

link ignoring

Head over to the ‘Content Ignoring‘ settings for even more control.

content ignoring settings

Some of the options include;

  • Pages to completely ignore

  • Posts to be ignored

  • Categories of posts to be ignored

  • Posts to be ignored for auto-linking

and a whole lot more.

Link Whisper Free Alternative

While Link Whisper has everything you need to manage internal links, it might not be for everyone.

What if you’re looking for a free internal link alternative to Link Whisper?

I use Ahrefs for SEO research, and you can use it to find internal link opportunities, too.

Ahrefs is not cheap! However, its internal link opportunities feature is FREE as part of its free plan.

Ahrefs link suggestions

So how does it work?

  1. Run a Site Audit of your domain in Ahrefs

  2. Click Internal Link Opportunities

  3. Manually add the inbound and outbound links that Ahrefs suggests.

It’s an entirely manual process, but at least finding relevant backlinks is done for you.

Ahrefs is a great tool, so you can trust that the suggestions are solid and based on some math magic—not just guesswork.

Link Whisper Review: How Well Does It Work?

Is Link Whisper good?

It’s time to dig in and see how Link Whisper performs in real-life scenarios.

WordPress Page Builder Compatibility

Before you get excited about any plugins or tools, check that they will work with your current tech setup.

Thankfully, Link Whisper has been designed to work with several popular page builders, including:

  • Gutenberg

  • Elementor

  • Kadence Pro

  • Divi

  • and more

In my experience, Link Whisper is fully compatible with the Gutenberg editor and the Kadence Pro theme. I’ve had no issues since adding it to my tech stack.

Chances are your preferred editor is also covered, but you can always check their latest list of compatible WordPress editors and even request one to be added.

Will Link Whisper Slow Down Your Website?

How fast your webpage loads affects how many visitors stay on your site, so every SEO checklist must mention page speed.

So, does Link Whisper affect your website’s speed?

I tested if Link Whisper would slow my website load times by running a before-and-after test using Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

PageSpeed Insights speed report

As you can see above, my PageSpeed Insights score was 100 before and after installing the plugin.

I found no difference in website speed after installing Link Whisper, so you can use this plugin without spoiling your user experience or page speed.

Does Link Whisper Create Relevant Links?

How does Link Whisper fare in creating relevant links? Well, it depends.

For example, it sometimes suggests links between pages in unrelated niches.

The good thing is they also give you many options to reduce the bad link suggestions. We discussed some of these in more detail above, like:

  • Filtering by category or tag

  • Ignoring links

  • Searching by keyword

  • Custom keywords

  • Content ignoring settings

So, I’ve found that if I use the filtering tools and instruct Link Whisper to narrow its suggestions to posts in the same category (niche), it does a good job of suggesting internal links relevant to the post.

The Good Stuff – What I Like About Link Whisper

I like this tool a lot, mainly because it saves me hours. Building internal links used to be a tedious manual task, but I can automate most of the effort with Link Whisper.

The other great thing is that my internal links will remain in place even if I decide to cancel my subscription one day.

Link Whisper Pros

  • Time Efficiency: Automates finding and adding internal links, significantly reducing the time required.

  • Enhanced SEO Performance: Optimizing internal linking helps distribute link juice, potentially improving your SEO ranking.

  • User-Friendly Interface: Its simple dashboard is easy to navigate, even for those who are not technical.

  • Compatibility: Works seamlessly with popular WordPress editors like Gutenberg and Elementor, ensuring wide usability.

  • Reporting: Provides detailed reports on link health, including broken links and link distribution, helping maintain site health.

  • Cost: It costs $97 annually, which is very affordable, even for small site owners on a tight budget.

The Not So Good – Link Whisper Improvements

That’s all the good stuff, but what could they improve?

The first problem is that it’s only for WordPress and Shopify. So, bad luck for creators on Squarespace, Wix, and the like.

The next biggest problem is that you still have to check every link suggestion for relevancy.

This leads to my last problem: relevancy. Many of the suggested links are unrelated to the page’s topic.

To their credit, they have provided easy ways to improve the link suggestions, such as filters and content ignoring settings. But I wish it would just get it right every time.

Link Whisper Cons

  • Platforms: Limited only to WordPress and Shopify.

  • Manual Oversight: While it automates suggestions, each suggestion still requires manual review, which can be time-consuming.

  • Irrelevant Suggestions: Sometimes, suggest links that are not relevant.

  • No Free Version: The plugin lacks a free version or trial, which might deter potential users.

How To Do Internal Links Correctly: 10 Tips

You need to know how to use internal links to maximize their benefits.

Here are ten tips for creating and managing internal links effectively:

  1. Have a plan: A scattergun approach to internal linking will only confuse search engines. Have a consistent strategy for internal link structure.

  2. Relevant anchor text: Don’t annoy your readers with anchor text that leads them to unrelated content.

  3. Vary the anchor text: Don’t use the same Don’trds repeatedly; that can look spammy.

  4. Not too many: Add at least 5-10 inbound and outbound links per post (per 2000 words).

  5. No orphans: Avoid orphaned pages. These can make it hard for search engines to reach all your content.

  6. Use content silos: Linking related pages together in a systematic way is a good strategy for constant and relevant backlinking.

  7. User-friendly: Open internal links in the same tab; it’s a better user experience.

  8. Always use Dofollow links: Google won’t crawl your links if they are tagged as Nofollow and will also not pass along Page RangRank.

  9. Use long-form content: Create links between long-form articles for deeper internal linking. This is an easy way to get better link penetration across your site.

  10. Tools: Invest in an internal linking tool. I recommend Link Whisper, but a free option like Ahrefs will also make the task easier.

These tips and using the best internal linking tool like Link Whisper can improve your linking strategy and boost your site’s SEO performance.

Link Whisper Review: Final Verdict

We started this Link Whisper review post asking, ‘Is Link Whisper worth the price’?

Link Whisper is excellent value for money. The plugin offers significant time savings in internal link building and outstanding customer support.

I’m not the only one who thinks so. Link Whisper has an impressive 5/5 rating on Product Hunt, and check out what other users have said about it:

Link Whisper Product Hunt score

I’ve used it for several years and believe it is the best internal link automation tool with the best features and overall value for money.

In short, Link Whisper could be a game-changer for anyone managing a content-heavy website or multiple niche sites. In fact, I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to use this tool.

Summary

Link Whisper is a must-have internal linking plugin for WordPress. It streamlines your SEO strategy, saving you time and money with automated link suggestions. It has a few minor flaws, but overall, its efficiency and affordability make it a tool every blog writer should have in their toolkit.

Did you find this Link Whisper review helpful? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Link Whisper?

Link Whisper is a WordPress plugin that speeds up and automates adding internal links between your web pages.

Are there any alternatives to Link Whisper?

Yes, Ahrefs is a free alternative to Link Whisper. It’s available on the free Ahrefs plan; however, it only suggests possible links and has no automation features.

Does Link Whisper slow down your website?

No, Link Whisper does not slow down your website. I tested this on my own installation and found no difference before and after installing the plugin.

What are some key features of Link Whisper?

Link Whisper’s key features include automatic link suggestions, automatic internal linking, broken link reporting, and click tracking.

How does Link Whisper work?

Link Whisper works with your WordPress editor, Google Search Console, and SEO plugin (e.g., Rank Math). It scans your web pages, looking for specific posts to suggest internal links based on target keywords.

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