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Link Audit
TL;DR: Link Audit classifies every post on your site as orphaned (zero inbound internal links), weak (below your inbound threshold), or healthy. A coverage score from 0–100 (grades A through F) measures your overall internal linking health, with weekly snapshots to track progress.
Scan your site's internal linking structure, classify every post by link health, and get a coverage score that tells you how well-connected your content is.
What Is Link Audit
Link Audit examines the internal links across all your published posts. It counts how many internal links point to each post (inbound) and how many internal links each post contains (outbound), then classifies every post as healthy, weak, or orphaned. A site-wide coverage score summarizes your overall internal linking health.
Use Link Audit to find content gaps, fix orphaned posts, and strengthen your site's internal link structure.
Access Link Audit at Link Manager Pro → Link Audit.
Understanding Post Status
Link Audit assigns one of three statuses to each scanned post based on its inbound and outbound internal link counts.
| Status | Condition | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| Orphaned | 0 inbound internal links | No other post on your site links to this post. Search engines and visitors have no internal path to reach it. |
| Weak | Fewer inbound or outbound links than the configured thresholds | The post has some internal links but falls short of the minimum thresholds you set. |
| Healthy | Meets both minimum inbound and minimum outbound thresholds | The post has sufficient internal links in both directions. |
How Thresholds Work
Two settings control the boundary between weak and healthy:
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Min. Inbound Links | 3 | Minimum number of inbound internal links a post needs to qualify as healthy |
| Min. Outbound Links | 2 | Minimum number of outbound internal links a post needs to qualify as healthy |
A post must meet both thresholds to be classified as healthy. If it falls below either one (but has at least 1 inbound link), it is classified as weak.
Example: With the defaults, a post that has 5 inbound links but only 1 outbound link is classified as weak because it does not meet the outbound threshold of 2.
Coverage Score
The coverage score is a single number from 0 to 100 that represents how well your site's content is internally linked. Link Audit calculates it automatically after every scan.
Letter Grades
| Grade | Score Range |
|---|---|
| A | 90–100 |
| B | 75–89 |
| C | 60–74 |
| D | 40–59 |
| F | 0–39 |
How the Score Is Calculated
The score starts at 100. Penalties are deducted based on the number of problematic posts and links:
| Penalty Source | Weight | Max Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Orphaned posts | 2 | 40 points |
| Weak posts | 1 | 30 points |
| Broken links | 3 | 30 points |
Each penalty is calculated as count of problematic items × weight, then capped at the maximum. The final score equals 100 − sum of all penalties.
Example: If you have 5 orphaned posts, the orphaned penalty is 5 × 2 = 10 points. If you have 25 orphaned posts, the penalty would be 25 × 2 = 50, but it caps at 40. A site with no orphaned posts, no weak posts, and no broken links scores 100 (grade A).
Running a Scan
Manual Scan
- Go to Link Manager Pro → Link Audit.
- Click Scan All Posts.
- Wait for the scan to complete.
Link Audit processes posts in batches with a 20-second time budget per batch. For large sites, the scan runs across multiple batches automatically. You can monitor progress as each batch completes.
Automatic Scanning
Link Audit re-scans a post automatically every time you save or update it. Your audit data stays current as you publish and edit content.
What the Scan Extracts
For each post, the scan extracts all links from the post content and counts:
| Metric | Description |
|---|---|
| Inbound | Number of internal links from other posts pointing to this post |
| Outbound | Number of internal links in this post pointing to other posts on your site |
| External | Number of links in this post pointing to external domains |
Only the post types you configure in settings are included in the scan.
Reviewing Results
After a scan completes, the Link Audit screen shows a table of all scanned posts with their status and link counts.
Stats Summary
At the top of the page, you see aggregate stats:
- Total posts scanned — number of posts included in the audit
- Healthy — posts meeting both link thresholds
- Weak — posts below one or both thresholds
- Orphaned — posts with zero inbound internal links
- Average inbound links — mean inbound link count across all scanned posts
Filtering and Sorting
Use the status filter to narrow results:
- All — every scanned post
- Healthy — only posts that meet both thresholds
- Weak — only posts below thresholds
- Orphaned — only posts with zero inbound links
You can sort by any column — post title, status, inbound, outbound, external, or scan date — and search by post title.
Link Suggestions
Link Audit can suggest internal links for under-linked posts. Suggestions use keyword-based relevance scoring to find candidate posts that are topically related to the current post.
How Suggestions Work
- Link Audit extracts keywords from the title of the post you want to improve.
- It scores other published posts by how closely their content matches those keywords.
- It returns a ranked list of candidate posts, each with a relevance score and a recommended anchor text.
Inserting a Suggested Link
- Find the post you want more inbound links for in the audit table.
- Click Suggest to load link suggestions.
- Review the list of posts that can link to this content, along with the suggested anchor text.
- Click Insert Link next to a suggestion you want to add.
- Link Audit adds a link in the suggested post's content pointing back to the post you selected.
- Both posts are re-scanned automatically after insertion.
Link Audit only converts plain text into links and does not modify existing links.
Coverage History
Link Audit stores weekly snapshots of your coverage score for trend tracking. You can view up to 12 weeks of history to see how your internal linking improves over time.
The history chart shows your score and grade for each week, making it easy to spot the impact of your linking efforts.
Improving Your Score
Follow these steps to raise your coverage score:
- Fix orphaned posts first. Orphaned posts have the largest maximum penalty (40 points). Add at least one internal link from another post to each orphaned post.
- Strengthen weak posts. Add outbound internal links to posts that fall below the outbound threshold. Link to related content naturally within the text.
- Use link suggestions. Review and insert the suggested links that Link Audit provides. Each inserted link improves the scores of both the source and target posts.
- Fix broken links. Broken links carry the highest individual weight (3×). Repair or remove links that return errors.
- Publish with linking in mind. When you write new posts, include internal links to existing content and update older posts to link back.
- Check your score weekly. Use coverage history to track progress and catch regressions.
Settings
Configure Link Audit thresholds in Link Manager Pro → Settings → General.
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Min. Inbound Links | 3 | Minimum inbound internal links for a post to be classified as healthy |
| Min. Outbound Links | 2 | Minimum outbound internal links for a post to be classified as healthy |
Adjust these thresholds based on your site's size and content strategy. A smaller site with fewer posts may work well with lower thresholds. A large content site benefits from higher thresholds to ensure thorough interlinking.
After changing thresholds, run a full audit to reclassify all posts under the new values.