Who Wants Better Internal Link Search?

Who Wants Better Internal Link Search?

Better Internal Link Search I am extremely picky with the plugins I keep these days.

I have to be – since I typically check out 5-10 on a daily basis, I could quite easily end up with a seriously bloated blog.

But today, I found a plugin which found its way onto my own blog without a moment’s hesitation. That’s about the biggest compliment I can give it.

With that said, if you have ever found yourself frustrated by WordPress’ internal linking search engine, read on.

Better Internal Link Search

You know what’s utterly absurd? When I want to link to another post on my site, I typically follow this process:

  1. Search for my post in Google
  2. Copy the URL from the Google results page and paste it into the “Insert/edit link” screen
  3. Copy the title of the post from the Google results page and paste it into the “Insert/edit link” screen

WordPress’ internal link search is essentially rendered useless by any blog with more than a handful of posts, because it locates posts and pages based upon the keyword being present anywhere in the title and/or contents, then returns the results in date order.

This is best shown with an example:

WordPress Internal Link Search

The standard WordPress internal link search shows exactly one directly relevant result above the fold, and result is only there because it happens to be one of the most recent posts.

Now check out the same search carried out with the Better Internal Link Search plugin installed:

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WordPress Internal Link Search

The plugin searches for posts based upon titles alone, assuming that if you want to link to a post, you will know what its title is.

It can also returns partial matches, in case you want to catch additional related posts:

WordPress Internal Link Search

Here’s the same search without the plugin installed:

WordPress Internal Link Search

There’s really no comparison. If you generally have a good idea of your post titles, installing this plugin (in my humble opinion) is an absolute no brainer.

Don’t get me wrong – Better Internal Link Search isn’t perfect. It is a compromise – but in my opinion, it works far more effectively than WordPress’ default internal link search. And perhaps the developer will be able to build it out into an even more useful tool in the future.

Download Better Internal Link Search.

Creative Commons Photo courtesy of j-dub1980

 

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