An internal link is a sentence that points somewhere useful on the same site. In a silo, those sentences are how products, services, and topics stay related instead of becoming a stack of isolated articles.
InstantSilo writes those links into Markdown drafts. This page explains the rules it follows, and what you should still check. The hub for the cluster is the content foundation.
Links describe relationships
A good internal link answers “where should I go next?” It is not a way to sprinkle keywords. Anchor text should name the destination: “the InstantSilo workflow”, not “click here”, and not a stuffed phrase you hope to rank for.
On a service or product site, typical relationships are:
- A supporting how-to page up to the pillar that explains the offering.
- The pillar down to the supporting pages that unpack parts of the offering.
- A supporting page across to one related supporting page.
- Occasional links out of the silo to features, pricing, or docs when the reader needs the product, not another article.
That is the same pattern used in a connected website structure.
The hierarchy InstantSilo drafts toward
Generated silos aim for a strict-enough hierarchy:
- Pillar → supporting. The hub should link to every page in the cluster.
- Supporting → pillar. Every supporting page should be able to send the reader back.
- Limited lateral links. Two related supporting pages may point at each other when the next question is real.
- Few cross-silo links. If you later add a second cluster, keep most links inside each cluster so the topics stay distinct.
Links help readers and crawlers move between related pages.
What the generator can get wrong
Draft links sometimes:
- Point at a slug that was renamed or never exported.
- Repeat the same destination three times in one article.
- Use an anchor that overclaims (“boost your rankings”).
- Wander to a generic example that is not on your site.
The cleanup step in generation tries to keep same-site links pointing at selected silo pages and to drop invented relative URLs. It is not a substitute for reading the article. Open each link on staging.
A worked example: this silo
This article links up to the content foundation, across to connected structure and SEO, GEO and AIO, and out to product URLs when the reader needs the studio rather than another guide.
You can view source on these pages and follow the same graph InstantSilo would export. If a link feels forced, that is a cue to cut it. Fewer honest links beat a dense mesh.
How to review links before you publish
- List the pages in the silo and confirm each has a parent.
- Confirm the pillar mentions every supporting page.
- Click every internal href after import (WordPress permalinks often change).
- Remove links whose only job is to reuse a keyword.
- Keep one clear path from a supporting page back to the offering.
Export remains WordPress, Markdown, JSON, or CSV. The package can include the link text; your CMS still has to resolve the URLs.
Internal links will not make a thin page useful. They can make a useful cluster easier to finish. Edit them the way you would edit the rest of the draft.