Step 9 Add Internal Links with Proper Anchor Text

Task Library

Insert internal links using the entity-linking decision tree – people to personal sites, companies to company sites, concepts to definitive articles – with descriptive 3-6 word anchors (Blog Posting Guidelines Step 9).

Category: Content Factory – Process

Use this when the article text and images are in place (Step 8 complete) and the piece must be wired into the entity graph and SEO Tree.

Inputs

  • The drafted article
  • The link-candidate list from Step 4 (related posts, definitive articles, service page)
  • The entity-linking decision tree and the site's SEO Tree map
  • List of every person, company, and concept mentioned in the article

Steps

  1. List every entity the article mentions: people, companies, and concepts. Each is a link decision, not an afterthought.
  2. Apply the decision tree per entity: people → their personal site (e.g., a mention of Dennis Yu links to dennisyu.com), companies → the company site (Superior Fence & Rail to its own domain), concepts → the concept's definitive article (Dollar a Day to /dad, the pipeline to /content-factory).
  3. Link UP the SEO Tree: this article (leaf) links to its branch/trunk pages and the relevant service page – at minimum one other post and one money page.
  4. Write anchor text of 3-6 descriptive words that say where the link goes ("the Dollar a Day strategy," "Blog Posting Guidelines SOP"). "Click here," "this post," and bare URLs are banned.
  5. Place links in body sentences where the entity naturally appears – contextual placement, not a link dump at the end.
  6. Link each entity on first meaningful mention only; do not re-link the same target repeatedly.
  7. Verify every URL resolves (no drafts, no typos, no redirects to the homepage when a hub exists).
  8. Update the tracker ("Step 9 done") and hand off to step-10-embed-source-video. (LinkWhisper in Step 14b adds machine-suggested links later; this step is the human/agent judgment pass.)

Definition of done (QA checklist)

  • Every person, company, and concept mention resolved through the decision tree
  • Article links to ≥1 other post and ≥1 service/money page, upward along the SEO Tree
  • All anchors are 3-6 descriptive words – zero generic anchors
  • Links placed contextually in body copy, first mention only
  • Every link tested and resolving
  • Linked back to the definitive article and relevant siblings

Example(s)

  • The decision tree and anchor standards are documented at /blog-posting-guidelines and in depth at /internal-linking (whose hub ships its own skill file – the model this library copies).
  • Example needed as a standalone meta-article – run the Meta-Article Prompt after first documented run.

File in the zip: skills/content-factory-process/step-9-add-internal-links-with-proper-anchor-text.md. Download the Task Library zip.

Index: Task Library. Article guidelines.

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