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Internal linking that never leaves your site

Core+ Links is a free WordPress plugin that ranks internal link suggestions from your own content — each with a visible score — plus review-first auto-linking and internal Link Health, all running entirely on your server. Nothing is sent to a cloud, no account is required, and your content never leaves your site.

No credits. No cloud. No black box.

Core Plus Links sidebar in the WordPress block editor showing ranked internal link suggestions with Strong match badges
Suggestions appear in the block editor sidebar while you write — Strong, Good, Fair, and Weak.

Coverage

Surface the internal links your older posts are missing

Core+ Links indexes your posts and pages and ranks the most relevant internal links for every post as it is written, so older articles keep getting linked instead of being forgotten — with nothing sent off your server.

How it works

Index the site. Suggest while writing. Insert once.

  1. 01

    Index your content

    Every published post and page — titles, headings, taxonomies, excerpts, and body text — is written into an index in your own database.

    Core Plus Links admin dashboard showing index health and status
    Index freshness and job status on the admin dashboard.
  2. 02

    Suggest links in the editor

    Open a post in the block editor, and the sidebar ranks the most relevant targets from your own content, each with a visible score — plus inbound and outbound link listings for the page you are editing.

    Ranked internal link suggestions in the block editor sidebar while writing
    Suggestions appear beside the post while writing.
  3. 03

    Insert in one click

    Edit the suggested anchor if you want, then insert. Dismissed suggestions stay dismissed.

    A suggested internal link inserted into a post, with confirmation
    One-click insert places the link and confirms it.

The quick start covers the first index step by step

Auto-linking

Link the whole site — after you review every match

Define a keyword and the published post or page it should point to. Core+ Links scans your posts and pages for matches and lists each one for review — the source, the keyword, the target, and the sentence the link would land in. Nothing is written until you confirm.

Apply the rows you select, one at a time or as a batch. Every insert creates a WordPress revision. Change history lists every link the plugin inserted — filterable and sortable — with one-click undo for a single change, a whole run, or every link from one keyword rule. A post edited since the link was added is flagged for you to fix by hand, never silently overwritten. Each rule shows how many pages it has linked.

Two path lists — Only auto-link these pages and Never auto-link these pages — bound which pages bulk apply may edit. Auto-linking never runs on a schedule and never applies on its own. Unattended, scheduled apply is a separate Pro capability — not something Free does quietly in the background.

How auto-linking works

Core Plus Links auto-linking review screen listing keyword matches with source, target, and the sentence each link would land in, alongside Apply selected controls
Review each match — source, keyword, target, and sentence — then apply only the rows you confirm.

Why deterministic

See the score behind every suggestion

Not a model and not an inference — a calculation. Identical content and settings produce identical results every time.

Signal weights used by Core+ Links Free
Signal Weight
Taxonomy overlap 0.30 Title overlap 0.20 Body keyword overlap 0.15 Heading overlap 0.10 Link graph relevance 0.10 Excerpt overlap 0.05 Custom field overlap 0.05 Priority score 0.05

The weights sum to 1.00.

The weights sum to 1.00. Taxonomy leads because two posts that share a category provide stronger evidence of related subject matter than two posts that share a word.

No model is involved, so no content is transmitted, no API key is required, and no request incurs a cost. The free plugin is deterministic and entirely local by design — that is the product, not a limitation.

how ranking works

Core Plus Links sidebar in the block editor showing ranked suggestions with Strong match and Good match labels, Insert link, Dismiss, and View details
Each suggestion shows its match strength — Strong, Good, Fair, or Weak. Expanded signal breakdown (S2) awaits a real View details capture.

Privacy

Nothing leaves your WordPress install

Core Plus Links indexes, ranks, auto-links, and runs Link Health on your own server, against your own database. It sends your content to no external service. It requires no API key and no account, and carries no telemetry of any kind.

Core+ Links Pro adds optional AI-assisted matching through your own provider key. It is enabled deliberately, and once enabled, content is sent to the chosen provider. The trade-off is explicit, and the decision remains yours.

What the plugin and this site store

Reports

Find the gaps in your internal linking

Orphan pages are indexed pages with no internal links pointing to them. Underlinked pages have fewer inbound links than their importance calls for. Excluded pages appear in neither report — otherwise utility pages such as a privacy policy would dominate the orphan list permanently.

Suggested exclusions for utility pages are proposed for your review and never applied automatically.

The reports identify structural gaps. They do not predict the effect of closing those gaps on rankings, because that outcome cannot be verified.

How to read the reports

Core Plus Links reports screen listing orphan and underlinked pages with inbound link counts
Orphan and underlinked reports from the same local index.

What is in Free

The full free product

Suggestions, auto-linking you review, Link Health, reports, and indexing on your own install — complete for posts and pages, not a trial, and not a preview of Pro.

  • Posts and pages indexed
  • Deterministic suggestions in the block editor
  • Inbound and outbound link listings
  • Editable anchor text before insert
  • One-click insert and persistent dismissals
  • Context bank for taxonomies and exclusions
  • Suggested exclusions for utility pages — you decide
  • Orphan and underlinked reports, sortable and paginated
  • Auto-linking: keyword rules, scan, review, and apply selected
  • Change history: undo per change, per run, or per rule
  • Per-rule footprint: how many pages each keyword has linked
  • Auto-link scope: only-apply-to and never-apply-to path lists
  • Link Health: unpublished, trashed, or missing internal targets
  • Background and scheduled reindexing

Free indexes posts and pages. Custom post types, custom fields, AI-assisted matching, external HTTP checking, and scheduled auto-link apply are in Core+ Links Pro (Upcoming) — separate product, not locked features inside Free.

Everything in more detail , or the full Free and Pro comparison .

Pro

Pro adds capability. Free stays whole.

Core+ Links Pro adds custom post type indexing, custom field support, AI-assisted matching with your own provider key, external HTTP broken-link checking, scheduled Link Health scans, and scheduled auto-link apply.

Pro is a separate product — Upcoming. Free does not contain locked Pro code. What ships in Free remains in Free.

One message when Pro launches. No other correspondence.

Free vs Pro comparison

FAQ

Questions before installing

Does it send my content anywhere?
No. Core Plus Links indexes, ranks, auto-links, and runs Link Health on your own server, against your own database. There is no API call, no account, and no telemetry. This can be verified in the network panel, or in the GPL source.
Do I need an API key or an account?
Neither. Install the plugin, run the first index, and it operates. Deterministic suggestions, auto-linking, and internal Link Health work without an API key. Pro adds optional AI-assisted matching with a provider key you supply — Upcoming, off by default when it ships.
Does auto-linking change my posts by itself?
No. You define keyword rules, scan, review matches, and apply the ones you confirm. Nothing is applied until you confirm. Scheduled or unattended apply is not part of the free plugin.
Can I undo an auto-linked insert?
Yes. Change history lists every link the plugin inserted. Undo one change, a whole run, or every link from one keyword rule. Undo creates a WordPress revision. If a post was edited after the insert, that row is flagged for you to fix by hand — never silently overwritten.
What broken links does Link Health find?
Internal links to unpublished, trashed, or missing pages on your site. It does not check external URLs over HTTP. Unresolved /go/-style affiliate URLs are not listed as broken.
Does it work with the classic editor?
Not yet. The sidebar is built from WordPress block editor components, so it appears in Gutenberg only. Classic editor support is planned for a later release.
Does it work on multisite?
Per-site activation is supported. Network activation is not supported yet — the plugin detects it and refuses with a notice rather than operating incompletely.
Is it on WordPress.org?
Yes. Install Core Plus Links from Plugins → Add New in WordPress, or from the WordPress.org plugin directory. A ZIP download remains available on this site as a secondary option.
Will it slow down my site?
Indexing runs as a background job, not during page loads. Suggestions are served from the local index. If the site depends on WP-Cron and traffic is low, indexing can stall — troubleshooting covers what to check.
What happens to my data if I uninstall?
Settings are retained by default so a reinstall restores configuration. The index is dropped because it can be rebuilt. Both behaviours are configurable — uninstall and data.
Is Free going to stay free?
Yes. Free is not a time-limited trial. The deterministic engine incurs no per-use cost on your hardware, so there is no per-request cost to recover. Pro is a separate product that adds capabilities Free does not include.

Free · No account required · Works without an API key

Install it on your own site

Install Core Plus Links from WordPress.org, with no account and no API key. If it does not suit the site, deactivating it leaves nothing behind except the settings you chose to keep.