Controlling what gets linked
Automatic linking earns trust through its exclusions, not its coverage. Four levels exist, and they answer different questions.
| Level | Question it answers |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Which phrases must never become an anchor? |
| HTML tags | Which parts of a page must be left alone? |
| URLs | Which pages must never receive links? |
| Per page | Which single page should be skipped entirely? |
Keywords
The Exclude Keywords field defines words that are never converted into anchor text, even when they match a stored focus keyword.
Enter one keyword per line. Entries are case-sensitive by default: to exclude both WordPress and wordpress, add both lines.
Typical use: your brand name, which appears everywhere and would otherwise generate a link on every page; generic terms like contact or home; and words that appear in interface elements the tag exclusion does not cover.
This is the right lever when one phrase is creating noise across the whole site.
HTML tags
By default the plugin never creates a link inside an existing <a> tag. Beyond that, you can exclude HTML elements, CSS IDs and CSS classes.
Default exclusions:
h1
h2
h3
#adSyntax:
- HTML tag names without brackets:
h1,h2,h3,blockquote - CSS IDs with a hash:
#sidebar,#footer,#ad - CSS classes with a dot:
.skip-autolinks,.no-links
Everything inside a matching element is skipped by the injection engine.
Worth considering: navigation blocks, footers, author bios, and advertisement containers, where an automatic link would be inappropriate or distracting.
URLs
The Black List URLs setting names pages that should never have automatic links injected into them.
Enter full URLs, one per line. The plugin resolves each to a WordPress post ID. When one of those pages renders, the plugin returns its content untouched, so no automatic link appears on it.
This is a source-side exclusion, not a destination-side one. A blacklisted page can still be linked to from elsewhere: the setting controls where links appear, not where they point.
Typical exclusions: the homepage, the contact page, legal pages such as privacy policy and terms of service, and pages with custom layouts that conflict with injected links.
Per page
A metabox appears in the sidebar of the WordPress editor. Checking Disable Internal Links on a page makes the plugin skip that page entirely during the the_content filter: no auto-generated links appear on it.
This is a Pro capability.
Use it for landing pages with a specific conversion goal, pages whose custom JavaScript conflicts with injected links, and pages where the editorial team wants full control of the link structure.
Neither setting excludes a destination
Both the URL blacklist and the metabox act on the page being rendered: they stop links from appearing on it. Neither prevents that page from being used as a destination elsewhere.
There is no destination-side exclusion. To stop a page receiving links, remove or change the focus keyword that points at it, or add that keyword to the keyword exclusion list.
Verified by reading Automatic Internal Links 2.0.11, where the blacklist is compared against the identifier of the page currently rendering.
After changing an exclusion
Exclusions are applied at render time, but query results are cached. After changing any of the four, clear the plugin's transient cache from the Sync tab so the change takes effect immediately. See cache.
Read next
- Overview — how detection and replacement work
- Matching rules — what gets matched in the first place
- Running sync — SYNC, AUTO LINKS, the log and the cache
- Manual links — links you define yourself