Q: What's a repeatable checklist for doing an internal-linking pass on a new article?

Q: What's a repeatable checklist for doing an internal-linking pass on a new article?

Short answer: before you hit publish, run these six checks every time — it takes ten minutes and beats a monthly link cleanup.

— Add 2-4 links OUT to your most relevant existing pages, using descriptive anchor text (not "click here")
— Add at least 3 links IN from older pages that mention this new topic — search site:yourdomain.com "phrase" to find them
— Link to your pillar page once, high in the body
— Vary anchors: don't use the exact same phrase five times across the site
— Check no link points to a redirected or 404 URL
— Make sure the new page isn't an orphan — it needs at least one link from navigation or a hub

In practice: the inbound links matter more than the outbound ones for ranking the new page.

Question about anchors? Send it in.