Getting started with internal linking

This guide walks you from install to your first approved internal links in Link Pilot—an EShopSet app included in every plan. You will scan the store, read Overview health, review suggestions, and apply links with credits or DIY export.

What you will set up

• A completed index + audit + suggest run so Overview and Suggestions are populated
• An understanding of two different numbers: Overview Score (store graph health) vs suggestion Confidence (how strong one link idea is)
• A small first batch of approved links applied with welcome credits—or exported for DIY

Prerequisites

• A Shopify store with products, collections, pages, or blog posts that have body/description HTML
• Permission to install apps and edit catalog/content
• While the App Store listing is in review, use Install Now on the Link Pilot app page for early access

Step 1 — Install and open Link Pilot

1. Install Link Pilot on the store (early-access Install Now, or the App Store listing when live).
2. Open Link Pilot in Shopify Admin.
3. Complete onboarding and choose Start store scan when prompted.

New installs receive 50 welcome implement credits. DIY export stays free forever.

Step 2 — Scan, audit, and generate suggestions

Without a completed scan, Overview and Suggestions stay empty. Generation runs rules (orphans, broken targets, underlinked hubs, missing commercial links) in parallel with AI embeddings (same-locale cosine neighbors). If AI is unavailable, rules still run.

1. Wait for the index job (products, collections, articles, pages).
2. From Overview, run Audit if it did not start automatically—this builds the body-link graph and health lists.
3. Run Generate suggestions and wait until progress completes.
4. Open Suggestions when the open queue has rows.

Without Link Automation, you can re-index at most 2 full scans per UTC day. Details: Scan the store and generate suggestions.

Step 3 — Read Overview Score and link health

The header Score: N% is store-wide graph health from body HTML only (theme menus do not count). It starts at 100 and deducts for orphans (35%), broken links (30%), underlinked hubs (20%), and dead-end articles/pages (15%). It is not the same as suggestion Confidence.

1. Open Overview and note the Score plus recent job results.
2. Check Orphans (little or no inbound body links).

3. Review Broken targets (missing, deleted, or unavailable).

4. Open Underlinked hubs (products/collections below peer median inbound).

More depth: How the Overview linking score works · Read Overview link health.

Step 4 — Review suggestions (Confidence and Why)

Each suggestion shows a Confidence percent (deterministic weighted score—AI does not invent the number) and a Why written by AI. AI also proposes a safe anchor that must already appear in the source copy. Hover Confidence for Semantic, Context, Commercial, Scarcity, and related signals.

1. Open Suggestions → Open.
2. Filter by type (start with broken / orphan / underlinked if Score is weak) and confidence (for example 70%+).
3. Open a row to see source, destination, proposed anchor, Confidence, and Why.

4. Edit awkward anchors (must remain a substring of live HTML) or change the destination if needed.
5. Approve strong matches; Dismiss noise. Use bulk approve when a filtered set is ready.

See also: Review, edit, and approve suggestions · How suggestion confidence is scored · Suggestion types.

Step 5 — Apply with credits or DIY export

Apply wraps an existing phrase in live HTML—it does not invent new paragraphs. Applying links can improve Overview Score after the next audit; it does not rewrite Confidence on past suggestions.

1. From Approved suggestions, start implement and confirm credit cost (one credit per implementable link).
2. Or use DIY export and paste links manually in the Shopify editor.
3. Re-run Audit after a batch to see Score and health lists update.

Full options and pack prices: Apply links with credits or DIY export · Pricing.

Recommended first-week checklist

1. Fix broken targets first (crawl and shopper trust).
2. Add inbound links to top orphan money pages (collections and bestsellers).
3. Strengthen a few underlinked hubs from related blogs/pages.
4. Approve a small set of high-Confidence blog → product/collection semantic matches.
5. Optionally tighten Settings → Limits (max links per item, min cosine) before a larger batch.

What to do next

• How AI and rules generate suggestions — embeddings, rules, and merchant review
• Configure limits, filters, and automation — caps, ignore handles, Pro auto-implement
• Map Search Console opportunities — keyword targets (Link Automation)
• Analytics and billing — CTR vs Score vs Confidence
• Internal linking use cases — playbooks for orphans, broken links, hubs, GSC, and CTR

Troubleshooting

• Empty Overview / Suggestions: finish index, audit, and generate suggestions; wait for job progress to clear.
• Scan blocked: free plan hits 2 re-indexes per UTC day—wait or activate Link Automation.
• Everything “already linked”: theme nav does not count—focus on description/body HTML.
• Cannot apply: phrase missing or content changed since suggest—re-edit the anchor or regenerate.
• Out of credits: buy a pack, wait for monthly Automation credits, or use DIY export.

Related

• What is Link Pilot?
• Scan the store and generate suggestions
• Link Pilot app page