Yes, AI is a hot topic everywhere, including at Specbee. But for us, building this AI-powered tool was about more than just staying relevant. It started with a real, everyday frustration faced by our own marketing team.

We write a lot of new content, you would know if you follow our blogs regularly. Now, every time we drafted an article, manually hunting for the right internal links for each article, double-checking relevance, and making sure we weren’t missing opportunities was getting tedious. It was inconsistent, time-consuming, and, honestly, not the best use of our time. I’m sure every marketer and content editor out there knows the struggle (yes, you!). 

Did you know that adding internal links to your content not only enhances navigation and user experience but also gives your SEO a solid boost?

We needed a smarter, faster way to keep our content well-connected without the endless back-and-forth. That’s how SmartLinker AI was born. Out of necessity, not just curiosity.

SmartLinker AI is built specifically for Drupal, and it takes the manual effort out of internal linking. Within a few clicks, you can improve your content’s discoverability and also optimize it for SEO and user experience. No more digging through pages to find the right links. AI does all the heavy lifting for you.

What is SmartLinker AI

SmartLinker AI is a Drupal module that automates internal linking to improve SEO, user experience, and editor efficiency. Internal links are hyperlinks that connect one page of a website to another page within the same website. The module gives you an option to choose a content type you want to link to. You also have the option to add keywords so AI understands that it needs to focus more on those specified terms and link them to the most relevant sources. 

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Why you need SmartLinker AI

1. Improved SEO

Internal links play a critical role in helping search engines understand your website’s structure and prioritize pages. SmartLinker AI ensures the keywords in your content are effectively linked, boosting your SEO performance by distributing link equity across your site.

For example: Suppose you’re writing a blog post on "How to fix SEO rankings after your website migration". SmartLinker AI ensures any mention of "SEO tips" or " SEO rankings" or “Migration” in this blog post will link to the appropriate pages on your website. 

This strategic linking improves the guide’s ranking on search engines, driving more traffic to high-priority pages.

2. Time-Saving for Content Editors

Content editors often spend significant time identifying the right pages to link to, ensuring relevance, and manually inserting links into the text. With SmartLinker AI, this entire process becomes automated.

For example: Let’s say your team publishes a blog titled "How can Content Marketing for your E-commerce store help you sell better." Instead of hunting through your site to find related pages, SmartLinker AI scans your content library and automatically links keywords like "Content marketing" to your service page and "E-commerce" to another blog. 

This saves editors hours when managing large content repositories.

3. Enhanced User Navigation

Internal links guide users to related content, keeping them engaged and reducing bounce rates. SmartLinker AI dynamically suggests links based on context, ensuring users can find valuable resources effortlessly.

For example: A visitor reading a blog on "Personalization in web development" may also be interested in learning about "How to Build Layouts for Personalized Experiences." SmartLinker AI automatically includes related and relevant links, creating a seamless learning journey for the user and increasing the time spent on your site.

4. Error-Free Linking

Manually added links can result in broken or outdated links, which harm user experience and SEO. SmartLinker AI validates links in real-time, ensuring they are functional and point to up-to-date pages.

For example: If a linked page like "/drupal-support-services" is moved to "/support-services," SmartLinker AI updates all references site-wide. This prevents users from encountering 404 errors and keeps your site professional and user-friendly.

5. Customizable Rules

SmartLinker AI allows you to define rules for linking based on your content strategy. You can focus on specific keywords and even choose the content types you want to link your content to. Additionally, you can also customize the number of links you would like to have in your content. However, please note that it might not always show you the same number of links for two reasons - 1. SmartLinker AI did not find enough relevant keywords to link to. 2. AI models do not always deliver 100% accurate results every time.

For example: You can configure SmartLinker AI to link to only “Articles” or only “Case Studies” content types instead of the entire website’s content types. This ensures your internal linking aligns with your business goals.

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Prerequisites

Although the user interface and experience of SmartLinker AI looks simple, there’s a lot going on in the background - which means that it leverages some of Drupal’s other amazing AI modules, Search functionalities, an LLM, and a Vector Database to deliver the most optimal results. So, before installing and configuring SmartLinker AI, ensure you have the required dependencies and setup in place.

Dependencies

1. AI Core: This framework brings Artificial Intelligence integration to your Drupal site.
2. AI CKEditor: A sub-module of AI Core that brings AI-powered capability that enables users to modify, create, and summarize content. We will be extending this module to include generating internal links.
3. AI provider to access GPT-4: This module seamlessly connects your Drupal site to OpenAI's GPT-4, enabling intelligent, AI-driven functionality to automatically embed and strategically place links within your content, ensuring a smooth and natural flow.
4. AI Search: A (fantastic) sub-module of AI Core that leverages AI to understand the requirements and query the vector database to provide intuitive, intelligent, and relevant results.
5. Milvus Vector Database Provider: A module that integrates Milvus, a high-performance vector database, into Drupal, that facilitates intelligent database searching, allowing the AI module to retrieve content through vector search.
6. Zilliz Cloud: A managed cloud service for Milvus, providing scalable, high-speed vector search capabilities without the hassle of managing infrastructure. We use this to store and index your content library so the search AI can retrieve the right information when needed.

You can download the SmartLinker AI module from here: https://www.drupal.org/project/smartlinker_ai.

Setting up Zillis Cloud

1. Create an Account: Visit Zilliz Cloud and sign up.
2. Create a Cluster:

• Free accounts allow one cluster with up to 5 GB of storage.
• Once the cluster is created, you will receive an endpoint and an API key/token.

3. Collection Setup:

• If a collection already exists, you can provide its name.
• Otherwise, a new collection (e.g., smartlinker_contents) will be created automatically.

Setting up Milvus DB

To integrate Milvus as the vector database, follow these steps:

1. Install the Milvus module

• Make sure you have the necessary Milvus installation done on your system or server and that it is enabled for use.

2. Copy the API token

• Go to your Zilliz account where you created the cluster.
• Copy the API token (provided under cluster settings or the API section).

3. Create the .key file:

• Open a text editor and paste the API token you copied.
• Save the file as .key (ensure the file name is .key without any extra extensions).

4. Place the .key file:

• Place the .key file in the appropriate directory.

5. Create a new key:

• Once the .key file is in place, you may need to generate a new key within your Milvus setup to securely link the cluster and Milvus DB.

Make sure you input the required details like the endpoint, token, and any other configurations specific to your Milvus setup.

Configuring the AI Search Server

Now that we've set up the Milvus DB, the next step is to create a Search AI Server and an index.

Create a New AI Search Server

1. Navigate to the Search API settings.
2. Select "AI Search" as the backend.
3. Choose Milvus DB as the vector database:

• Database Name: default
• Collection Name: Use the existing one from Zilliz or enter a new one (it will be created automatically).

Create a Search Index

1. Select the Data Source: Choose "Content".

2. Select Content Types:

• Index all content types, or exclude specific ones.

3. Adjust Cron Batch Size:

• Keep it low to prevent timeouts when indexing large amounts of content.

Define Fields for Indexing

Now, we need to set up the fields to be indexed. This is a crucial step as the data will be stored and searched in the vector database. The more relevant data you index, the better the search results will be.

• Content type field: This helps filter the content when performing vector queries. This is important because it would be required during filtering the content type while embedding links. Choose the indexing option as ‘Filterable attributes. ’
• Title field: This will be used as the main content for the search. Choose the indexing option as ‘Main content.’
• Body field: This will be used for contextual content. Choose the indexing option as ‘Contextual content.’
• Please note: You can index other relevant fields from your content type as required.

Make sure to index these fields appropriately for optimal search performance.

Setting up CKEditor

Now that we’ve set up the Search API server and index, navigate to /admin/config/content/formats to set up the editor.

We will be using the Rich text editor. In this CKEditor 5 plugin settings, you will find a section for AI Tools where all your enabled AI agents and modules can be configured. In the same section, you will find the Generate Internal Links option available in the AI tool once the SmartLinker AI Module is configured.

To complete the setup:

1. Enable the SmartLinker AI Module plugin.
2. Select the search index you created earlier.
3. Choose the AI provider (OpenAI gpt-4o).
4. Save the editor configuration.

Once this is done, your editor will be ready to generate internal links using the AI module and search index.

Using SmartLinker AI

Now that everything is set up, you’re now ready to explore the module and add internal links in just a few steps!

Step 1: Open up your editor and start crafting your content.

 

Step 2: Select the full article or only a particular text if needed, click on the AI Assistant drop-down button and select the “Generate internal links” option from the list.

 

Step 3: Choose a content type if you want to limit the search to specific content types (for example if you want to link to only articles or only case studies) or just “All content types” if you’re not too particular. By filtering the content types, you can refine the internal linking process and enhance the relevance of the AI-generated suggestions.

 

Step 4: If you need certain keywords to be linked and not missed by AI, you can add those keywords as comma-separated values. This allows the system to recognize and automatically link those specific keywords to the relevant content during the search. Otherwise, just leave it blank, and AI will do its thing!

Step 5: Hit that “Generate Internal Links” button and watch the magic unfold! 

And just like that, you’ve got yourself a highly navigable, user-friendly, and SEO-friendly content experience! Click the “Save changes to the editor” button or tweak/remove the links to fit your preferences before locking it in.

Watch the demo video

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Final thoughts

We built SmartLinker AI to solve our own content struggles, and now, we’re sharing it with you.  If you’re tired of spending hours adding internal links manually, you must give this Drupal module a try. Install it today and let it take care of the hard work while you just focus on creating some awesome content. Want us to customize this module to meet your business and SEO goals better? Explore our Drupal services and let’s talk!