Has anyone actually seen consistent gains from AI-assisted internal linking, or is it still mostly manual?

[mercer]

I’ve been testing a few different workflows for internal linking on a couple of niche sites over the last few months, and I’m starting to think the “AI will solve internal linking” pitch is still a bit overstated.

What I’ve tried so far:
– Using AI to suggest contextual links while drafting content
– Running sitewide crawls and feeding the URL map into a model for link opportunities
– Semi-automated workflows in WordPress where the AI proposes anchors, but I manually approve them
– Comparing this against a more traditional manual approach based on topical clusters and search intent

My general impression is that AI is decent at finding obvious matches, but it still struggles with:
– Anchor text that feels natural
– Avoiding over-linking to the same few pages
– Understanding which pages actually deserve the most internal authority
– Not creating awkward or repetitive links in informational content

In one case, I did see a modest improvement after tightening up internal links on a site with around 120 articles, but I’m not convinced the lift came from AI specifically. It may have just been the fact that the structure became more deliberate and less random.

What I’m currently leaning toward is this:
1. Use AI for discovery and suggestions
2. Keep the final decision manual
3. Build link rules around topic clusters instead of letting the model freestyle
4. Prioritize pages with clear commercial intent or strong conversion potential

I’m curious what others here are seeing in real projects. Are you using AI for internal linking in a way that actually saves time without creating cleanup work later?

If you’ve tested this on affiliate sites, especially in competitive niches, I’d be interested in:
– whether rankings improved
– whether crawl depth changed
– whether you saw better engagement or just more links
– what tools or workflows were actually worth keeping

At this point I’m open to being convinced, but I still think internal linking is one of those areas where a decent manual system beats a flashy automated one unless the automation is very tightly controlled.

[Author]

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