Internal Linking
Overview
outwrite.ai provides two powerful SEO features that work together to optimize your content:
Internal Linking: AI-powered suggestions that recommend relevant pages from your own website to link within your generated content
Source Blacklist: Block specific competitor domains from ever being cited as sources in your content
Both features are managed in Settings → Linking and work automatically during content generation.
What It Does
When you create content, our AI analyzes your topic and automatically suggests the most relevant pages from your website to include as internal links. This:
Improves your site's SEO by creating a strong internal link structure
Helps readers discover related content on your site
Signals topical authority to search engines and AI systems
Keeps visitors engaged longer on your site
How It Works
You add your website's sitemap URL to outwrite.ai
We parse and index all the URLs and page titles from your sitemap
When creating content, our AI matches your topic against your pages
You get ranked suggestions with relevance scores
Select which links to include in your content
Getting Started with Internal Linking
Prerequisites
Your website must have a publicly accessible sitemap in XML format
Common locations: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml or https://yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml
Adding Your First Sitemap
Step 1: Navigate to Settings
Go to Settings → Linking in the left navigation (or keyboard shortcut 5).
Step 2: Add a Sitemap Preset
You'll see the "Internal Linking" section with a form to add your sitemap:
Preset Name: Give it a descriptive name (e.g., "Main Blog", "Help Center", "Product Pages")
Sitemap URL: Enter your full sitemap URL (e.g., https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml)
Click Add Preset
Step 3: Wait for Processing
After adding, outwrite.ai will:
Fetch your sitemap XML
Parse all URLs and page titles
Store them for future suggestions
You'll see status indicators:
🕐 Pending: Sitemap is being fetched
✅ Success: Sitemap parsed successfully
❌ Error: Something went wrong (check error message)
Step 4: Verify Your URLs
Once processed, you'll see:
Total number of URLs found
Last fetched date
Sample URLs from your sitemap
Managing Multiple Sitemaps
Why Use Multiple Presets?
Different sections of your site may have different sitemaps. For example:
Main blog: https://yoursite.com/blog-sitemap.xml
Help center: https://help.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
Product pages: https://yoursite.com/products-sitemap.xml
Actions for Each Preset
Refresh (↻): Re-fetch the sitemap to get the latest URLs
Edit: Change the preset name or sitemap URL
Delete (🗑): Remove the sitemap preset
Using Internal Links When Creating Content
Where to Find It
When creating any content type, expand the "Internal Links" section in the form. You'll see:
Sitemap Selector: Choose which sitemap(s) to pull suggestions from
Select "All Sitemaps" to search across all your presets
Or select a specific preset to narrow down
Two Tabs:
AI Suggestions: Automatically generated recommendations with relevance scores
Browse All: Search through all pages in your selected sitemap(s)
AI Suggestions Tab
When you open this tab, our AI analyzes your content topic and returns the most relevant pages. Each suggestion shows:
Page Title: The title of the suggested page
URL: The full page URL
Relevance Score: Percentage showing how relevant this page is to your topic (e.g., "87% relevant")
Click the checkbox to select any suggestions you want included.
Browse All Tab
Use this to manually search through all your pages:
Type in the search box to filter by title or URL
Click the checkbox next to any page to include it
Use this when you know exactly which page you want to link
How Many Links to Select
Select as many or as few as make sense for your content
The selected count shows at the bottom (e.g., "3 links selected")
Our AI will naturally incorporate these links into your generated content
No Sitemap Yet?
If you haven't added a sitemap, you'll see a helpful prompt when trying to use internal linking during content creation:
"AI-powered internal linking helps boost your SEO by automatically suggesting relevant pages from your site to link to in your content."
Click "Add Sitemap in Settings" to navigate directly to the Linking settings.
Source Blacklist
What It Does
The Source Blacklist prevents specific domains from ever being cited as sources in your generated content. This is useful for:
Blocking competitor websites from appearing in your content
Preventing citations from low-quality or irrelevant sources
Ensuring your content doesn't inadvertently promote competitors
How It Works
When our AI generates content and gathers sources for citations, it cross-references your blacklist and excludes any matching domains. The blocked domain simply won't appear as a source—the AI will find alternative sources instead.
Managing Your Source Blacklist
Where to Find It
Go to Settings → Linking and scroll down past the Internal Linking section to find "Source Blacklist".
Adding a Domain
Enter the domain in the text field (e.g., competitor.com)
Click Add (or press Enter)
Note: You don't need to include https:// or www. - outwrite.ai automatically normalizes domains. For example:
https://www.competitor.com/blog → saves as competitor.com
www.competitor.com → saves as competitor.com
competitor.com → saves as competitor.com
Viewing Blocked Domains
Your blocked domains appear in a list showing:
The domain's favicon (when available)
The domain name
The count shows how many domains you've blocked (e.g., "Blocked domains (5)").
Removing a Domain
Click the trash icon (🗑) next to any domain to remove it from your blacklist. This domain can then appear as a source in future content generation.
Pro Tips
Internal Linking:
Add multiple sitemap presets for different site sections
Refresh your sitemaps regularly to catch new pages
Use the relevance scores to prioritize which links to include
Don't over-link—select the most relevant 3-5 pages for typical articles
If AI suggestions don't appear, try clicking "Generate Suggestions" manually
Source Blacklist:
Add your direct competitors to prevent them from being cited
Block domains that consistently appear as unwanted sources
Be specific—blocking competitor.com won't block competitornews.com
Review your blacklist periodically and remove domains that no longer matter
General SEO:
Use both features together for maximum control over your content's link profile
Internal links help readers stay on your site
Source blacklist keeps competitors out of your content
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