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Optimize article link density

rule · article-links

Linking to other pages—both on your own site and on others—is a fundamental part of the web that search engines use to discover and rank content.

Code Example

HTML
<article>
  <p>According to a recent study by <a href="https://example-authority.com/study" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Industry Research Group</a>, 70% of users prefer mobile-friendly websites.</p>
  
  <p>To help you optimize your site, check out our <a href="/blog/mobile-optimization">guide to mobile performance</a>.</p>
</article>

Why It Matters

  • Topical Authority: Linking to high-quality external sites shows your content is well-researched.
  • Crawlability: Internal links help search engine bots find and index deeper pages on your site.
  • Reduced Bounce Rate: Internal links encourage users to explore more of your site, increasing time-on-page.
  • User Value: Providing links to further reading or cited sources improves the overall helpfulness of your content.

Exceptions

  • Only add or enforce schema types that the page can truthfully support; irrelevant structured data is worse than no structured data.
  • A technically valid schema block can still be misleading if the page content does not visibly back it up; audit rendered content and schema together.
  • If indexability, canonical-url, or main content quality is wrong, fix that foundation before optimizing schema details.

Standards

  • Use these references as the standard for the final search-facing HTML, metadata, and crawl behavior.
  • Check the implementation against Google Search Central: Search Essentials before treating the rule as satisfied.
  • Check the implementation against Google Search Central documentation before treating the rule as satisfied.

Verification

Automated Checks

  • Inspect rendered HTML and HTTP headers to confirm the expected metadata or crawlability signal is present.
  • Test the affected URL with Google Search Console or equivalent tooling where relevant.
  • Re-crawl a representative page set after deployment.

Manual Checks

  • Confirm the change does not create conflicting canonical-url, robots, or structured-data signals.