Internal Link Coverage

Internal Link Coverage is a Discovery parameter that counts the unique same-origin links inside your page's main body content. Three or more unique body-content internal links earns a pass, 1-2 scores partial, and none fails. Links in navigation, header, footer, and <aside> regions don't count.

What does Internal Link Coverage measure?

friendly4AI counts the unique same-origin links inside your page's main body. First the scanner finds the body-content region: it prefers <main> or <article>, and falls back to the largest non-navigation block when neither exists. From that region it pulls the <a href> elements, resolves each one against the page URL, drops anything that isn't same-origin, and de-duplicates by URL path. Anything inside <nav>, <header>, <footer>, and <aside> gets stripped first, so the count only reflects links you put in actual content.

Why does internal linking matter for AI-readiness?

AI systems read internal links as a map of how your topics connect. Link your body copy to related articles, glossary entries, and subtopic pages, and you signal topical depth while handing crawlers more routes into your site. That makes it likelier ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity find and cite the connected pages. Navigation and footer links are boilerplate that repeats on every page, so they carry no topical signal and the scanner ignores them. This parameter works alongside structured-data coverage and content-type schema match to keep your topic graph legible to AI crawlers.

How is Internal Link Coverage scored?

Under the v4.5 methodology, this Discovery parameter scores on the count of unique body-content internal links:

• Pass (100): 3 or more unique same-origin paths in the body region.
• Partial: 1 or 2 links, scaled as round(100 x n / 3) — one link scores about 33, two about 67.
• Fail (0): no body-content internal links. Navigation, header, and footer links never count toward the total.

When a link's path matches a glossary hint (/glossary/, /dictionary/, /terms/), it adds a +10 bonus on top of the base score, capped at 100. If the content-analysis cache is unavailable, the parameter is skipped rather than failed.

How do I fix low Internal Link Coverage?

• Add at least 3 links from your body copy to other pages on your own site. Put them inside paragraphs, not in menus or the footer.
• Point at least one link to a glossary, dictionary, or definitions page to earn the +10 coverage bonus.
• Write descriptive anchor text that names the destination topic instead of "click here".
• Keep important contextual links inside <main> or <article>. Links in <nav>, <header>, <footer>, and <aside> are stripped before counting.
• Keep links same-origin. External links matter for other reasons, but they don't count toward this parameter.
• Pair them with stable destination URLs (see url-stability) so your internal links keep resolving after edits.
• Re-scan once you're done to confirm the unique body-link count reached 3.