Internal Link Visualizer

Once installed, the plugin scans posts, pages, and taxonomy terms to gather every discovered link. The results are rendered in a Force Atlas 2 graph that updates in real time as you zoom, pan, and click.

Each node represents a piece of content or an external domain, while edges show the relationships between them. Color codes, labels, and interactive controls make it easy to spot patterns, navigate clusters, and focus on the areas that need attention.

Key Features

• Automated scanning: Crawl your published content to collect inbound and outbound links in a single click.
• Interactive visualization: Explore a dynamic canvas with zoom, pan, drag, and hover effects to inspect every connection.
• Internal vs. external insights: Highlight how much of your linking equity stays on-site versus flows to other domains.
• Focused views: Toggle external links, isolate the main cluster, or hide labels when presenting large graphs.
• Layout controls: Fine-tune grouping strength, pause or resume the Force Atlas animation, and refit the view at any time.
• Responsive admin UI: The WordPress-native interface adapts to different screen sizes for quick reviews during audits or meetings.

Requirements

• WordPress 5.0 or newer
• PHP 7.4 or newer
• A modern browser with Web Worker support

Getting Started

Run your first analysis

1. Go to Tools > Link Visualizer.
2. Click Scan Content to analyze posts, pages, and taxonomy terms.
3. When the scan completes, press Generate Sitemaps.
4. The interactive graph appears with the latest relationships.

Navigate the graph

• Zoom with the scroll wheel.
• Pan by dragging the canvas.
• Inspect a node to view its inbound and outbound counts.
• Control the animation with the Play and Pause buttons to stabilize dense areas.

Display Options

• Show External Links toggles whether outbound domains appear on the map.
• Only Main Cluster hides small isolated groups so you can focus on your core site.
• Show Labels reveals or conceals node titles for clearer presentations.
• Grouping Strength adjusts how tightly related nodes cluster together.

Recommended Workflow

• Audit regularly: Trigger scans after major content updates or publishing sprints to keep insights current.
• Spot orphans first: Identify pages with no inbound links and schedule them for internal promotion.
• Reinforce hubs: Use the visualization to confirm that pillar pages distribute links across related topics.
• Report progress: Capture screenshots or share observations with stakeholders to document improvements over time.

Performance Considerations

• Large libraries benefit from breaking scans into batches and temporarily hiding external domains when presenting.
• If the animation feels busy, pause the layout, reposition key nodes manually, then resume when ready.
• Reduce grouping strength for sprawling sites, or increase it when you need tightly packed clusters.

Troubleshooting

Scan does not complete

• Confirm that the current user has the manage_options capability.
• Temporarily raise the PHP memory limit or execution time if the site hosts thousands of posts.
• Check the WordPress debug log for specific error messages.

Graph does not appear

• Make sure a scan has finished and the sitemap was generated.
• Open the browser console to review any JavaScript errors.
• Verify that the browser supports Web Workers and hardware acceleration.

Graph feels slow

• Hide labels and external domains while exploring dense networks.
• Pause the Force Atlas layout after the initial arrangement settles.
• Close heavy tabs/apps to free resources.

Support

For questions, feature requests, or bug reports, please open an issue on the project’s GitHub repository.