Your first linking rule

What you need ready

Before creating your first rule, it's worth being clear on two things:

• A pillar page created. The rule points somewhere. Without a pillar, there's no target. If you don't have one yet, do it first with the Your first pillar page guide.
• One or more keywords that trigger the rule. When those words appear in any post on your site, 4Linking will create the link to the pillar.

A rule is basically an instruction of the kind "when this word appears, link it to this page". Predictable, controllable, automatic. It's the heart of linking in 4Linking.

How to create your first rule

Let's go to the plugin.

1. Open the rules panel In your wp-admin, go to 4Linking → 4Linking and click the Rules tab. The list of created rules appears (empty if it's your first time).
2. Click "New rule" The button is at the top right. A modal opens with the fields to fill in.
3. Type the keyword that triggers the rule The trigger: a word or phrase that, when it appears in any post on your site, will turn into a link. For example: technical SEO.
4. Choose the link target Select the pillar page the link will point to. If you've only created one, it'll be the only option in the dropdown.
5. Configure the details (optional) Variable anchor text, priority, maximum links per post. I explain them all in the next section. If you don't touch anything, the plugin uses reasonable defaults.
6. Save Click "Save rule". You'll see the new entry in the list, marked as active.

Rule creation modal in 4Linking

The fields of a rule

These are the form fields. The red asterisk marks the required ones; the rest can be left at their default values.

Check that the rule works

After saving the rule, you'll want to verify it's actually linking. There are three places to check it:

In the rules list

Each rule shows how many links it has generated and to which posts. If your rule was just created, the counter may be at zero until the plugin processes the existing posts (seconds or minutes, depending on the size of the site).

List of rules in 4Linking

In the link map

The Link map tab gives you the full picture: how many internal links your site has, which pages receive the most, which rules are the most active. If your rule works, you'll see growing counters there.

In the published content

The most practical one: open a blog post that contains the keyword. You'll see it turned into a link to the pillar. If the word appears several times, only the first occurrence is linked (unless you've raised the "Maximum per post").

How to design rules that scale

Creating a rule is easy; creating a system of rules that adds SEO value is where the real difference is. Three principles worth internalizing before you create the second rule.

1. Choose specific triggers, not generic ones

A rule that triggers on the word SEO will link in any post that casually mentions SEO. You'll end up with forced links in irrelevant contexts. Better a more concrete trigger: technical SEO, SEO audit, on-page SEO. More restrictive, but the links it creates are justified.

2. Vary the anchor text

If every link to your pillar uses the same text, Google detects an artificial pattern. Define 2-4 anchor variations for each rule. Example for a pillar about technical SEO:

• technical SEO (the main one)
• technical SEO guide (descriptive variant)
• the technical aspects of SEO (natural variant)
• how to optimize your technical SEO (long-tail variant)

The plugin rotates between them automatically. Each link that's created picks one at random.

3. One rule per important keyword, not per secondary keyword

Don't turn every word into a rule. Identify the 5-10 strategic keywords of your site and create one well-designed rule for each. The secondary words will be covered on their own if you add semantic linking (paid plans) or include them as anchor variants of the main rules.

Common mistakes and how to avoid them