Getting Started with Linkilo

The whole point of Linkilo is to help you add good internal links to your blog posts without spending hours doing it by hand. This page walks you from "I just bought it" to "I'm seeing my first suggestion." It takes about 15 minutes.

What you need before you start

• A WordPress site (version 5.6 or newer)
• PHP 7.4 or newer (8.1+ recommended — see your host's PHP selector if you're not sure)
• The Linkilo .zip file from your purchase
• Your Linkilo license key (from your linkilo.co account)
• About 5 minutes of OpenAI setup if you want the AI features (you can skip this and still use the free Legacy engine and Auto Links)

Step 1 — Install the plugin

1. Log into WordPress admin.
2. Go to Plugins → Add New Plugin.
3. Click Upload Plugin at the top.
4. Choose the Linkilo .zip file you downloaded.
5. Click Install Now, then Activate Plugin.

You should now see Linkilo in your WordPress sidebar. Activation takes a few seconds; the heavier setup finishes in the background while you use wp-admin.

If an older copy of Linkilo is still active, Linkilo 3.0 shows a red notice asking you to deactivate it first. Only one copy can run at a time.

Step 2 — Activate your license

Until your license is active, clicking Linkilo in the sidebar opens the license screen.

1. Paste your license key into the License Key field — copy it from your linkilo.co account, no extra spaces.
2. Click Activate License.

You should see a green "License Active" status. You can also do this later from Linkilo → Settings → Licensing (under the Advanced group in the Settings sidebar). That page has one card, Activate Linkilo, with a License key field and an Activate License button. Once active, the card becomes Active license and shows part of your key plus the Linkilo version.

To deactivate a site later (to move your license elsewhere), sign in to linkilo.co → Manage Sites → remove the site there. There isn't an in-plugin deactivate button; the Manage sites on linkilo.co button takes you straight there.

Step 3 — Complete the install and run your first scan

After activation, the Linkilo menu shows a Complete Install entry instead of Summary. Click it to open the Initial Setup wizard.

1. Work through the steps: Licensing, Global Setting (which post types Linkilo should scan), Google Search Console, Rankmath/Yoast, All in One Seo/Squirrly and Link Design. Click Next to move on or Skip for anything you want to set up later.
2. On the last step, click Perform Scan. Linkilo reads every published post and records the links it finds.

When the scan finishes, the menu entry becomes Summary and the rest of the Linkilo menu unlocks: Linking (Link Priorities, Add New Auto Links, Add URLs, Focus Keyword, Update URL, AI Suggestions), Diagnose, Fix, AI Lab and Manage. The Summary page has two buttons you'll use again: Refresh Dashboard recalculates the cards and charts, and Perform Scan rebuilds the link records from scratch.

Step 4 — Connect an AI provider (optional but recommended)

This is what powers the AI suggestion engine. Without a key, Linkilo still offers the Legacy keyword-matching engine and Auto Links — useful, just less smart.

Get an OpenAI key

OpenAI is the default provider. Sign in at platform.openai.com, create a new secret key and copy it (it starts with sk-). Your key is like a password — don't share it. Full walkthrough: How to Get an OpenAI API Key for Linkilo.

Paste it into Linkilo

Go to Linkilo → Settings → AI Settings. The page is five numbered step cards. You only need the first three now.

1. 1 Connect an AI provider — leave AI Provider on OpenAI, paste your key into OpenAI API Key, click Save Settings at the bottom, then click Test Core Provider. The test also checks that the selected model is available on your account.
2. 2 Choose models and spending limits — leave the recommended model (GPT-5.6 Luna) and the default caps. New installs are capped at 1,000 requests and $25 of estimated provider spend per month; when a cap is reached, AI work pauses until next month.
3. 3 Process your content — click Start AI Content Processing once. Linkilo reads every post so it knows what each one is about. It runs in batches; you can leave the tab open or come back later.

About cost: you pay your AI provider directly; Linkilo never charges for AI. The AI Usage Meter at the top of AI Settings shows this month's requests, tokens and estimated provider spend, and the monthly caps act as guard-rails.

Step 5 — Build your first queue

1. Go to Linkilo → Linking → AI Suggestions.
2. Click Build Queue at the top of the page. The Processing Settings panel opens: how many posts to scan (Max Posts to Process), Max Suggestions per Post, Minimum Confidence Level and which post types to include.
3. Click Start Processing. You'll see a Building Your Link Queue progress state, and Stop Processing if you need to halt it.
4. When the run finishes, the review queue appears below.

Shortcut: when the queue is empty, click Build Recommended Queue. It scans 5 posts with up to 5 suggestions each at 50% minimum confidence — a good first look.

Each suggestion shows:

• Source post — the post the link would go IN
• Target post — the post being linked TO
• Anchor text — the visible words that become clickable, chosen from the sentence
• Confidence — higher = better match
• Why Linkilo recommended this link — short reason labels such as Semantic match, Keyword fit, Same topic group, Search demand or Anchor verified

Step 6 — Approve your first link

1. On any suggestion, click Apply Link. (Click Edit first if you want different anchor text.)
2. Linkilo opens the source post, finds the anchor text and turns it into a link to the target post.
3. View the post on your live site — you'll see the new link.

Click Reject with Feedback if a suggestion doesn't make sense. Linkilo remembers rejections: the same source, target and anchor never comes back, and once you've rejected the same pair of posts with three different anchors, the pair is blocked entirely.

Step 7 — Turn on Autopilot (optional)

If you don't want to run scans by hand:

1. Go to Linkilo → Settings → AI Settings.
2. Scroll to step card 5 Automation.
3. Keep Analyze on publish on, and turn on Smart autopilot. Leave Auto-apply high-confidence off until you've reviewed a few weeks of suggestions you agree with.
4. Click Save Settings.

Linkilo will scan your site in the background, in small chunks, without slowing your editor down. New suggestions appear on the AI Suggestions page whenever they're ready. The same Autopilot switch also sits inside the Processing Settings panel on the AI Suggestions page.

For more about Autopilot and Auto-apply, see AI Suggestions.

What to do next

• Switch on the optional tools (Broken Link Checker, Redirection, Click Analytics, Crawler Analyzer, Related Posts, Reports) in one place: Linkilo → Manage → Setup Guide, then Save my setup.
• See where to link next: Link Priorities
• Style your internal links so readers can spot them: Internal Link Styling
• Tell Linkilo what to skip: Content Filters
• Group your posts by topic for better SEO: Topic Clusters
• Find broken links and fix them: Broken Link Checker

Common Questions

Do I need OpenAI for Linkilo to work?

No. Without a provider key you still get the Legacy engine — a classic keyword-matching link finder. In the post editor, the Linkilo AI Suggestions box has a Get Legacy Suggestions button that uses no credits. Auto Links, the reports and the fix tools don't need AI either. The AI just makes the matches a lot smarter.

Will Linkilo slow down my site?

No. Scans and AI processing run in the admin or in the background. The plugin only adds a few small CSS and JavaScript files to your public site, and only for features you turn on (link styling, link previews, click tracking, related posts).

Where are the links being added?

Inside your existing post content. Linkilo finds words that match a target post and wraps them in an <a> link. It doesn't change the words — just adds a link around them.

Can I undo a link?

Yes. Edit the post and remove the link like any other link. For changes made from Linkilo → Fix → Fix Link Health, Linkilo keeps a rollback snapshot before it edits a post; the Recent rollback snapshots list on that page lets you restore one.

How long should I leave Autopilot on before checking results?

Give it 24–48 hours after first turning it on. Autopilot processes your site in small chunks so it doesn't overload your server. Check back the next morning — you'll usually have new suggestions waiting.

I don't see the Linkilo menu

Check Plugins → Installed Plugins. If Linkilo is greyed out, click Activate. If it's missing, the upload didn't finish — try Step 1 again. If you only see Complete Install under Linkilo, finish the wizard and run Perform Scan; the other menu items appear after the first scan.

Last reviewed for Linkilo 3.0.0 (October 2026).