Negative Keywords vs Excluded Words — When to Use Which

Two different "do not link this" tools

Linkilo has two features that both look like "block this keyword" — but they work at different scopes and you'll use them for different jobs.

If you want a phrase ignored everywhere, use excluded words. If you want a phrase ignored only on one specific post, use negative keywords.

When per-post negative keywords help

The classic case is a post that keeps surfacing as a link source for an anchor you don't want it linking on. Example:

You wrote a post called "Why I switched from Mac to Windows." Linkilo keeps suggesting that the word "Mac" anywhere in that post should link to your Mac review hub. You don't want that link on this particular post — but the word "Mac" still needs to be linkable everywhere else on your site.

Solution: open the post → LINKILO – Settings box → Negative Keywords → add Mac. The phrase is now ignored on this post only. Other posts can still link the word "Mac" normally.

Other times this is useful

• A round-up post where you mention many products but don't want links inside the comparison table.
• A glossary entry that defines a term — you don't want Linkilo turning the term into a link to itself or to a different page.
• A post that's already heavily linked and you want to suppress further suggestions for one specific anchor.

How to add a negative keyword

1. Open the post in the WordPress editor.
2. Scroll to the LINKILO – Settings box below the editor. It holds the post's keyword tabs.
3. Click the Negative Keywords tab (it sits beside the focus, custom and Search Console keyword tabs).
4. Type the phrase into the New Negative Keyword field. Use the add-row button next to it if you want to enter several at once.
5. Click Create Negative Keyword.

The keyword is now stored against that post and Linkilo will skip it on future suggestions for that post.

To remove one, click the small x next to the keyword in the same tab.

You can do the same without opening the editor: go to Linkilo → Linking → Focus Keyword, expand the post's row and use its Negative Keywords tab.

Which engines respect negative keywords?

Negative keywords are read by Linkilo's keyword-matching (legacy) engine — the Get Legacy Suggestions button in the post editor and the outbound suggestion lists. Phrases on the list are left out of the anchors that engine considers for that post.

For AI Suggestions, use the tools built for that engine instead:

• Reject with Feedback on the suggestion card. Linkilo never repeats the same source, target and anchor, and after three different anchors are rejected for the same pair of posts, that pair is blocked entirely.
• Linking rules in Settings → AI Settings, step 4 — for example a phrase never to use as an anchor — with Follow AI Rules from Settings ticked in the AI Suggestions page's Processing Settings.
• Your stop words in Content & Ignored Words, which the AI also uses when extracting keywords.

The two systems combine: negative keywords block by anchor phrase on one post; the rejection memory blocks by source → target pair.

When NOT to use negative keywords

• Don't use it for sitewide terms. If a phrase should be ignored on every post, use excluded words instead — adding it to 1,000 posts as a negative keyword is the wrong tool.
• Don't use it as a substitute for editing your content. If a post is generating bad suggestions because the focus keyword is wrong, fix the focus keyword.
• Don't use it to block link targets. Negative keywords block by anchor phrase. To prevent a URL from being a target, use Settings → Content & Ignored Words → Do not suggest these URLs.

See also

• How to exclude words and phrases from link suggestions — the site-wide version.
• How to add custom keywords to a post — the opposite tool, used when you want a phrase associated with a post.
• Content Filters — the full settings-page walkthrough.

Last reviewed for Linkilo 3.0.0 (October 2026).