Internal links and brand mentions

In shortBefore the AI content writer writes a word, it plans where each internal link and brand mention goes. A link ships only when a section and one of your pages share enough topic (a 28% match); each section gets at most one link and each page is linked once. Brand mentions are capped at three and need an honest angle. So an off-topic article can end up with zero links and zero mentions, and that is correct.

Why links and mentions are planned, not sprinkled

Ask a language model to "add 2 to 5 internal links" and you get links clustered in one paragraph, anchors like "click here", and sometimes links to pages that don't exist. Ask it to mention your brand "as a trusted solution" and every article reads like an advert, which readers and AI engines both discount.

The AI content writer avoids this by deciding placement before writing, in two stages. Stage one is plain arithmetic, with no AI: every section of the outline is scored against every candidate page. Stage two is one AI call that writes the wording: an anchor that reads as part of a sentence, and the angle for each brand mention. If that call can't find good wording for a pairing, the pairing is dropped rather than forced in.

How an internal link is chosen

1. Candidates are collected. First the pages Brand memory actually read on your site (marked verified page), then your offerings with real URLs, then URLs discovered from your sitemap. The article's own URL is always excluded, so it never links to itself.
2. Each section is scored against each page. The score is the overlap between the section's heading and intent and the page's title, purpose and URL slug. A word in the slug counts most, because it means the page is about that word. A deep page beats the homepage when the scores tie.
3. Weak pairs are thrown out. A pair must reach a 28% topical match. Below that, the link would be filler.
4. Caps are applied. At most one link per section, each page linked at most once, and no more than six links in the article.
5. The anchor is written. The AI stage writes anchor text that fits the sentence. If it declines a pairing, the link is dropped instead of falling back to a raw page title.

How brand mentions are chosen

A mention has to be earned. Each section is scored against what your brand actually does: the offerings, differentiators, proof points, positioning and industry stored in Brand memory. Sections with no overlap get no mention. The AI stage then has to find an honest angle for the remaining ones, or the mention is dropped.

Read the Links & brand mentions panel

1. Open the panelOpen an article from Content → Write → AI content writer. In the right-hand column, under Brand, find Links & brand mentions. The badge in its header, for example 3/3 placed, compares links that landed in the draft with links that were planned.
2. Check each internal linkEach card shows the section (in "..."), the anchor text, the target URL, the reason, the % topical match and, for crawled pages, a verified page badge. A green placed badge means the link is in the draft; an amber missing badge means it was planned but did not land.
3. Check the brand mentionsUnder Brand mentions, each card shows the section, the angle and a suggested phrasing. The footer line says how many candidate pages and sections were considered and how many times the brand was named.
4. Fix anything missingIf links are missing, the amber box says how many and suggests: Add it by hand, or regenerate. Adding the link in the editor is usually quicker and free.

When only mentions are zero, the panel says so plainly: No section of this article was a natural place to name the brand, so it was left out. That is deliberate. The same plan travels with the article when you publish through a standard webhook, under linkPlan, so an editor on your site can see the reasoning too.