Link Equity Map

Link Equity Map

Internal linking is worth as much as off-site link building when it is deliberate. This skill finds where a single link changes a ranking, instead of asking someone to "improve internal linking".

Input

A GSC property. Resolve it with list_properties when the user has not named one. Ask how many pages to crawl if the site is large; the default of 25 is a sample, not a survey.

Steps

1. Call link_equity_map with the site, days (90 by default) and max_pages.
2. Read pages_crawled, pages_failed and coverage_note first, and carry the coverage into the report. Everything below is scoped to the pages actually crawled.
3. underlinked_striking_distance is the headline. Positions 11 to 20 with no body inbound link. Each row is one link away from moving.
4. orphan_candidates: pages with impressions and no body link found.
5. footer_only_targets: linked from nav, footer or aside only.
6. hub_pages: who already distributes. These are the natural source pages.

Turning findings into placements

A finding without a source page is not actionable. For each target in underlinked_striking_distance:

1. Call content_brief on the target to get the query it ranks for.
2. Pick a source among hub_pages or among pages ranking for a related query.
3. Propose the anchor text from the target's own query, not from its title.

On a site of several hundred pages, direct links stop scaling. That is when index pages earn their place: group the targets by theme, link the hub to the index, the index to the members.

Coverage honesty

max_pages is capped at 100 and the crawl is a sample. Never write "the site has N orphan pages". Write "N pages have no inbound link among the X pages crawled". The difference matters when someone acts on the report.

Output format

Coverage: pages crawled, pages failed, share of the GSC set.

Where a link pays off now: Target | Position | Impressions | Suggested source | Anchor

Sorted by impressions. This table is the deliverable.

Orphan candidates: Path | Impressions | Position

Footer-only targets: Path | Zones | Impressions

Hubs available as sources: Path | Body links out

What not to do: if a page appears with zero impressions and zero inbound links, say it needs investigation, not deletion. Deletion goes through prune_candidates and the data rule in CLAUDE.md.