> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://oodlz-ai-studio.gitbook.io/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://oodlz-ai-studio.gitbook.io/docs/outbound-agents/awareness/2-articles/internal-link-architecture.md).

# Internal Link Architecture

3-slot internal link architecture with 7 deterministic validation checks per candidate, article-position-ordered injection, hard caps on link density per zone.

> **3 internal links per article, validated by 7 checks, injected in article-position order — SEO first-link juice always flows to the correct destination.**

Most AI content pipelines inject internal links by asking an LLM to "add 3 links to this article". The result is vague anchors like "click here", links inside headings or FAQ accordions, links clustered in the same paragraph, and broken SEO architecture. The Oodlz Articles producer enforces a 3-slot architecture with deterministic validation — every internal link earns its placement.

## How It Works

The architecture defines 3 slots per article:

* **Slot 1** — Pillar Post preferred, Blog Category fallback. Placed exclusively in the Introduction or Key Takeaways zone. This is the SEO first-link position; it passes maximum authority to the brand's most important page.
* **Slot 2** — Blog Category. Placed in the article body, after Key Takeaways.
* **Slot 3** — App Category. Placed in the article body, after Key Takeaways.

Slot 2 and Slot 3 are never placed in the intro, the FAQ, headings, captions, blockquotes, or tables.

A dedicated Link Agent reads the finished article and returns up to 3 ranked candidate sentences per slot. The injection step then validates each candidate through 7 deterministic checks: verbatim sentence match, word-boundary enforcement, anchor not on the vague-anchor blocklist, anchor not a reader-context noun, anchor not a sentence-opening phrase, sentence not already used by another link, anchor not already linked elsewhere in the article. The first candidate that passes all 7 checks wins. If it fails, the next candidate is tried automatically. No valid placement is ever wasted on a candidate that should have been rejected.

Internal links are injected in article-position order — earliest sentence in the article always carries the first link, regardless of which slot wins. This guarantees SEO first-link juice flows to the correct destination. POST-PROCESS then enforces structural caps: 1 internal link in the pre-H2 zone, 1 internal link per H2 section across the body.

## What You Get

* 3-slot architecture per article — pillar/category, blog category, app category — never random.
* Slot 1 in the SEO first-link position — maximum authority flows to the pillar page or blog category fallback.
* 7 deterministic validation checks before any anchor is accepted — vague anchors, sentence-opening anchors, structural-line anchors all blocked.
* Up to 3 ranked candidates per slot, first valid one wins — the agent never gives up on a slot because the top candidate failed validation.
* Article-position-ordered injection — first link in the article is always the high-authority slot, regardless of which slot wins.
* POST-PROCESS density caps — at most 1 link in pre-H2, 1 link per H2 section — link clustering structurally impossible.