Contextual links placed inside content are one of the best ways to drive traffic gains for large marketplaces. At Apartments.com, we publish thousands of local guides across the country and found a better way to place and update contextual links both helping renters and search engines. In this spotlight session from Next10X Boston 2019, we dove into how we identified known entities in existing content, connected them to the right related content, and developed a refresh cycle to ensure links always stay up to date on our site. We explored a variety of techniques including natural language processing (NLP), an application of AI and machine learning, to hone our internal linking strategy, and we learned a few tricks along the way to scale internal linking that can help your organization too.

1. How
Automated Contextual Linking
@jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session

2. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Links are the key to Google’s algorithm
=

3. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
As SEOs, we
love links!

4. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
As SEOs, we
love links!
We know links are
not everything.

5. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
As SEOs, we
love links!
We know links are
not everything.
But, links are
still great.

6. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Links are versatile
Create relationships
Provide accessibility Signal popularity
Drive traffic Pass authority
and more

7. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
While many SEOs
love external links …

8. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
... I prefer
internal linking
While many SEOs
love external links …

9. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Internal linking often
lacks creativity.

10. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
We stuff links in headers
and navigation.

11. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
We create long lists
of footer links.

12. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
We create myriad
combinations of facets.

13. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
These tactics
still work

14. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
but there’s a
better way.
These tactics
still work,

15. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Introducing
contextual linking!

16. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Contextual Links
1. Have anchor text
Boston University is among the most
respected research universities in the
nation. Right next door to the Back Bay,
the BU campus enjoys a superb location
on the banks of the Charles River.

17. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Contextual Links
1. Have anchor text.
2. Link to important
pages
Boston University is among the most
respected research universities in the
nation. Right next door to the Back Bay,
the BU campus enjoys a superb location
on the banks of the Charles River.

18. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Contextual Links
1. Have anchor text.
2. Link to important pages
3. Provide context
to users
Boston University is among the most
respected research universities in the
nation. Right next door to the Back Bay,
the BU campus enjoys a superb location
on the banks of the Charles River.

19. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
We think Google
trusts contextual links

20. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Are they harder
to spam?

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Are they harder
to spam?
They make sense
for users

22. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Are they harder
to spam?
They make sense
for users
Contextual links
don’t scale!

23. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
At Apartments.com, we have scale.

24. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
We write a lot of
local guides.
At Apartments.com,
we have scale.

25. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
We write them for
neighborhoods
We write a lot of
local guides.
At Apartments.com,
we have scale.

26. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
and cities
We write them for
neighborhoods,
We write a lot of
local guides.
At Apartments.com,
we have scale.

27. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
and cities,
We write them for
neighborhoods,
We write a lot of
local guides.
At Apartments.com,
we have scale.
and college/
university campuses.

28. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Local guides
drive traffic
Jan-17M
ar-17M
ay-17
Jul-17
Sep-17N
ov-17
Jan-18M
ar-18M
ay-18
Jul-18
Sep-18N
ov-18
Jan-19M
ar-19
Started
writing

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They also mention
a lot of entities

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which is an
opportunity
They also mention
a lot of entities,

31. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
What if we use
AI to place the links?

32. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Created a plan!

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We care about …
Quality Accuracy

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1
Run an algorithm
to identify entities

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1 2
Match found entities
to our database

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1 2 3
Prioritize the
matched entities

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1 2 3 4
Place the links
in the content

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Confirm the link
destination works
1 2 3 4 5

39. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Our plan didn’t
work

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What went wrong?
Google’s Cloud Natural
Language API
• identified a ton of entities
• expensive to run to run at scale
• entities were largely irrelevant
to our database
spaCy Natural Language
Processing
• free (open source)
• didn’t identify as many entities
• entities were still largely irrelevant
to our database

41. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Models were not trained on our data
We could label our
own data
• Train our own model
• This would take months
• Would be expensive
Come up with
simpler solution
• May not be fancy
• Address most needs
• Use the 80/20 rule

42. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
We flipped the problem

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Start with
our database
of entities
1

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Prioritize which entities
to search for
1 2

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Look for priority
entities in the content
1 2 3

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Place the links
in the content
1 2 3 4

47. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Confirm the link
destination works
1 2 3 4 5

48. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
It worked!

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Our solution
is live in
production.

50. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Our solution
is live in
production.
Links update
automatically

51. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
What did we
learn?

52. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Data science is key
for enterprise SEO

53. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Simple solutions
can be effective
Data science is key
for enterprise SEO

54. @jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com | Spotlight Session
Simple solutions
can be effective
Data science is key
for enterprise SEO
Dream big

55. Thank you!@jsilton | #Next10xJordan Silton | Apartments.com