Reason to visualize internal link may vary but probably you don’t want to see links in auto-generated contents. Covering those will end up with chaos, messed up results which is far from practical.
Limiting area of visualization requires some work for each site. It can be hardest part before you get start working with link map.
Main contents
Below is common example of page structure.
In this context, you want to focus inside main contents, ignoring links outside main contents.
You need to let Query Viewer know where main contents is in page’s HTML by giving tag name+class name. In case the area is divided into few blocks, give multiple tag name+class name pairs. To find those blocks, web browser’s built in tool comes handy. “Inspect Element” for Firefox and “Inspect” for Chrome found in context menu helps your work.
Below is what I saw with my site.
Main contents is inside tag marked with red rectangle.
Please check this demo video working with inspection tool.
Ignore unwanted pages
Many sites auto-generate category pages and tag pages. You may want to ignore those pages, focusing on links you explicitly created by your hand. Link Map Viewer has option for this.
Ignore boiler plate links
You may have boiler plate links inside main contents, which you don't think it is helpful visualizing it and want to ignore them. Link Map Viewer has option for this.
Fine control for your site
Options to get desired link map can be found in this dialog.
Demo video configuring Link Map Viewer
This video demonstrates how to find proper block to visualize internal link of main content.
Highlight
- Demonstrates how we can setup Link Map Viewer to get right result from it.
- Handles 2 different top page structures using Chrome's inspection tool.
Rule for building link map
- Pages not indexed in sitemap are ignored completely. They will never be shown as node.
- Links to pages not indexed in sitemap are treated as broken.
- Pages under ignoring URL are ignored.
- Links to pages under ignoring URL are ignored. They are treated as never existed.
- In case top page, category page, tag page are auto-generated and only first page is indexed in sitemap, other pages are simply ignored since they are not found in sitemap.
- Only one line is drawn between 2 nodes even if there are 2 or more links between them.
- In case there are multiple links between 2 nodes and one has nofollow attribute, arrow and end point looks like this.
- In case page A has canonical option to page B, line is drawn from page A to B in link map, but end point is circle, not arrow like this.
- End point of linked line may have 2 symbols, circle indicating canonical and arrow indicating link.
