While I generally find myself nodding along with Manu’s posts, I really only half agree with his thoughts on internal linking; linking exclusively to internal content for the sake of SEO usually does lead to a shitty experience, forcing people into a circular path around a single site.

But on a personal site, linking to a past thought or related concept can be a great experience—it lets me explore the ideas that lead someone to where they are today. And if the first thing I read is great content that I enjoy, pointing me to more of it is definitely welcome.

External links are still appreciated of course, I just don’t think we should be too quick to discount the value of internal links.

Edit @ 12:48pm: After an email exchange with Manu, I think I probably read his post as more absolutist than was intended and inferred his point incorrectly. It’s probably fairer to say that we both hold the position that, regardless of what sort of site it is, internal linking out of context or without context is pretty awful, not that all internal linking is bad. Any mis-interpretation of Manu’s position is faulty inference on my part.