Read the plugin’s Reports screen
Silotree → Reports is the plugin’s summary of your site, worked out on your own server and free without an account: unlinked posts, dead ends, broken links and click depth. Once the site is connected it adds your Silotree Score and sends you to the app for the links themselves.
Steps
Open Silotree → Reports
In WordPress, open Silotree → Reports. Anyone who can write posts can see it. The chip beside the Silotree name says which kind of site this is: Local only when it is not connected to a Silotree account, Connected when it is. On a connected site, Open Silotree ↗ opens the app in a new tab.
Everything on this screen works without an account. The plugin works the figures out on your own server and, until you connect, sends nothing anywhere.
Check when your posts were last scanned
The banner at the top says when the plugin last read your posts, such as 240 posts scanned, 3 hours ago. After that it keeps up on its own as you save posts. Press Scan again to read every post from the start; it runs in the background and you can leave the page.
The first scan shows its progress and no figures until it ends. A later scan keeps the last scan’s figures on screen, marked Last scan, until it finishes. While one runs, the button reads Start again.
Read the Silotree Score on a connected site
On a connected site, the Silotree Score card comes first: the app’s number for your site, from 0 to 100, and when Silotree last crawled it. The plugin never works out a score of its own. Under the number is the fix worth the most points, with a button that opens the screen where you do it, and See the score breakdown, which opens This week in the app. The four parts are listed below it, the one costing you most points first, and each opens the place to fix it.
A site with fewer than five posts, or one the last crawl could not read completely, shows No score yet and the reason. A site that is not connected shows See your Silotree Score: run the full audit (free) instead. How the number is worked out is in the Silotree Score.
Read the four figures
- Unlinked posts: published posts no other post links to. Your front page is never counted.
- Dead ends: posts that link to nowhere else on your site.
- Broken links: links in your posts to an address on your site that does not publish anything. It opens Link fixes in WordPress, or Links → To fix in the app on a connected site.
- Avg click depth: how many clicks your posts are from the home page on average, counting your menus. It is left out when there is no home page to count from.
These are counted from your posts as saved, links in your theme’s menus and footer left out. On a connected site the screen says so: Silotree’s own scan, in the app, reads your published pages and is the one to work from, so its numbers can differ.
Work from the cards below them
What sits below the figures depends on whether the site is connected.
- Not connected: the Unlinked posts list, the longest eight first, with Find links on each one, which opens the post in the editor, where the Silotree panel lists older posts that could link to it. Export CSV downloads every scanned post with its links in, links out and click depth.
- Connected: Work in Silotree, which opens This week, Links to add (with how many links are waiting) and Link fixes in the app, and Match posts to your scan, which matches your WordPress posts to the pages in Silotree’s last scan so approved links can be written without another scan.
- Category and tag pages, on every site: how many posts each has, how many links point to it, and whether it has an introduction. Read category and tag pages for why that matters.
- Links readers click, once you turn on click counts: clicks over the last 30 days and the ten links clicked most.
On a connected site on the Free plan you may also see a card such as Silotree found 12 more links by meaning. These are links waiting in the app that Silotree matched by what your posts are about, not by the words in their titles, so they are not in the plugin’s own lists. The card shows only the count, and only when there is at least one. See them in Silotree opens Links to add. It does not show on Solo, Studio, Agency or a trial, where those links are already in the app. Dismiss it and it stays away for 30 days, then 90, then for good.
With Silotree Pro active, Reports also lists posts in the trash that other posts still link to, with Remove links to take those links out and keep their words. And when the score’s first fix is giving unlinked posts a link, its button becomes Link them in one batch, which opens bulk linking.
Show the figures on your dashboard
For the main figures on your WordPress dashboard, open Silotree → Settings (administrators only), tick Show a Silotree widget on the WordPress dashboard under Dashboard and press Save. It is off until you turn it on.
The widget shows the number of unlinked posts, broken links and dead ends. On a connected site it adds the Silotree Score and, when there are fixes, a link such as Fix 3 things that opens the score card on Reports.
What you should see
You know how many of your posts are unlinked, lead nowhere or carry broken links, without an account. Once connected, Reports also shows your Silotree Score and what to fix first, and sends you to the app for the links themselves. For what a zero means, read how to find unlinked posts.
If it doesn’t work
- The figures differ from the Silotree app
The plugin counts the links in each post as saved in WordPress. The app’s scan reads your published pages from the outside, as a search engine does, and also sees redirects. On a connected site, work from the app’s numbers. To see a single post’s links, open its Links report.
- There is no list of unlinked posts
On a connected site the list is replaced by the app: open Work in Silotree or sort Posts → All Posts by Links in. On a site that is not connected, the list appears once the first scan has read every post, and says Every post has a way in when there are none.
- No Silotree Score card on a connected site
The card needs an answer from Silotree. If Silotree cannot be reached, Reports shows the local figures alone; see the plugin can’t reach Silotree.
- Avg click depth is missing
Depth is counted from the home page and the menus. When the plugin has no home page to count from, the card is left out rather than showing a guess. Read click depth for what the number means.
Questions
Do I need an account to use Reports?
No. The figures, the list of unlinked posts, the category and tag pages and the CSV export all work on your own server without an account, and nothing is sent anywhere until you connect. Connecting adds the Silotree Score and the links to the app.
Why are the plugin’s numbers different from the app’s?
The plugin counts the links in each post as saved in WordPress. The app’s scan reads your published pages from the outside and also sees redirects. On a connected site, Reports says so and points you to the app’s numbers.
What is “Silotree found N more links by meaning”?
On a connected site on the Free plan, the count of links waiting in Links to add that Silotree matched by what your posts are about rather than by their titles’ words. The card shows only the number and a button to see them in the app, and only when there is at least one.