Configuring LinkAssistant
Table of Contents
You can configure LinkAssistant under Preferences (this menu can be accessed through the button on the upper left hand bar in the main window).
There are two kinds of settings in LinkAssistant: Project Preferences and Global Preferences.
Project Preferences such as Customer Profile and Link Directory Settings are set up per project.
Global Preferences are configured once and they apply to all of your LinkAssistant projects.
Project Preferences
Customer Profile
Customer profile holds information on the customer whose website you're optimizing in the current project. You can edit this data in Preferences -> Customer Profile.
Type in the name, email and physical address of your customer (the person who'll be receiving the Link Building Reports). You can also add the customer's company logo. This information will be used when generating and sending link building reports.
Website Ranking Factors
In Preferences -> Website Ranking Factors you can monitor certain ranking factors such as Google PR, Alexa rank, etc. for the website you are working on in the project.
Use the buttons on the right to update some or all of the ranking factors or see the progress graphs. You can also get a breakdown of the ranking factors and see their progress overtime in the link building reports.
Note: You can change the list of ranking factors to monitor by editing the list of Preferred Ranking Factors in Preferences -> Search Engine Settings -> Preferred Ranking Factors.
Anchor Settings
In Preferences -> Partner Management -> Link Anchor Settings you can create and edit the anchor parameters that will be assigned to your partners. The link settings you set up here will be used in link exchange requests that you send to your partners and when filling out link exchange forms.
Press Add to create a new link anchor settings. LinkAssistant opens the Add Link Info window where you can configure the anchor parameters.
First, enter the URL of the webpage you want your link partners to link to. Then choose what type of link you would like to get: Text or Image. After that you need to specify the Anchor Text (the clickable part of the link) and description for a text link or Image URL, Alt Text and Image Description if you opt for an image link.
Note: You can use the 'i' button to automatically acquire anchor text and description based on the domain information of the web page you specified in the Anchor URL.
Tip: Create several link anchor settings with slightly different anchor texts to make the links you get look natural to the search engines. Statuses
Statuses
In Preferences -> Partner Management -> Statuses you can edit the list of available statuses that you can assign to your link partners. Statuses are used as reminders of what your next step in the link exchange workflow is for each link partner.
Click Add to create a new status. You can also edit the existing statuses (Edit), delete them (Remove) or change the order in which they appear in the status dropdown list (Move Up/Down)
Excluded Partners
In Preferences -> Excluded Link Partners LinkAssistant stores the list of domains you don't want to be included into partner search results. Here you can enter the websites that are simply impossible to get a link from such as (e.g. www.google.com) or websites whose webmasters have asked you not to contact them with link exchange requests.
Enter the domains one per line or remove the listed domains that you want to appear in the search results again.
Email Client Settings
In Preferences -> Email Management -> Email Client Settings you can configure the email client settings that will be used when contacting your partners.
Please, configure the incoming and outgoing mail servers; enter your username and password. If unsure contact your mail server provider or contact our support service for help. You can use the Test Connection button to check if your settings are correct.
Note: In the Mail Management tab you can specify whether LinkAssistant should delete the received messages from server, keep them or delete only when removed from trash.
Email Template Settings
In Preferences -> Email Management -> Email Templates you can manage the email templates that are used for contacting your link partners. Email templates are standard messages personalized with partner names, website addresses, and other tags that use the information from the partner profile to make the messages you send sound personal and as a result more persuasive.
There are several predefined Email templates you can use straight away. You can edit them to adjust the message to your liking. Simply select a template, click Edit and LinkAssistant will give you access to the code of the template.
In the Template tab you can edit the template's code. The variable parameters are in red, while static text is in black. Click the Tags button on the right to get a list of available variables you can use to personalize the message.
Once you've performed some editing you can click through to the Preview tab to see the changes.
When you're done click OK to save the changes or Cancel to discard them.
To create a new email template click Add and LinkAssistant will let you enter the code of the template from scratch. Type in your message with the variable tags, give a name to your template and click OK to save it.
Note: Use the Move Up/Move Down buttons to change the order in which the email templates appear in the dropdown selection menu when sending out emails.
Link Directory
The group of settings in Preferences -> Link Directory enables you to configure the link directory you create with LinkAssistant. Here you can edit the Categories of your link directory, create and modify Link Directory Templates, as well as change the Storage Settings. Select a subsection to configure.
Link Directory Categories
In Preferences -> Link Directory Settings -> Categories you can set up the categories or sections of your link directory. It is managed in pretty much the same way you manage the local folders on your computer. You can see the structure tree of your link directory with all the folders and sub-folders as well as how many partners each category has.
Use the Add, Edit and Remove buttons to quickly create new categories and edit or remove existing ones. The next set of control buttons lets you manage the way your sections are structured.
Use this buttons to move the section folders in and out of their each other, change their position in the list of categories and so on.
Note: To add multiple categories press Batch Add, and type in the names of the categories you want to create one per line. Choose the parent category you want them to appear or select root if you want to make them top-level.
Link Directory Templates
In Preferences -> Link Directory Settings -> Link Directory Templates you can manage the template(s) used to generate your link directory.
Click Add to create a new link directory template. You'll be automatically offered to do it when you first generate your link directory. The guidelines on creating a link directory template are described in details here.
Copying Link Directory Template to a Project
Link directory templates are set up per project, which means the link directory template you create in one project won't be available in other projects, but you can quickly copy the template you need to any or all of your projects.
To do this select the needed template and click Copy. Then open the project you want to transfer the template to, go to Preferences -> Link Directory Settings -> Link Directory Templates and click Paste. Your template will be added to the project.
Editing Link Directory Template
To edit the link directory template press Edit and LinkAssistant will give you access to the HTML code of the template.
In the Code tab you can edit the template of your link directory anyway you want. You can see what your link directory will look like with the changes applied in the Preview tab.
In the Server-Side Settings tab you can edit the file name and extension of your link directory.
Note: The file name you type in here will be applied to the directory's main page. The sub pages will have a prefix, while the extension will be attached to all files.
Storage Settings
In Preferences -> Link Directory Settings -> FTP/Local Storage you can change the storage option that will be used when you generate your link directory. First, you can choose whether to upload the link directory to the server or save to your hard drive and upload later.
Save to your hard drive
If you choose to save the link directory locally you'll be offered to specify the local folder. Click Local folder setup to select where you want to save the directory files to.
Note: Mark the folder where all the files for your websites are stored (if any) as local web root.
Publish to a website via FTP
If you choose this saving option LinkAssistant will offer you to configure the FTP Server Settings.
First, select the file transfer protocol type and specify the FTP server address and port together with your username and password which will be used to access the server (check Use passive FTP if you're behind a firewall).
Then press Remote dir setup to specify the folder on the server where the link directory will be stored.
Mark the web root i.e. the folder where all the publicly available webpage files of your website are stored and specify the folder where you want to put your link directory. Right below the folder tree you'll be able to see where your links pages will appear online.
Preferred Search Engines
In Preferences -> Search Engine Settings -> Preferred Search Engines you can configure the list of search engines that will be used when searching for link partners. These search engines will be selected as default so that you don't have to scroll down a long list of all the supported search engines each time you run a partner search.
Note: If a search engine you need is not supported yet you can request it added, using the Request more search engines link.
Search Engines API Keys
LinkAssistant fully supports Google, Yahoo! and Bing API keys. These keys allow you to make automated queries without violating search engines' policies, but also limit the number of searches you can do on these search engines.
You can set up search engine API keys in Preferences -> Search Engine Settings -> Search Engine API Keys
To start using an API key simply copy and paste it in the corresponding field.
If you don't have an API key but want to obtain one you can do it by following these links:
Note: Google's AJAX API key only allows checking the first 64 results per each query. So when you're looking for link partners, with this API key you will be finding only 64 partners in Google. As an alternative, you can work without a Google API key but use other search safety settings
Preferred Ranking Factors
In Preferences -> Search Engine Settings -> Preferred Ranking Factors you can configure what ranking factors you want to monitor both for the website you optimize in the project and for the link partner websites.
Simply select the ranking factors you want to include into the project data and click OK.
Note: You can check the ranking factors for the project website in Preferences ->Website Ranking Factors. To view the ranking factors for partner websites update partner info and configure the workspace to include these columns.
Misc. Project Settings
In Preferences -> Misc. Project Settings you can configure a number of miscellaneous LinkAssistant settings such as:
Link Submission Password
Here you can change the password that will be used whenever you automatically fill out link submission forms.
Simply type in the new password and LinkAssistant will save it in the project settings.
Preferred (Canonical) Domain
Check this box if you want LinkAssistant to treat www- and non-www domains as the same site.
Note: This option will affect the way link verification is done. For example if the option is enabled LinkAssistant will consider that the link is valid even if it comes from http://partner-site.com instead of http://www.partner-site.com
Global Preferences
Global Preferences let you configure a number of general settings that will apply to all of your LinkAssistant projects.
Company Profile
In Preferences > Company Profile you can specify your company info. LinkAssistant will use this data when generating Link Building Reports.
Please specify your company name, e-mail, website, physical address and logo. This data will be used in all projects, so you only need to fill it in once.
Publishing Profiles
Publishing profiles are groups of settings used to save, email and upload your link building reports to a website. You can find detailed guidelines on configuring publishing profiles in the Publishing Your Report section.
Report Templates
Report Templates determine the structure and contents of Link Building reports. They are described in detail in Managing Report Templates help section.
Search Safety Settings
Search Safety Settings are used to make sure search engines don't temporarily block you from accessing their servers because of too frequent search requests sent by automatic SEO tools. You can configure these settings in Preferences -> Search Safety Settings.
You may need to enable these features when looking for a large number of link partners, verifying links for a big project or performing some other tasks involving lots of queries of the search engines.
Human Emulation
Human emulation is an advanced feature of LinkAssistant that improves the safety of your work with search engines. If you enable it, the tool will emulate the way humans behave when using search engines.
Visit Search Engines Home Page
If you tick this box LinkAssistant will visit the home page of each search engine before placing a query, just like most Internet users do.
Enable Human Emulation Delays
When enabled, this option will make LinkAssistant pause for a random period of time before sending another request to a search engine. The bigger delays you set, the longer it will take to gather the data. We recommend starting with default settings and adjusting them to meet your demands.
Note: You don't need these features if you're using search engine API keys.
User Agents
User agents' rotation is another search safety feature of LinkAssistant. In Preferences -> Search Safety Features -> User Agents...you can configure LinkAssistant to use a random user agent for each query. This way you'll make Google and other search engines think that each request you make actually comes from a different person.
Proxy Rotation
Proxy Rotation is an advanced search safety feature that lets you safely work with search engines from behind anonymous proxies. You can configure it in Preferences -> Search Safety Settings -> Proxy Rotation.
Adding proxy servers
Check the box next to Enable Proxy Rotation to turn the feature on. Now you need to specify the list of proxies to use. You can add the proxies manually one by one using the Add button:
Specify the proxy server address and port. If the proxy requires authentication check the corresponding box and enter your username and password, then click OK and the proxy will be added to the list.
Note: You can check whether the proxy is working and its response time with the help of the Check button.
Importing a list of proxies
If you want to add several proxy servers at a time or have a list of proxies you want to use, you can add them by pressing the Import button. LinkAssistant will start the Proxy Import wizard.
Step 1: Import Proxies
Enter the list of proxies you want to use. Stick with the following format:
- proxyhost:port — for proxies that don't require authentication
For example - 202.213.246.61:80 or proxy.link-assistant.com:80
- username:password@proxyhost:port — for proxies that do require authentication
For example - yourusername:yourpassword@202.213.246.61:80
Step 2: Checking Proxies
LinkAssistant is now checking the proxies you've specified for availability and response time. This may take a while depending on the number of proxy servers you've entered and the speed of your Internet connection.
Note: You can interrupt the process anytime by pressing Stop, but some proxies will remain not checked.
Step 3: Select Proxies To Use
In this step you can see the results of the proxy check: proxy server, country, status (alive or dead) and the response time.
Select the proxies you want to use, click Finish and the proxy servers will be added to the list.
Searching for Proxies
LinkAssistant can also search for publicly available proxies on the web and add them to your list. To find free proxy servers press Search.
Note: If you enable Prior to search, update list with publicly available proxies LinkAssistant will run the search for free proxy servers and add the working ones each time you run a task that involves use of web resources (searching for partners, updating ranking factors, etc.)
Step 1: Search for Proxies
Please wait while LinkAssistant is searching for free proxy servers and checking their status and response time.
Note: You may choose to interrupt the process anytime by pressing Stop but this will result in some proxy servers left out.
Step 2: Select Proxies To Use
Here you can see the list of free proxies LinkAssistant managed to find. Select the ones you want to use and click Finish to add them to the list of proxies.
Managing Proxies
You can manage the list of proxy servers with the help of the control menu buttons whenever you need to add, edit or remove proxy servers.
Manage Proxies Menu
You can also quickly check if the proxy servers on the list are working and with what response time. Simply select the proxies you want to check and click Check. LinkAssistant will check the proxies you've selected and update their status and response time.
Note: Enable the 'Use direct connection if no proxies are available' option if you want to allow LinkAssistant accessing the web directly when there are no working proxies available.
Proxy Settings
In Preferences > Proxy Settings... you can set up your proxy server configuration.
If you connect to the Internet directly, you don't need to configure proxy settings. If you are behind a proxy server, you need to specify your proxy address, port, username and password. If unsure, please contact your network administrator to obtain this information.
Scheduler
In Preferences > Scheduler you can manage the list of LinkAssistant's scheduled tasks. Here you can add, remove, or edit the tasks the software runs automatically on a pre-defined schedule. You can see the list of existing tasks with their schedule details and last run results.
Creating a scheduled task
Press Add to create a new scheduled task. LinkAssistant will pop up a wizard to guide you through the process.
Step 1: Choose task type
In this step you choose the type of the task you want LinkAssistant to perform on schedule.
Step 2: Choose Projects
Choose one or several projects for which the scheduled task is to be set.
Note: You can set a scheduled task only for saved projects
Note 2: The wizard shows you the list of all currently opened projects. Press Add projects to choose other saved projects which are not opened in LinkAssistant at the moment.
Step 3: Task Schedule Settings
In this step you can specify recurrence rules for the new scheduled task.
Step 4: Set Scheduled Task Name
Here you choose the name for the scheduled task. Use a descriptive name that will state what the task does, e.g. 'Weekly partner verification'
Excluded Emails
In Preferences -> Excluded Emails you can edit the list of email addresses and email domains that you don't want to be used as contact emails of your link partners. Here you can enter the emails of people who have explicitly asked you not to contact them with link exchange requests
Note: There're also a number of email domains that are used to hide the real contact emails (therefore, there's no use in sending mail to them). You will find some of these domains already included in the Excluded Emails list.
Export Templates
Export Templates are groups of settings used to export the data from your LinkAssistant projects. You can manage Export Templates in Preferences -> Export Templates.
Here you can see the list of available export templates. Select a template and press Edit to change its settings. LinkAssistant will give you access to the code of the template. You can edit the code and get a preview of your changes in the Preview tab.
You can also delete any template by pressing the Remove button or change the order of templates with the help of Move Up/Down buttons.
For help on creating a new export template refer to Exporting Data help section.
Language Settings
In Preferences -> Language settings you can set the language of the application. Here you can choose the language that will be used in all texts in LinkAssistant.
Note: If you want to translate the application into your native language, proceed to translation instructions described here.
Misc. Global Settings
In Preferences -> Misc. Global Settings you can configure the miscellaneous preferences that will apply to all projects.
Here you can set up the number of simultaneous tasks, captcha skipping delay, and autosave interval.
Note: It is recommended to use the default value of simultaneous tasks.