Using LinkAssistant

Data Management

Table of Contents

• Managing Workspaces
• Using Quick Filter
• Importing Data
• Exporting Data
• Copying Data to a Spreadsheet

Managing Workspaces

The columns and data you see in the Partners tab is defined by the active workspace. Workspaces allow you to configure your working space in LinkAssistant the way you want it to be: choose what info on the partners to display, set up filters and more. You can select one of the predefined workspaces from the dropdown in the upper right-hand corner.

Selecting Workspace

There are a number of ready-made workspaces you can use:

• Show All — shows all partners and data available in the project.
• Only Partners Included in Link Directory: limits the view to only display the partners marked for inclusion into link directory, or in other words the partners you link to from your website.
• Only Partners Excluded from Link Directory: only shows the partners who are not included into the link directory, i.e. the partners you don't link to or will remove the links to next time you generate the link directory.
• Only Partners Added Today: this workspace shows you the list of partners that were added to the project today.
• Only Partners with PageRank of 4+: limits the view to partners with domain Google PageRank value of 4 and above.
• Only Partners Who Failed Verification: — select this workspace to see the partners who failed verification during the last check.
• Only Verified Partners: shows the partners who are actually linking to you with the right anchor and from the assigned backlink page.

Note: Along with configuring information layout inside a project, you can sort all currently opened projects alphabetically. Right-button click on any project's tab and select Sort Projects Alphabetically.

You can also edit the existing workspaces and create new ones. To do this go to Preferences -> Manage Workspaces or click the Workspaces button in the upper right hand corner.

Manage Workspaces

You instantly get to the Manage Workspaces window that gives you full control over your working area.

Manage Workspaces Window

Here you can see the list of available workspaces. You can change the order in which they appear in the dropdown menu with the help of Move Up/Move Down buttons to have the most often used workspaces at hand.

Select any workspace and click Edit to change its settings (you can back it up by pressing Clone) or press Add to create a new workspace from scratch.

Add Workspace

In this window you can create a new workspace to customize your working environment in LinkAssistant. On the left you can see the available columns you can choose to display in your workspace. Simply select the columns you need (hold Shift or Ctrl to select multiple entries) and click the Add Columns button.

Add Columns

Note: Enable 'Shrink columns to fit screen' if you want to fit all columns into the screen, or leave the box unchecked (recommended) to be able to adjust the column size and scroll through the columns with a scrollbar.

Tip: Double clicking a column will add/remove it from the list of visible columns.

Besides configuring the data columns you can also apply filters to your workspace. Click the '+' button to add a new filtering condition.

Configuring Filters

You can apply filters to any data in the project from partner's domain name to Alexa rank and notes you make. Select the column you want to filter and define your filtering condition.

For example you can configure LinkAssistant not to display partners with the status of '1st link request mail sent' in this workspace. To do this configure the following filtering condition:

Status -> Not Equals -> 1st link request mail sent

Sample Filter

This way all partners with this status will be hidden when this workspace is active.

Note: For 2 and more filtering conditions you can choose whether all or any of the conditions should be met.

Several Filtering Conditions

Once you've configured your workspace, give a name to it and click OK. You'll be able to choose the workspace you've created from the dropdown menu in the Partners tab.

Copying Workspace To A Project

Workspaces are set up per project, which means the workspaces you create in one project won't be available in other projects, but you can quickly copy the workspace you need to any or all of your projects. To do this select the needed workspace and click Copy. Then open the project you want to transfer the workspace to, go to Manage Workspaces window and click Paste. Your workspace will be added to the project and will be available from the dropdown.

Copying a Workspace

Using Quick Filter

Use the Quick Filter when you need to quickly find certain partners. You can type a word (or any part of it) into the Quick Filter, and LinkAssistant will instantly limit the view to the entries that contain the word in any of the columns.

Using Quick Filter

You can configure the Quick Filter choosing from the many filtering conditions available. Just click on the 'lense' picture () in the left hand corner to open the menu.

Invoking Quick Filter Setup Menu

Pick the filtering condition you need. For example you might want to temporarily hide the partners with a certain anchor text assigned to them. To do this choose Partner Domain -> contains

Configuring Filtering Condition

Then if you type the anchor text (or a unique part of it) into the Quick Filter, LinkAssistant will temporarily hide all partners with that assigned anchor text.

Quick Filter is a quick and easy way to find specific backlinks, without configuring Workspace filters.

Importing Data

You can import link partners from a plain text file, from a CSV file, from another LinkAssistant project or from a project of IBP software version 10x. This saves you time and effort when you need to add multiple partners to the project, rather than adding them one by one.

To do this go to File -> Import and select the import option. LinkAssistant will pop up a wizard that will guide you through the import process. The first step will be different for each import option; all consequent steps are the same for all import methods.

Note: You can import link partners from your SEO SpyGlass project by saving the SEO SpyGlass project as a CSV file and then using the File -> Import -> CSV File option in LinkAssistant.

Below are help guidelines for each import option. Some wizard steps are specific for each option; others are common to all of them. Click [expand] next to an import option to view the unique steps. You'll find the shared steps right below the list of import options.

Import from Plain Text [expand][click to hide]

Step 1: Enter Partner URLs

In this step you need to specify the URLs of the websites that you want to add to your project. You can type them in one per line or copy paste from a plain text file.

Step 1: Enter Partner URLs

If you check the Record these URLs as your backlink pages box, LinkAssistant will register the exact URLs you enter as backlink pages in the Partner Profile, otherwise, only domains will be added.

Check Enable Expert Options if you want to configure advanced settings.

The consequent steps are common to all import options and are described here.

Import from CSV File [expand][click to hide]

Step 1: Choose a CSV File

Specify the CSV file you want to import partners from.

Step 1: Choose a CSV file

Select the encoding and specify which row to start import from.

Step 2: Select Delimiter

In this step you specify the delimiter your data contains and assign names for the imported information columns.

Select Delimiter

Note: Select "do not use" in the dropdown menus at the top of a column, if you do not want this information column to be imported to LinkAssistant's project

Note 2: Partner Domain is the required column

The consequent steps are common to all import options and are described here.

Import from Another Project/IBP 10x [expand][click to hide]

Step 1: Select the Project

Specify the project you want to import partners from.

Step 1: Select Project

Check Enable Expert Options if you want to configure advanced settings.

Steps Common to Some or All of the Partner Search Methods

Note: Steps 2, 3, 4 and 6 for all import options except Import from CSV File.

Step 2: Get Additional Partner Information

Note: You will get to this step only if you've selected to enable the expert options in Step 1.

In this step you set up what information about the partners you want to add to your project.

Get Additional Partner Information

Note: You need to enable the Acquire Google PageRank value and other search engine ranking factors if you want to set up link quality filters in the next step

Step 3: Set Ranking Factors and Filters*

Note: You will get to this step only if you've selected to enable the expert options in Step 1.

In this step you configure what ranking factors you want LinkAssistant to acquire for each partner website. To add or remove ranking factors click the Add More Ranking Factors button.

Set Ranking Factors and Filters

* To set up a raking filter hover your mouse over the Filter column of a particular ranking factor and click the small three-dotted icon. For instance you can choose to only add link partners with Google PR 2 and above, Alexa rank of no more than 500,000, etc.

Step 4: Searching For Link Partners

LinkAssistant is now importing link partners from the project you specified and gathering the project info according to your settings.

Searching for Link Partners

Note: You can stop the process any time or cancel individual tasks.

Step 5: Select URLs to Use

In this step LinkAssistant shows you the list of websites from the project that met your ranking criteria. Select the entries that will be added to the project and click Next.

Select URLs to Use

Step 6: Choose Link Anchor Settings

Select what anchor texts and descriptions you want these link partners to use when linking to you. If you select several anchor settings they will be randomly distributed among partners.

Choose Link Anchor Settings

Note: You can create and edit link anchor settings in Preferences -> Partner Management -> Anchor Settings

Step 7: Common Link Partner Settings

Here you can configure the common settings for link partners before they will be added to the project.

Common Link Partner Settings

• Category

Category is basically the section of your link directory where links to your link partners will be put. Pick one of the existing categories or create a new one.

• Status

Partner Status reminds you of what you're supposed to do in the next stage of link exchange with each link partner.

• Mark partners to be added to your link directory

If you check this box all partner websites found in the partner search will be marked for inclusion into your link directory.

Once you've configured the Common Link Partner Settings click Finish and the link partners will be added to your project.

Exporting Data

LinkAssistant lets you easily export the data from your link building project into TXT, HTML or SQL or XML format. To do this go to File -> Export -> Link Partners

When you initiate the export for the first time LinkAssistant will automatically offer you to create an Export Template. A wizard will take you through the set-up process. All your export settings will be saved in the template. Next time you need to export the data you can just pick the template you need and export it in a mouseclick. You can also edit and remove the export templates.

Creating New Export Template

Step 1: Select File Type

In this step you choose the target format to save backlink data in.

Creating New Export Template: Select File Type

Note: If you select to export into a .txt file you'll be offered to choose the type of delimiter in step 2. There's no such step for all other formats and you'll get straight to step 3 as described here.

Step 2: Choose Delimiter (only for Text File)

Choose the symbol that will be used to delimit the data taken from different columns. You can export your project data into a comma or tab separated file, as well as use a custom symbol to separate the entries.

Creating New Export Template: Choose Delimiter

Step 3*: Choose Columns For Export

In this step you can specify the columns that you want to export and the order in which they will appear in the target file.

Creating New Export Template: Choose Columns for Export

*Step 3 for all export formats except .txt file

Step 4*: Preview

In this step you get a preview of the export file format. Click through to the Code tab to edit the export file code if needed.

Creating New Export Template: Preview

*Step 4 for all export formats except .txt file

Step 5*: Set Template Name

Here you choose the name for the export template (not the export file). Use a descriptive name that will state what the export template does, e.g. 'Export to .TXT file'

This template will store all export settings you specified and will quickly apply them whenever you select to export the data using this template.

Creating New Export Template: Set Template Name

*Step 5 for all export formats except .txt file

Exporting Data Using Export Template

Once you've created an export template you can use it to export the data to your preferred format. Go to File -> Export -> Link Partners and select the export template you need.

Step 1: Choose Export Template

Pick the export template that will be used to export the data from LinkAssistant.

Exporting Data: Choose Export Template

You can edit the templates, or create a new export template to change the settings or select a different export file format.

Step 2: Choose Which Records To Export

In this step you need to choose what records from your active project you want to include into the export file. You may export all records from the project, the records from the current workspace or just the currently selected entries.

Exporting Data: Choose Which Records To Export

Click Finish and you'll be able to select the storage path and name for the target export file.

Copying Data to a Spreadsheet

Here's how you can copy the data from your LinkAssistant project to a spreadsheet:

1. Select the entries you wish to copy. You can hold down Ctrl (or CMD for Mac) or Shift keys to select multiple keywords or press Ctrl-A to select all.
2. Right-click and select Copy Link Partner(s), or simply hit Ctrl-C (or CMD-C on a Mac version).
3. Now open your favorite spreadsheet and press Ctrl-V or right-click -> Paste to import the data.

Copying Data to a Spreadsheet

That's it! You have successfully transferred your data to the spreadsheet. Now you can easily sort, modify or print it.

Note: Only the data from the current view will be transferred.

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