Using LinkAssistant
Link Management
Table of Contents
- Generating a Link Directory
- Running Link Verification
- Sending out Emails
- Working with Email Client
- Working With Browser
- Filling out Link Exchange Forms
Generating a Link Directory
Link Directory is the section on your website where all the links to your link partners are placed. Whenever you need to set up new links, change or remove the existing ones you need to (re)generate your link directory. You do this by clicking the Generate button, going to Tools -> Generate Link Directory or pressing Ctrl-G.
Generate Button
The link directory is generated according to a template that stores all your settings, directory structure, etc. When you generate the link directory for the first time LinkAssistant will automatically offer you to create a new link directory template (you can edit it and create new templates in Preferences -> Link Directory Settings -> Link Directory Templates)
Creating a Link Directory Template
These three steps create your first link directory template
Step 1: Select Template Type
In the first step you choose what type of directory you want to create. Choose 'Create a tree-like link directory template' to break the links into sections and subsections according to the assigned category. This type of directory is recommended because it's easier for users and search engine crawlers to navigate. If you choose to "Create a "plain" link directory template" the links to your partners will be placed in one section.
Step 2: Layout Options
In this step you configure the layout of your link directory. There are a number of options you can customize. You can get an idea of what your directory's layout will look like in the Sample Preview window on the right (please note that this is a sample of a directory structure, your directory will have the links and categories you've specified).
- Include the link submission form
If you check this box LinkAssistant will put a link submission form on your links page. Whenever webmasters willing to exchange links with you fill out this form you'll get notified and will be able to quickly add them to your project.
- Number Categories
Check this box if you want to put a number next to each category of your link directory.
- Number Links
Enable this option to number the links in each category and subcategory.
- Display the number of partners in a category
Check this box if you want to display the number of links each category has next to its name. This way you can let your visitors see how many links they will find in each section of your link directory.
- Hide empty categories
If you enable this option LinkAssistant will not show the categories that don't have any links.
- Display websites' PageRank
Select this option if you want to display a PageRank bar next to each link.
- Split into pages
This option will split your directory into pages so that there's no more than 5, 10, whatever links per page. This way you can make your link directory easily navigable for the users and avoid crawlability issues.
Step 3: Page Design And Link Location
In this step you can choose the design for your links section. Simply load the page of your website that has the design you want to use for your link directory and select the area with your mouse where you want to put the links. The area you select will be replaced with the link directory leaving all the design (including pictures and navigation links) outside the area as it is.
Step 4: Links Page Preview
In step four you get a preview of your link directory. If you're satisfied with the way it looks you can click Next to create the link directory template. If there's something you'd like to change simply click back to the previous step and try using another page or selecting a different area for the links section.
Now your link directory template is ready and the wizard will ask you to configure storage settings for the directory.
Step 5: Select Storage Settings
You can choose to instantly upload your link directory to your website or save it locally to your hard drive and upload later.
Note: Your storage settings will be saved and applied next time you generate your link directory. To change the settings go to Preferences -> Link Directory Settings -> FTP/Local Storage
The consequent steps will depend on the option you select here, click [expand] next to the option you chose to see help for the rest of the wizard steps.
Upload the link directory to FTP [expand]
Save to the local hard drive [expand]
Every time you need to set up new links to your partners or correct the existing ones you can do that by generating the link directory. LinkAssistant will update your links pages with new links and apply the changes you made.
When you already have a link directory template, LinkAssistant will automatically apply its settings when generating a directory (after you click the Generate button).You can have several link directory templates and choose which one to use each time you generate your link directory.
Please, note that only links to the partners that are marked for inclusion in link directory will be placed on your website.
Running Link Verification
With LinkAssistant you can quickly check whether your link partners are actually linking back to you with the right anchor texts and descriptions. To run a link verification check simply select the partners you want to scan and click Verify.
Run Link Verification
Note: You can also click the down arrow icon next to the verify button and choose one of the options from the dropdown menu:
- Verify selected link partners
- Verify partners from the current view
- Verify all the partners from the current project
LinkAssistant will pop up a wizard that will help you configure your link verification check.
Step 1: Backlink Verification Settings
In this step you configure the way you want to check partner websites.
You have the following options to choose from:
- Explore a specified number of levels deep from the starting point
You can tell LinkAssistant how deep into a website's structure it should dig searching for a link to you. Sometimes your link partners may accidentally place your link on a different page, or your link may move to another page because more links were added (and the links are sorted alphabetically for instance).
If LinkAssistant doesn't find the link on the page that is assigned as partner's backlink page it will go as many levels deep as you wish.
- Scan a specified number of web pages linked from the starting point
Here you specify how many pages LinkAssistant should check if it doesn't find your link on the partner's backlink page.
- No scan depth limits at all
If you choose this option LinkAssistant will be scanning all web pages on the partner website until it finds your link or until there are no more pages to scan. As you understand this may take up a lot of time depending on the size of partner website(s), the speed of your Internet connection, and some other factors.
- Scan only current page
Select this option if you only want to check the web page that was assigned as the backlink page. Even if the link to you is not found on the page, LinkAssistant won't go any deeper into the website's structure.
Step 2: Verifying Backlinks
Please, wait while LinkAssistant is scanning partner websites and verifying your links. The time needed for verification will depend on the number of partners you check, your verification settings and the speed of your Internet connection.
Note: You can interrupt the process anytime by clicking the Stop button as well as cancel individual tasks.
Step 3: Backlink Verification Results
In this step LinkAssistant shows you the results of the verification check. You can see the backlink page, the anchor text and the Verification Passed status which marks if the link was found and if it is correct.
Here's a list of statuses you can come across and what they mean:
Red Flag
No (Site is down) — The website either doesn't exist or is down at the moment for some reason
No (Page not found) — The page recorded as the partner's backlink page doesn't exist.
No (Link missing) — There's no link to you on the partner's backlink page and on the pages you specified to check.
No (restricted by robots.txt) — There may be a link to your website but Google bot and other search engine crawlers cannot access the page where the link is placed because it is blocked by robots.txt file. Therefore you get no link juice from the link and it is useless in terms of SEO.
No (Nofollow tag) — A nofollow tag is attached to the link to your website. Search engines don't count nofollow links when ranking websites, therefore you don't benefit from the link in terms of SEO.
Yellow Flag
Yes (Wrong Anchor) — There's a link to you on the partner's website but the anchor settings doesn't match the ones you specified. This can mean that the partner is:
a) linking with a different anchor text or description
b) linking to a different page of your website (i.e. with a different anchor URL)
c) has put a link on a different webpage (not the one recorded as backlink page in the partner profile)
Green Flag
Yes — You're doing fine, the partner is linking back to you from the page you wanted with the anchor text you asked for, passing the link value on to your website.
Step 4: Manage Partners Who Failed Verification (only if there are such partners)
In this step you can manage the link partners who failed link verification. These are the partners that were red flagged in the backlink verification results and had a 'No' verification passed status.
Obviously something needs to be done when you link to your partners and get no links back from them. You have the following options to choose from:
Change status to
This option will change the status of all failed link partners to remind you of what you're supposed to do with them.
Send email using template
Allows you to send an email to the failed partners asking to set up/correct the link to you. (You can use the pre-defined template "Our Link NOT Found" Notification.)
Exclude partners who failed verification from the generated link directory
Choose this option if you want to remove the links to these partners from your link directory (will be applied next time you generate and upload your link directory).
Permanently remove (and add to Excluded Partners) the partners who failed verification
Select this option if you want to permanently remove the failed partners from your project. They will also be added to the Excluded Partners list and won't come up in the partner search results ever again, unless you edit the Excluded Partners list.
Note: You can select multiple options. For example you can both email the partners and change their status.
Sending Out Emails
With LinkAssistant you can quickly send out personalized emails to multiple link partners. Simply select the partners you want to contact with your mouse and click the Email button or press Ctrl — M.
LinkAssistant pops up the Send Email dialogue box where you can configure your mailing.
Here you can see the list of partners who will receive your letter and get a preview of the email text. Select the partner from the list to see the exact message that will be sent to him. The text of your message is defined by the email template. Choose one of the predefined email templates from the dropdown in the right hand corner.
You can edit the text or create a new message by managing your email templates. You can also edit partner profiles from this window by clicking the Edit button.
Once you've prepared the emails you can send them by clicking Send or put the messages to outbox by clicking the Outbox button to do the sending later.
Important Note: Before you can send out emails you need to configure your email client settings.
Working with Email Client
LinkAssistant has a fully functional email client that lets you send out personalized link requests, get in touch with your partners and manage all your contacts and correspondence.
Important Note: Before you can start working with mail you need to configure your email client settings.
LinkAssistant works pretty much like any email client so you should get up to speed with it real quick. Here you'll find the standard send/receive type control menu that lets you create, send and receive emails, reply to messages and remove emails to trash.
Just like with most email clients, in LinkAssistant you can flag messages, mark them as read or unread, move to different folders, etc. This functionality is available through right-click dropdown menu.
When you get emails from your existing or potential link partners you can quickly add the partner to your project, edit his profile, update partner info or remove him from the list of partners using the Partner Management menu section.
Working With Internet Browser
LinkAssistant has a fully functional Internet browser on board that lets you easily view partner websites, fill out link exchange forms and, well, browse the web. You can click through to the Browser tab and type in a URL into the address box or hover your mouse over a partner's URL you want to visit in the Partners tab, click the '…' icon and choose to open with internal browser.
You'll be instantly taken to LinkAssistant's browser.
Here you can see the partner's website as it appears online. You can edit the partner profile; update the info on the partner or remove the partner from the project using the menu controls in the upper left-hand corner. Also you can use the Harvest URLs button to harvest all URLs on the page (this function works just like the Harvest URLs partner search method).
Filling out Link Exchange Forms
If you use the internal LinkAssistant browser to open a web page with a link exchange form on it, you can quickly complete the form by clicking the Fill Out button.
You'll be offered to choose a password that will be used each time you fill out link submission forms.
Once you've specified your password LinkAssistant will automatically complete the form based on your project information. All that's left for you to do is click the submit button and, in some cases, enter a captcha (if any).
Note: You can change your link submission password any time in Preferences -> Misc. Project Settings.
