Configuring WebSite Auditor
Table of Contents
Project Preferences
Global Preferences
- Company Profile
- Search Engines API Keys
- Preferred Search Engines
- Search Safety Settings
- Proxy Settings
- Scheduler
- Stop Words
- Language Settings
- Misc. Global Setting
You can configure WebSite Auditor 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 WebSite Auditor: Project Preferences and Global Preferences.
Project Preferences such as Customer Profile and Preferred Page Ranking Factors are set up per project.
Global Preferences are configured once, and they apply to all of your WebSite Auditor projects.
Project Preferences
Customer Profile
In Preferences > Customer Profile you can fill in information about your customer. This is a per-project setting so this should be the name of the customer whose website you're optimizing within that project. The program will use these data when generating reports.
Please specify Customer name, their e-mail, website URL, physical address and logo. This data has to be filled in for each project.
Note: By filling in the Customer profile you give a personal touch to the look and feel of your reports so that your customers feel the report was created specifically for them.
Preferred Page Ranking Factors
In Preferences > Preferred Page Ranking Factors you can manage the list of your preferred page ranking factors. Page ranking factors are the factors that influence search engine rankings of your pages. The factors you choose here will be used when you collect page ranking factors for your project, rebuild the project, or update data for any of its pages.
Note: If a factor that is important to you is not on the list you can request it, using the link Request More Ranking Factors.
Note 2: You can always access this menu when colleting ranking factors or updating them for the whole project or separate pages by using the Add More Ranking Factors button in Choose the Search Engine to Be Used step.
Domain Ranking Factors
In Preferences -> Domain Ranking Factors > Factors Overview you can monitor certain ranking factors related to your domain (such as Google PR, Alexa Rank, etc).
In this window you see only the factors that are specified as your Preferred Domain Ranking Factors. To set the list of preferred domain ranking factors that will be presented and analyzed in Factors Overview window, switch to Preferences > Domain Ranking Factors > Preferred Factors.
Use the buttons on the right to update some or all of the ranking factors or see the progress graphs.
Global Preferences
Global Preferences let you configure a number of general settings that will apply to all of your WebSite Auditor projects.
Search Engines API Keys
WebSite Auditor fully supports Google, Yahoo! and Bing API keys.
These keys give you software the permission to send high-frequency queries to certain search engines without violate their policies. Yet the keys also limit the number of searches you can perform using these search engines.
If you wish to use a Google, Yahoo! or Bing API key within WebSite Auditor, select Preferences > Search Engines API Keys... from the navigation menu.
Simply copy and paste your existing API key here.
If you don't have an API key but want to obtain one you can do it by following these links:
Configuring Your Company Profile
If you go to Preferences > Company Profile you'll be able to fill in the info about your own company. The tool will use this data when generating Onpage Optimization Reports.
Please specify your company name, e-mail, website, physical address and logo. This data has to be filled in only once, and WebSite Auditor will use it for all projects.
Note: By filling in your Company Profile you create custom looking reports that build on your business reputation and let you gain trust in the eyes of your customers.
Preferred Search Engines
Preferred search engines are set up per project and WebSite Auditor will use them whenever you rebuild your project later on. This way, you don't have to scroll down a long list of all the available search engines and select the right ones each time you check your rankings.
You can change your preferred search engines at any time by selecting Preferences > Preferred Search Engines... from the navigation menu. Currently WebSite Auditor supports 780 search engines.
Note: If a search engine that is important to you is not on the list you can request it added, using the link Request more search engines.
Search Safety Settings
Search Safety Settings ensure search engine friendliness of your software.
Search engines generally do not allow frequent automated queries and may temporary block your search for such queries. And though it doesn't influence your site in any way, it may prevent you from working with the search engine for a few hours. To avoid such temporary blocks and ensure your seamless work, WebSite Auditor is equipped with a number of search safety settings.
You can configure these settings in Preferences -> Search Safety Settings. You may need to enable these features when performing some tasks involving lots of queries of the search engines.
Human Emulation
Human emulation is an advanced feature of WebSite Auditor 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 WebSite Auditor 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 WebSite Auditor 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 WebSite Auditor. In Preferences -> Search Safety Features -> User Agents...you can configure WebSite Auditor to use a random user agent for each query. In this case, your software's searches will appear like they're done by many different users with different combinations of browsers, operation systems, etc. 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 and unique 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.
Note: Normally, users are buying proxy lists – this ensures that no one else is using the same proxies. However, there's an option to use free proxies (but they may get blocked faster).
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. WebSite Auditor 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
WebSite Auditor 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.
Note: To select all the proxies, use the Select All button at the top of the window.
Searching for Proxies
WebSite Auditor 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 WebSite Auditor 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.). But of course, this will take some time.
Step 1: Search for Proxies
Please wait while WebSite Auditor 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.
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. WebSite Auditor 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 WebSite Auditor accessing the web directly when there are no working proxies available.
Proxy Settings
If you are using a direct Internet connection to access web sources in your work, you don't need to configure your proxy settings. However, if you are normally accessing Internet from 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.
To access proxy configuration in WebSite Auditor, choose Preferences > Proxy Settings... from the navigation menu.
Scheduler
In Preferences > Scheduler you can manage the list of WebSite Auditor 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. WebSite Auditor 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 WebSite Auditor 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 WebSite Auditor 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 client reporting'
Editing Stop Words
Stop words are the words such as conjunctions, articles, pronouns, some nouns and verbs etc which are irrelevant to the search engines. Since they can't affect your rankings anyway, you most probably would want to filter them out of your projects. You can do this by going to Preferences > Edit Stop Words...
Here you see a list of stop words that are already excluded from the project. Since the list is by no means exhaustive and only contains English words you can manually add more stop words (one per line) in English or any other language you're targeting.
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 WebSite Auditor.
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, autosave interval and request timeout.
Note: It is recommended to use the default value of simultaneous tasks.
