This article explains the functions of various types of reciprocal link management software, divides them into three types, and provides reviews and recommendations on best-of-breed software. It includes brief reviews on Zeus, Arelis, LinksManager, Links4Trade, Hot Links SQL, Linking101 Link Management Script, LinkManager Lite and Pro, Duncan Carver's Link Management Assistant, and PowerLinks. Four of these packages win the "Web Marketing Today Editor's Choice Award" for excellence at a reasonable price. This material is contained in Dr. Wilson's inexpensive report Reciprocal Linking Tools.
If you're familiar with HTML, it's fairly straightforward to add half a dozen links to a links page. But if you want to build dozens or hundreds of reciprocal links -- each matched with a link to your website -- you'll
want software to make the task much easier.
You'll find three types of software available:
Desktop Link Management Software
CGI Link Management Programs
Hosted ASP Link Management Programs
It's difficult to be exhaustive, but below are brief reviews of
several programs. You'll see my recommendations for programs in each of these categories.
In general, the two desktop programs I recommend -- Zeus and
Arelis -- are best at seeking out and contacting prospective linking
partners. The CGI and hosted ASP approaches don't use such an
extensive e-mail approach, because -- frankly -- such a site
would soon be blacklisted for e-mail spamming. So the CGI and ASP sites are particularly good
at providing a process for a potential linking partner to propose
his own link and go through an approval process. A thorough
linking strategy might use both a site identification
and e-mail inquiry system, such as Zeus and Arelis -- and a
system on your website to encourage linking partners to propose
links.
Warning. All the programs in this review can help you build an
extensive directory. Avoid the temptation. Rather aim for a
tightly-targeted set of 50 to 100 reciprocal links from sites
with the same theme as yours. Don't build a general directory
just because you can. The increased use of Latent Semantic
Indexing will work against sites with diverse directories.
Desktop Link Management Software
Desktop programs typically install on a Windows computer.
Neither Arelis or Zeus works on a Mac OS. Typically they spider the Web, looking for sites that are compatible with yours. Then they generate e-mail to initiate reciprocal links, check to make sure a reciprocal link is in place, and generate static webpages containing your links directory which you
FTP to your website. These programs are especially helpful when you don't have much traffic to your site and must contact others via e-mail. The danger is that you'll be tempted to spam webmasters
that aren't carefully targeted, rather than use these powerful
programs as the highly-targeted tools they're designed to be. You pay a one-time fee. Demo versions are available.
Below I've reviewed:
Arelis Reciprocal Link Solution
Zeus Internet Marketing Robot
Arelis Reciprocal Link Solution
http://www.wilsonweb.com/afd/arelis.htm
Axandra/Voget Selbach Enterprises GmbH
Mosaik Str. 16
56235 Ransbach-Baumbach, Germany
Arelis is a popular desktop software program for Windows computers that performs a number of functions. (1) Searches for potential link partner sites that link to competitors or by keyword. (2)
Creates an annotated database of potential link partners. You can edit a link to sites that you like into database fields that will later generate links directory webpages for your site. The fields include: URL for your links directory, link text to be hyperlinked for your links directory, site description for your links directory, URL of the webpage from this site links back to you, whether to include the link in your webpages, a category, a subcategory, and link order. (3)
E-mails potential reciprocal link partners by finding an e-mail address on the target site, composing
an e-mail message (using your own modifiable template) that
merges the fields from your links database into the final
message. The program allows you to personalize the message with a couple of sentences. (4)
Generates an updated set of links directory webpages, using the template, categories, and subcategories that you
select. You then upload these webpages to your website via FTP.
Free download of full, unrestricted software for 30 days (limited to 100 generic links). This program is widely used and well-liked. One advantage is that there is a one-time fee of $99 and the links directory webpages reside on your website. Recommended.
Zeus Internet Marketing Robot
http://www.wilsonweb.com/afd/zeus.htm
Cyber-Robotics
David Notestine
PO Box 11721
West Palm Beach, FL 33419
When you listen to the recorded teleconferences on the Cyber-Robotics site you find that Zeus creator David Notestine is a true believer in links as the only important means of traffic. Though he tells you to optimize your webpages for search engines, he asserts that by far the bulk of his abundant traffic comes from reciprocal links he has built with his Zeus Internet Marketing Robot.
You "train" Zeus with a number of (100 or more) unique keywords that only appear on the kinds of websites you are targeting -- websites that have content very similar to yours. Sites like this are likely to bring you very targeted traffic through the reciprocal links you set up.
This full-featured, popular system runs on a Windows 95+ desktop computer.
It searches the web for compatible reciprocal linking partners, contacts them via e-mail, and produces static HTML links pages which you upload to your website to update your links. Free demo. Pro version is $195. Recommended.
CGI Link Management Programs
CGI programs, usually written in Perl or PHP, are installed on your webserver. A form on your website makes it easy for visiting webmasters to add links to your categorized directory. You view their proposed link information and either use it as is
or edit to suit. Your acceptance or rejection message is then e-mailed to the
submitter. Most of these programs have a spider that allows you
to check periodically that reciprocal links to your site are still in place,
enabling you to remove links that aren't reciprocated. These
programs don't provide much assistance in finding appropriate linking
partners. For the most part you you'll need to find partners via
search engines and invite them to come to your site and submit a link.
Most of these programs generate static HTML directory pages on your
website. You want to avoid dynamically generated webpages that
reside in your cgi-bin directory, since search engines may balk
at these to some degree. You pay a one-time fee for a license.
There are a number of CGI programs available in both Perl and PHP, some free, others available for a fee.
When you're shopping for a program, look for one of the few that
is designed to support a reciprocal linking campaign. Most in the
link management category are designed to produce a large
Yahoo-like directory of outbound links, but this may work against
high rankings in your niche space. You're looking for the maximum
number of in-bound links from sites that have a lot in common
with your site's theme.
Linking
101 Link Management Script http://www.wilsonweb.com/afd/linking101.htm
Linking 101
Larry Sullivan
2311 Young Dr.
Augusta, GA 30906-3055
Here's an easy-to-use CGI linking script that installs on your
website. It allows visitors to submit their sites for consideration,
but you can decide on all links -- and their categories -- before
they go live on your linking pages. Online administrative functions include view, add,
edit, check, and delete links. When adding or deleting links, you
have the option of automatically notifying the webmaster via
e-mail. Pages can be customized with a header and footer to match
your website. $55.
I installed this program on my server and found that it was
ready to go out-of-the-box. (There's no real box, in spite of the
picture, but you know what I mean.) All I had to do was add
the header and footer to customize it to my site. The wording of
messages was well done, just right for a reciprocal links
exchange. It doesn't support sub-categories and has no space for
a category
description, but for most really targeted reciprocal links
programs, subcategories aren't really necessary anyway. A
nicely-designed feature spiders all the links in the system. If
reciprocal links aren't found, you can (1) do nothing, (2) notify
the webmaster with a prepared message, or (3) delete the link.
Very efficient. Strongly recommended.
Duncan
Carver's Link Management Assistant http://www.onlinemarketingtoday.com/software/link-management/ OnlineMarketingToday.com
Duncan Carver
Wellington, New Zealand
Link Marketing Assistant is a free
program written in PHP and linked to a MySQL database. LMA creates dynamic webpages with any
extension you choose (such as .html), so they don't look like
dynamic pages to the search engine spiders and don't require so
many actual webpages on your site. A support forum is available
if you have installation and application questions. Note: The
program doesn't work properly if you have PHP configured on your
server in the CGI mode.
One
feature is LMA's ability to import thousands of keyword-rich links (with the
category structure) from the Open Directory
Project. From the
standpoint of a linking strategy, however, this
encourages the user to build a directory of outbound links. This may feel
good, but the goal of
a reciprocal link strategy is inbound links. Fortunately, the import feature is
optional.
I am quite impressed with
LMA's features, especially the easy management of reciprocal links. Once
installed properly, the program is ready to go without a lot of
modification except for headers and footers to match your site.
Its ability to manage outgoing e-mail communications is the best
I've seen. In addition to the ability to e-mail all link
partners, you can customize the following e-mail messages to
potential linking partners: (1) confirmation message, (2) submission
received, (3) listing approved, (4) listing declined, (5) link
not found, and (6) listing removed. In addition, you can customize
the following e-mails to alert you, the administrator: (7) new directory submission,
(8) listing suspended, and (9) import completed.
The program
can be set up to spider link partner sites every seven days (or
whatever you set), to remind (or remind and suspend) those who
don't have a link in place after three tries (or whatever you set),
and after that to remind and delete links after three tries (or
whatever you set). In other words, if you desire, links can be
maintained on autopilot. While I think you need hands on
maintenance, this program will certainly assist you. Strongly recommended.
Hot Links SQL v2.3
http://www.wilsonweb.com/afd/hotlinks.htm
MrCGIGuy
Michael Ramirez
4327 Bayhead Court #1C
Aurora, IL 60504
A well-conceived and complete CGI linking system written in Perl with a MySQL database backend.
It includes categories and subcategories and a reciprocal link
checker. One handy feature pre-populates link requests with spidered data from
the linking webpage. It includes flexible templates. For users
developing a large directory, it features ratings, reviews,
click-through counters, a "top sites" list, and sponsor links integrated with PayPal, etc.
Each of these features can be individually enabled or disabled by
the way you set up the templates. The database creates static webpages on your website.
It is available for a one-time fee of $79.95. Less capable and less expensive versions include Hot Links Pro ($39.95) and Warm Links ($15.95) that use a flat database and do not produce static links pages.
Since this program integrates a fairly sophisticated system of
Perl programs with a MySQL database, installation requires doing
a number of things right. However, I found installation pretty
straightforward following the programmer's instructions. But
installation is not for the novice. Find someone familiar with CGI and
MySQL installation to do this for you.
This program is really designed to build a large site
directory and only secondarily for use with a reciprocal links
campaign. I found the basic
wording suggested for the process of sharing links to be rudimentary, requiring
significant rewriting. I also had to rewrite the
acceptance and rejection e-mail messages. Though a spider checks
for links from your linking partners, you only get a list of
sites with and without links. Unfortunately, you can't
selectively e-mail or delete one link at a time; this is a fairly
clumsy bulk function. I also found it difficult to modify the "Add a Link" page
to explain the linking procedure and requirements to those requesting a link.
Recommended if you're willing to do some adaptations.
LinkMaster Lite and Pro v3.0
http://www.e-web.net/scripts/linkmaster/
Adam Barkow
EWC, Inc.
2520 Welsh Road, #121
Philadelphia, PA 19152
Perl program with flat database. LinkMaster generates dynamic webpages
in a CGI directory, so it's not as search engine friendly as
programs that produce static pages. The administration panel
allows you to set up categories but not subcategories. You can ban abusive domains and/or IP
addresses of people who pester you. Filters prevent duplicate
links and the program includes customizable templates. The Pro version ($199) checks for reciprocal links and includes an e-mail function that allows you to send mail to all your link partners. Though these programs provide linking
basics and the Lite version can be downloaded free, the program doesn't provide
for the administration system to contact individual partners via e-mail to encourage a reciprocal link, accept, or reject
links.
Hosted ASP Link Management Programs
Hosted ASP Link Management Programs. This third
category of programs work much the same as CGI programs that reside on your own server, except that no installation is required. You link from your site to the links management programs that reside on the vendor's site. The look-and-feel of your directory can be carefully customized. Be careful not to use a program where the links directory also resides on the
program vendor's site. The best programs automatically FTP the updated directory pages to your
own website, reducing the chances that search engines will view them as link farms.
LinksManager
http://www.wilsonweb.com/afd/linksmanager.htm
Creative NetVentures, Inc.
#104, 11585 Jones Bridge Rd, Suite 420
Alpharetta, Georgia 30022
LinksManager provides a categorized, automated linking service which can automatically FTP
updated links page to your own website. Those requesting a link to your site are given a form to
complete with the link information and a maximum 200 character description. You must approve it before it appears on your link page. The program also searches for reciprocal links on the link requester's site.
When I set up the free trial on my site, I was quite impressed with the thoroughness of the configuration system and the well-thought-out design. This is indeed capable of developing a comprehensive reciprocal linking directory. LinksManager is
deliberately designed to be ethical, spamless, and search engine friendly.
To find willing linking partners, LinksManager.com sponsors a separate website -- LinkPartners.com, a free categorized directory of
websites that trade reciprocal links with other sites to facilitate link swapping and link exchange. As with many such sites, you have to be careful that linking partners offer tightly-focused, quality link directories and aren't link farms that will link to anyone.
Cost is $19.95/month for up to 50 categories. They offer a 30-day trial and one month free for each paying referral. In my opinion,
this is fairly pricey for smaller sites. On the other hand, LinksMaster provides a well-designed, easy-to-set-up system with extensive e-mail and telephone support for
clients, with good documentation and help screens. This is the best-of-breed of the ASP programs I've
looked at.
It is quite easy to set up and adapt to your purposes -- better
than any other I saw for reciprocal links. The
average site owner with a bit of experience and some knowledge of
HTML can set it up. If you can't set up CGI program on your site,
here's the program for you. Recommended.
Links4Trade
http://www.wilsonweb.com/afd/links4trade.htm
560 South State Street, Suite F5
Orem, Utah 84058
Links4Trade facilitates trading by signing up "eager, link trade prospects" as members at
a $39.95 registration fee (which includes the first month's membership) plus $7.95 per month and 10¢ per link trade.
This makes reciprocal link trading truly easy. However, since
Links4Trade hosts your categorized links page on their site, not yours, (1) Google can easily spot their domains for what they are, personal link exchange hosting and (2)
when you stop paying the monthly fee, you lose all your links. I can't speak authoritatively on this matter, but I would be afraid that Google will eventually consider this an "unnatural" way to manipulate rankings and render it useless -- soon if not immediately -- and at that time your links have no value.
PowerLinks.com
http://www.powerlinks.com
Best Software Products
P.O. Box 4503
Springfield, IL 62708
This program allows you to automatically exchange links with member sites. Software allows
you to exclude links to and from any categories you choose. Your
links directory is typically hosted on the PowerLinks site. It can be hosted on your
site -- but only if your webhosting service allows .asp hosting (not so
common). When you join for $9.95/month, a link to your site shows upon
automatically on each other member's links page. As I see it,
such automatic linking reduces the quality of the incoming links. Since most of the links directories will be on the PowerLinks site, Google could classify this as a link farm and penalize those who link to these links directories and, if you stop paying the monthly fee, your links go away.
Editor's Choices
Several
of the programs reviewed above are excellent. While both desktop
programs Arelis and Zeus work well, Arelis is priced lower, so it
wins Editor's Choice. Among CGI programs, Duncan Carver's free
Link Management Assistant wins a nod -- if you can run both PHP
and MySQL. Linking 101's Link Management Script is simple and
excellent for a small to medium reciprocal links directory -- and
well-priced. Of the ASP hosted programs, LinksManager.com is
excellent, if a bit pricey. Each of these wins my Editor's Choice
Award.
My final warning: Pick one of these programs and get started,
but be strict with yourself and potential linking partners so
that you end up with a highly-targeted set of links, not a
categorized hodgepodge that will confuse Google about the true
nature of your site.
Arelis Reciprocal Link Solution
Zeus Internet Marketing Robot
Linking
101 Link Management Script
Hot Links SQL v2.3
