Question : SEO: PHP linkbuilding program

We use a small php/MySQL program humeniuk suggested where if you submit an inbound link's url, anchor text, and date into an online database, it stores it or tells you that it's a duplicate. What other features do you guys suggest I add. We have 3 link builders.

Answer : SEO: PHP linkbuilding program

Ok, so after last night, I've started to write my answers in a text editor (EditPlus), and when completed, I post them up. This way, I won't lose any answers I spent 30 minutes writing -- Note: IE 7 is just not ready for the mainstream.

Suggestions:

In addition to the base urls that you mentioned you are indexing, I would suggest that there may be some merit in recording the specific pages your inbound link is located. As you progress with establishing inbound links, you may find some pages which are indexed below a particular base URL have more authority on specific subjects, higher rankings, or better content than another page on the same site. You also may want to have multiple inbound links from a single URL. By recording this data, you can later draw reports and compare the resulting data.

In addition to documenting the successful links you have produced, you may also want to document requests you have made for inbound links. I know that when you've visited hundreds of sites within a week looking for that perfect link, you may have forgotten one of the sites you submitted a request to a couple days back. Double request submissions can be detrimental, and while it may not be intentional, you could suffer from this. In addition, since your have multiple people working on the project, you want to keep a clear and concise record to avoid confusion and strengthen communication.

On top of documenting your requests, you may find it useful to keep track of the status of your link requests. This way you can have one SEO associate who posts the initial request, and another who follows up on it. By keeping track of the status, this will also eliminate any confusion. Even if your working alone, you will find it handy to generate a follow-up list each day as you sit down to begin your link building.

On that note, it may be useful to store information about planned requests. Say you're working late at night, as we know you often do :P, and you have some new idea's, or you are planning strategies for making requests at certain sites. By documenting planned requests you could record your idea in the form of a submission to the database as a planned request, and have one of your SEO associates to follow up on the plan. Using this method, you could also go back to review the progress of your planned submission.

Another suggestion would be to index the descriptive texts, and titles you have submitted to each request. You probably have a setup several templates containing your titles and descriptions. You could document which one you used for each submission. At a later date you can generate reports to recap and determine which ones have proved most successful. This way you will gain a detailed understanding of some elements that have helped to make your linking strategies successful.

Another area to examine is the themes or categories and sub categories of each site you have submitted to. Supplemental to your mentioning of the generation of reports on inbound links, you could run a report querying specific themes of the sites submitted. This could help to gain an understanding (business intelligence) to which subject areas have provided you with the best results. You can then augment your tactics and focus on those themes that have resulted in higher click throughs or more targeted audiences. Remember our goal in SEO is, in part, to drive targeted traffic to the site.

Indexing the PageRank of submitted sites, while not a great indicator, can help you to determine how many sites you have matching certain ranking you have been successful in getting inbound links from. At a later date, you could average the rankings of all submitted sites, or get an in-depth analysis of the sites you have submitted to that match a specific PageRank. I can think of several instances this would have been useful to me.

Some people offer cash for inbound links to web masters. I'm not sure if you fit into this group, but if so, it may be useful to record this data as well. If you are budgeting a specific amount for links you are paying for, you can develop a cumulative monthly total to make sure you are on track with your budgeting. In addition, you can use this data to generate further reporting as to how paid offerings have stacked up over time. This will give you an idea of which ones you should continue, and which ones you should simply say "Thanks, but no thanks".

I don't know if you use any reciprocal linking strategies, but this is definitely a good one to document. If you negotiate reciprocal links, you should document the terms of your arrangement, and the timeline. Also, you will be able to check up on your partners to ensure your link remains on the site, or that the terms of the agreement are being adhered to. Following up, and checking these reciprocal links will be necessary, and it's always easier to work from a generated report, than your memory or paperwork and sticky notes.

In summary, above all it's best to follow the KISS principle. Not only do you want to minimize the amount of time you need to spend writing and maintaining your application, but you will want to spend much more time building links than documenting everything about each link you have sustained, requested, or planned.

I hope you will find merit in some of the suggestions I have posted here. These cover a broad range of possibilities, some you may be engaging in, others you may not. I think you're off to a great start and heading in the right direction. My best suggestion is to use your tool to maintain consistency between your efforts, and those of your SEO associates. Communication is key!

Last but not least, it's important to remember that it's not only the number of links to your web site, but rather the quality.

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or otherwise. I look forward to your response.

Cheers Bob,

Owen