Q: Can I manually add a site to the potential partners list?
A: Yes, there is such an option. On the 'Manage Correspondence' tab click the 'Add site manually' or 'Import sites from' button. Besides, you can simply right-click somewhere in the 'Manage Correspondence' window and choose the necessary option from the pop-up menu. You can import the URLs from the text file, from clipboard, or from another project.
Q: Can I see how many points a site has gathered on a specific search engine?
A: You can get the additional info on the site to define whether it is suitable for your aims. On the '1. Search for partners' tab you can do the following:
1) Point to the site URL and double-click on it to get the details for the site.
2) Check the site and click on the arrow next to the 'Site info' button in the bottom right-hand corner of the program window.
3) Right-click on the site's URL and select 'Site SE score' to view the list of keywords and scores for their positions in search engines.
Q: Can I send a message to several recipients at once?
A: To send a message to several recipients at once, you should use the 'Automatic correspondence' option.
1). On the '1. Search for partners' tab, checkmark the sites you would like to send a non-personal partnership request to, right-click in the table and select 'Move checked to 'Auto correspondence' on the popup menu. Then select 'Automatic correspondence' in the drop-down menu above the list of the sites, you will see the list of the selected sites to check them.
2). Go to the '2. Manage correspondence' tab (you will be asked to configure the mail sending profile). Here you should define the return address(es), the message templates you would like to use, and set up the rules for detecting the e-mail addresses of the potential partners.
3). When you are done, press 'OK' to be taken to main screen, press 'Send bulk'.
Note: take care to specify your SMTP server address and port in order to e-mail messages successfully.
Q: Can I send follow-ups to my first message?
A: To organize messages in a cycle, you should use the 'Automatic correspondence' option.
1). On the '1. Search for partners' tab:
- checkmark the sites you would like to send several messages in a cycle to,
- right-click in the table and select 'Move checked to 'Auto correspondence' on the popup menu.
2). Go to the '2. Manage correspondence' tab and configure the mail sending profile:
- On the 'Email settings' tab, specify the return address(es),
- On the 'Templates' tab, create or import templates for the automatic cycle. You can use the default Web CEO templates, create your own (press the 'Add' button for this) or import the templates from another project.
- On the 'Automatic Correspondence Cycle', select templates for the first message and follow-ups and specify the period of time to wait before sending follow-ups.
- On the 'Email Search Rules' tab, set up rules for detecting the e-mail addresses of the potential partners.
- Click 'OK' to complete setting up the Email preferences.
After you are done, press 'OK' to be taken to main screen, then 'Send bulk' for automatic correspondence.
Note: take care to specify your SMTP server address and port in order to e-mail messages successfully.
Q: Can I use the `Partners` tool to check if my partners keep links to my site on their pages?
A: This version of the program can only help you to search for the potential partners, send e-mails to them and finally, create a list of partners you are going to work with.
In future, the program will also search the specified pages on your partners' sites for a link to your site.
Q: Can I view the replies to my e-mail requests in Web CEO?
A: Unfortunately, Web CEO can't receive the response messages. The program is not designed to replace a full-featured Email client. Please run the program or log on to the web service you usually use to receive emails.
Q: Do you recommend limiting the number of keywords to search for?
A: It's up to you what keywords to add, but we do not recommend using the keywords that relate to different themes. The more scattered the keywords, the less relevant suggestions you will get.
We also recommend that you should leave the default options on the 'Scan rules' tab (i.e. 'Average scan depth' and 'Average filtering') intact.
Q: How can I exclude a website from the automatic correspondence cycle?
A: To stop sending e-mails to a website, you must manually move it either to the ' Trash ' or to the ' Partners ' category. On the ' Manage correspondence ' tab, select a site and right-click it. Choose ' Manage selected ' and move it to the needed category.
Q: How can I improve the feedback on my requests?
A: The more personal your messages, the better feedback you can expect. You would hardly dispute this assertion, so create your own templates or improve the standard ones to stand a better chance of achieving your goal.
To do this, please go to the second 'Templates' tab of the profile manager - you'll see the list of the available templates:
- point to the template name and click 'Edit' to make changes,
- click 'Add' to create a new template.
Note: You can insert variables in the template body to introduce yourself, name your and your partner's site, etc. Click 'Insert variable' and select one.
Q: How can I remove the sites I'm not interested in from the list?
A: You can move sites to trash. Trash is a special group for sites that you do not consider appropriate for links exchange:
1. Check the sites on the '1. Search for partners' tab.
2. Right-click in the table and select 'Move checked to Trash' on the popup menu.
Besides, you can also delete or move to 'Trash' sites in correspondence.
To delete sites:
- on the 'Personal' (or 'Automatic') correspondence' tab highlight the site you want to remove (you can select several sites at once by using the SHIFT key while pushing the up or down arrow, or by pressing the CTRL or SHIFT key while left-clicking with the mouse);
- right-click on the highlighted line;
- point to 'Delete selected'.
To move sites to 'Trash':
- highlight the necessary site (sites);
- right-click on the highlighted line (lines);
- point to 'Manage selected' and select "Move selected to 'Trash'".
You can view the list of 'trashed' sites at any time by selecting the 'Trash' filter in the 'Site status' drop down menu on the '1. Search for partners' tab.
Note: the program does not delete the information about trashed sites permanently; if it did, each time you refresh the list, you would have to remove sites you've already excluded.
Q: How can I select the site for personal correspondence?
A: In order to select sites for personal correspondence, take the following steps:
1. Check the sites on the '1. Search for partners' tab.
2. Right-click in the table and select 'Move checked to Personal Correspondence' on the popup menu. To view them, please select 'Personal correspondence' from the drop-down menu of the 1st tab.
Then please go to the 'Manage correspondence' tab and configure the mail sending profile: just follow the profile manager steps.
After you are done, press 'OK' to be taken to main screen, then 'Send manually' for personal correspondence.
Q: How can I set up the program to search for more or fewer potential partners?
A: To change the default settings for the number of sites to be requested, you should take the following steps:
1) Click on the Profile button located on the toolbar above the report.
2) On the Profile dropdown list, select 'Edit Profile'.
3) Go to the 'Scan rules' tab.
4) Adjust the 'Search engine scan depth' value from minimum to maximum. The default 'Average scan depth' option allows you to get a considerable amount of results. If you select the 'Minimal scan depth' option, only most relevant results will stay on the list.
5) Adjust the 'Partner site filtering' value from maximum to minimum to have the program remove less relevant sites based on their score. If you don't reset the default 'Average site filtering' option, the program will remove fewer sites than it would remove with the 'Maximum site filtering' option selected.
Q: How can I use the Summary report?
A: The Summary report is divided in two parts: the 'Summary on correspondence' gives the idea of how much you've worked to find sites that have finally fallen within the 'Partners List'.
If you work for a third party, you can use both for reporting purposes.
Q: How does the program help me to decide on if the site is good to exchange the links with?
A: The program requests search engines that you've selected for the keywords that you've added while configuring the profile.
Then it analyzes the retrieved results pages. The more times the site is found for the given keywords, the better its score is. You can't change the formula for the score; however we did our best to make it up so that it can help you sift out the best sites.
The program also provides you with the important information such as site Titles, Meta Description and Keywords. They can give you a better understanding of sites' profiles.
If the site's title and Meta Description and Keywords are not prominent enough, you can request additional information about this particular site. Double-click on the site line to have the program request such site information as Google PageRank, Alexa Traffic Rank, the numbers of indexed pages and backlinks on major search engines, presence of the major directory listings.
Q: Where does the program get the e-mail addresses of the potential partners from?
A: The program can use four different mechanisms to get the e-mail addresses of recipients. You can select at least one of them:
1). Click on the 'Email preferences' button located in the top right-hand corner above the report (on any of the subtabs).
2). Go to the 'Email Search Rules' tab and check one of the following options:
- 'Use 'Alexa Contact Info' to have the program search Alexa.com for the site's e-mail address.
- 'Use 'Whois' data' to have the program use the 'Whois Lookup' or similar domain registration service.
- 'Scan potential partner website' to have the program search contact pages of the site.
- 'Use predefined e-mail addresses' to have the program create the e-mail addresses based on the site domain and the common user names such as 'info', 'webmaster', 'administrator', etc. We recommend leaving this option selected.
- 'Exact email address search' - if you select this option, the program will look only for those addresses where the second part coincides with the partner's domain name. This prevents the Partner Finder from picking up addresses which might have nothing in common with the partner's contact details.
