Software Project (SEO Link Engine)

Software Project

SEO Link Engine

SEO = Search Engine Optimization
Countless web sites exist on internet and many of them are managed either by their owners or web masters. Often there is a need to improve web site in search results so that when a user searches for a certain keyword or phrase, a related web site gets in top results. Hence getting user traffic is the most fundamental goal in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for any web site. Link building and link exchange are very common to start or convert a web site to SEO enabled web site.

What is Link Exchange?
“A link exchange is a confederation of websites that operates similarly to a web ring”.
Webmasters register their web sites with a central organization, that runs the exchange, and in turn receive from the exchange HTML code which they insert into their web pages. In link exchange, the HTML code causes the display of banner advertisements, for the sites of other members of the exchange, on the member web sites, and webmasters have to create such banner advertisements for their own web sites.
What is Link Directory?
Link directory is a special service provided by many search engines and link directory web sites, that enable any web site owner to add brief content about his/her web site in the online directory. The link directory web sites list all the submitted web sites in a structured fashion. Link directory web sites allow users to fill a form that requires compact information about web sites such as:

Web Site URL Title of the Web Site Category and Sub-Category
Description (About the web site) Keywords/Meta Tag Information Contact Email

Following are the detailed requirements for this project:
1. Category Management
The category management feature will allow web site administrator to add categories and sub-categories, when a new main category will be added, admin must enter at least one sub-category.
After successful addition of the category, the category will be visible in the Link Submission form (that is discussed in next point).

2. Link Submission
The application should allow submitting web site for the link directory. The submission form should require the same fields mentioned in the table above (Web Site URL, Title of the Web Site, … etc). A captcha should be there in the form so that the link engine avoids any flooding of submitted links from black-hat SEO applications.
- Proper checking should be implemented to avoid duplicate entries. Specially the basic part of the URL must be checked for duplication (an example of basic part is www.websitename.com) to stop users submitting different pages or sub-domains of the same web site.

3. Structured Presentation of Submitted Links (Link Directory)
The web site should display the submitted web sites in proper categories. There should be 4 slots on every page to display featured (purchased) links. More on the features links in later points.

4. Rank Indicator
A rank indicator will be displayed with each submitted web site in the directory showing the number of hits a web site has received so far.

5. Featured Links
As discussed in point – 3, the link directory will have four slots on top to display the features links. For this purpose, web site should allow administrator to add an existing web site to featured web site. When a featured web site is added, it will be displayed in one of the 4 slots on top of the page under its relative main category and sub-category pages.

6. Link Exchange
Companies/Individuals should be allowed to register their accounts for submission of links, and should be allowed to invite existing users for link exchange. When any one is invited to exchange link, the request should be sent to the invitee who can Accept or Reject the request. On acceptance of the request the web site should display the script/html code of the inviter, so that the invitee can use that code to insert into its own web site. More on the script/html code in next point.
In the next step the script/code from the invitee will also be sent to the inviter so that the person, who invited first, also can use the code of the invitee to insert into its own web site. Hence completing the link exchange from both sides.

7. Script/HTML Code for link exchange
Whenever a new account is registered (Company account or User account), the option should be available to user to add its script/HTML code that can be used by others in the link exchange, as explained in point – 6.

8. Validation on exchanged links
The web application should periodically check the integrity of the links exchanged between different users. For this purpose, the web application should check the exchanged links from both sides, three times a week (after every 2 days). And if it detects that one party has removed the link, it should immediately inform (email) the other party about the deletion of link, so that the other party can take the necessary action.

Tools: Mircosoft .Net and MS SQL Server; Java/PHP and MySQL