I was wondering if it is "hurtful" to use some kind of a linking management script. If not, does anyone know of one that is easy to use for a total NEWB to the websites.

I have designed a site for my father, and if it isn't hurtful I would like to setup some sort of a script that HE can do his own linking management via this script. It has to be as easy as filling in a form and I would like it to organize the links as well.

Can someone help out here?

What do you mean by linking management script? Something to simply keep track of the links you have and sites you've submitted to? That would be fine. I would think having a form that you can fill out once to make submitting easier would be ok too.

I wouldn't use a script though that automatically submitted the form for you as many directories will have different requirements for submission. Manually is really the safest when it comes to submitting.

What I've usually done is maintained a list of place I can submit to and then another list of place I've already submitted to. If I was smarter and I use just one list and mark the sites that I've submitted.

Submitting to directories or to sites in general is a pain as anyone who's done it will likely agree. The best way is to just take a little time every day or other day or as much as you can stand and submit a few. It won't lead to quick results, but it will lead to a natural pattern of building links.

Actually I am referring more to the reciprocal part of it. He is okay with seeking out directories and related site to submit to... And he is okay with the submission of his website. But, when people want a reciprocal link, he has no idea how to add one to his website. So, I was hoping there is some kind of program/script that I can add to his site (only for him) that he can login and add a reciprocal link to his site.

The other thing is that I have heard that it isn't good to have very many links on one page as it starts to get looked upon as a link farm from the search engines... Maybe I'm wrong.

But does anyone know of any programs/scripts that are free/cheap that will so this?

I don't know if there's a script that does that. It's pretty easy thing to do and while it can certainly be automated I'm not sure the people who would write such a script would consider it something helpful to them. I could be wrong though. It could be that I don't consider useful for myself so have never looked.

One thing to consider though is that reciprocal links aren't all they seem to be. Unless the other site is related to yours it's better not to even trade links with them. You want to be careful with who you link out to on your site. Those link pages with tons of links on them that are also reciprocal links are link farms so no reason to have them.

Those kind of things are ways links were built in the past, but not anymore.

If it means anything I've never traded links with another site. There are certainly site I've linked to that have also linked to me, but when I added their link to my site I never once thought whether or not they were linking back to me. I didn't really care one way or the other. When I added the link my only motivation was that I thought it would be useful to my site visitors.

It is ok to trade links with other sites, but it probably won't help as much as you might think and if the trades are just to boost your site in the search eninges those links probably are going to be worthless as far as search engines are concerned.

Man, now I'm even more confused! haha.

Ok, linking is good but there isn't any point to having "links pages"? I was under the impression that building links in the same or related industries (trading) is a good thing.

For example.

His site is a carpet cleaning site... So if he was to find companies like: Carpet stores, maid services, janitorial services, carpet cleaning stores, etc. that it would help.

Is that not the case? If not, why would you want to spend time building backlinks and how would you build backlinks if you don't trade?? Directories are really related are they?

Yes if the links are on related sites then it can be good to trade links. It can get complicated I know.

The way I think about backlinks is I consider the other site. If visitors to that site would likely find my site useful and click on the link to my site I want to have my link on that site. If they won't find it useful it's probably not important for me to add it there, though I may if it's something that doesn't take any time to add. It's probably better though to find a site where the link would be considered useful by visitors.

Similarly with links out I add to my site. If I think my visitors will find that link useful I add it. If I don't think they will find it useful I won't add it even if it might have meant getting a backlinks from another site.

Quantity in links is good, but it's the quality of the link that is really more important. Try to think of a link for the value of the link itself. For example people do click the links in my signature here and visit my site. Reagrdless of how a search engine sees that link I consider it useful to have those links. They generate direct traffic to my site. If you start thinking about links for thier own value it becomes much easier to decide where you want to get backlinks.

With reciprocals they may be seen as existing only for the purpose of trying to artificially improve your backlink count. You probably don't want them to account for a larger percentage of your overalll backlinks, but as long as you're not trading links with a spammy site you won't get penalized for them. They may end up not counting for much with a search engines, but if your link is on a site related to yours in some way people will still click on the link and bring you traffic. Don't always think of a link in terms of how a search engine views it.

Thanks... That cleared it up quite a bit!

Glad to help.

Don't forget to give Vangogh a little "Talkapation".

Already did!

Indeed he did and it's always appreciated.