Before you begin: You can bulk import new or updated link data in CSV format into Link Manager. You can upload up to 500 links per upload. If there are more than 500 link records in a CSV import, only the first 500 will be imported. To see the required format for the CSV file, see the Support Columns section below.
Importing Links the First Time
1] Login to Raven and on the Link Building menu, click Link Manager.
2] Since there are no links yet in Link Manager, all you will see is the following message on the screen. Click Import Links.
3] In the Import Links popup, click Choose File.
4] Navigate to the file on your local machine and click Open. You'll see messages that say Importing Links... and File upload processed, please confirm the link import.
5] Click the Confirm Import button to finalize the import.
6] The Link Manager page will appear with all the newly imported links.
Importing Additional Links
Once you have some links in Link Manager, you can import additional links via CSV file.
7] Login to Raven and on the Link Building menu, click Link Manager.
8] In the upper right of the Link Manager page, click Tool Options.
9] From the popup menu, click Import Data.
10] Follow steps 3 - 6 to import additional links.
Supported Columns
The majority of Link Manager fields can be filled in with bulk imports, though only the Status field is required. Additionally, the Status field must also be a status that currently exists in Raven such as Queued, Requested, Active, Inactive, Declined, Ignore or any custom link statuses. The following columns are accepted when importing link data into Raven:
Status
- Queued
- Requested
- Active
- Inactive
- Declined
Link Type
- User Submitted
- Content Exchange
- Paid (Permanent)
- Paid (Temporary)
- Blog Comment
- Organic Link
- Indirect / Other
Link Text
Link URL
Website Name***
Website URL
Website Type
- Social Media
- Personal Blog
- Corporate Blog
- News / Media
- Community
- Directory
- Other
Original PR***
Contact Name
Contact Email
Content ID (located in the Content Manager)
Cost*
Cost Type (Payment Frequency)*
- One Time
- Weekly
- Monthly
- Yearly
Payment Method*
Payment Reference*
Start Date*
End Date**
Creation Date
Leave blank unless you want to force it to a past date.
Comment
Owner Name
Leave blank unless you want this link to be marked as created by another user in your account.
Tags
* Only applicable to links assigned a Paid Link Type, including Paid (Permanent), Paid (Temporary) or custom link types
** Only applicable to links with the Paid (Temporary) Link Type
*** Deprecated: Website Name and Original PR are no longer used, but are kept to maintain backwards compatibility
Sample CSV
You can download a sample CSV file here: sample.csv.
A good strategy to ensure correct formatting is to use your favorite spreadsheet program of choice and export your data as a .csv file using the specific columns.
The above sample CSV file has this text:
Status,Link Type,Link Text,Link URL,Website Name,Website URL,Website Type,Original PR,Contact Name,Contact Email,Content ID,Cost,Cost Type,Payment Method,Payment Reference,Start Date,End Date,Creation Date,Comment,Owner Name
"Active","User Submitted","seo tools","http://yourwebsite.com/","Twitter","http://theirwebsite.com/folder","Social Media","8","Jon Henshaw","jon@domain.com","123",
"Active","Paid (Temporary)","internet marketing tools","http://yourwebsite.com/","My Blog","http://theirwebsite.com/blog","Corporate Blog","4","Jon Henshaw","jon@domain.com",,"25.00","Yearly","Paypal","REF123","2008-07-01","2009-12-31","2008-06-01",
You can think of this text being visualized in this way:
Tip: Make sure there is just one line break between each row of text in your CSV file. In other words, there should be no rows of space in your CSV file. Wikipedia has a good overview of CSV if you'd like more in depth information on the format.