Tool: Cognitive SEO Version 2: A Linkbuilders Tool
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Tool: Cognitive SEO Version 2: A Linkbuilders Tool

27th February 2012

SEO’s love tools. If they can’t find tools that will help them succeed in their job they will build the tools themselves if necessary. And when on a conference like SES tools are presented in special sessions everybody attends or reads about the tools shared.

That is why in the past few years we are seeing a lot of new tools entering the market or old tools being revised. SEOs now can choose between tools like Linkdex, SEOMoz, Searchmetrics and Majestic SEO and many many more. Each with their own special features. One tool they can also choose today gets a new update: Cognitive SEO.

What is the tool about

Cognitive SEO launched late last year. It was first introduced to me at A4U Expo London and already it is now ready to launch version 2. That seems quick, but keep in mind the tool has been in development for two years now.

The tool has 3 main areas in which it tries to differ themselves from other tools: connecting Linkbuilding, ranktracking and SEO projectmanagement.

Especially the link analysis feature is one which is interesting. More tools do this, but Cognitive gives some interesting extra information. It gives a summary of links on a website, for example your own.

Cognitive gives you quite some information: Text Links, Image Links, Nofollow Links, Lost Links, Analyzed Links, Live Links, Unique Referring Domains and IP Addresses, Redirected Links, Supplemental Links, Sitewide Links and Abused Linking Pages.

The information is extensive and given out in a neat manner:

As you can see the information is quite detailed, up to whether the link is a follow or nofollow link. Other information you get is the type of link (image for example) and the type of website which links to you (is it a news site, a company site or a blog for example) and much more.

Cognitive has made a video on how the tool works. You can see that here:

They also made a video of the latest updates:

The link management module

An interesting feature is the link management module. Here you can actually track when a link is broken, taken away or has changed in a different way. Linkbuilders can this way keep really good track of their links. It is automated monitoring of your site and other sites.

You can go and check it out on the dashboard where you get the enormous amount of data described above. You can also subscribe to a daily link summary in your e-mail.

The tool compared to other tools

Cognitive has some features which appear in every tool mentioned above. I think the tool probably comes closest to Linkdex but like with every tool a combination of tools is probably the best way to go. What makes cognitive different from the other tools is that it is specifically interesting for checking out your competition.

Cognitive SEO isn’t ‘just’ a tool which works on its own. It has integrated with tools like MajesticSEO and SEOmoz and has added Twitter and Facebook data to the tool which gives it some valuable extra information.

For whom?

Playing with the tool I would personally say that, next to the nice interface, the linkbuilding part of it is the best part of the tool. But it also offers some project management features.

One thing a user should know is how to handle all the data. Because Cognitive gives you so much information you will need to be able to do something with it, otherwise it is useless. There is a huge amount of link data which I know not every SEO is going to use, you therefore will have to make choices.

Cognitive SEO is running a 2 week major discount from $99 to $79 on the Professional plan and they offer increased limits on that one. They also have a special deal with MajesticSEO and we offer 5% for any MajesticSEO customer. So go check it out and let us know what you think about the tool!

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Written By
Bas van den Beld is an award winning Digital Marketing consultant, trainer and speaker. He is the founder of State of Digital and helps companies develop solid marketing strategies.
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