Last week, I had an opportunity to try the second version of a new link management tool, CognitiveSEO. CognitiveSEO is a new tool that provides an in depth analysis of SEO and link building campaigns in a much more advanced and convenient manner. The development of CognitiveSEO was in process for 2 years before launching its first beta version in July 2011. Now, after the launch of their second version, CognitiveSEO impressed all the SEO experts by giving them an extra edge over their competitors. As a link analyst, I found this tool really efficient, convenient, easy and time saving.

One of the most important features of CognitiveSEO is the integration of the best sources of backlink data like Ahrefs.com, Blekko and SEOKicks to provide a detailed link analysis and also shows SEOmoz and MajesticSEO metrics for better insight.

This tool offers all the obvious functions as other SEO management tools but I found some features that provide a distinct advantage and make the whole process much quicker and easier as compared to other tools. The key features of CognitiveSEO are:

Backlink Reports

Due to the aggregation of the main back link data providers like MajesticSEO, Blekko, Ahrefs and SEOkicks, this tool offers the most updated backlink reports. In my opinion, it is the best I’ve come across! The speed of the analysis is really fast and it can analyse 20,000 backlinks that are filtered and can be exported easily. It lets you create hundreds of backlink reports every month.

Inbound Link Analysis

As I looked in to the inbound link analysis, I could see a summary of links presented in an organised manner. It shows you top linking sub domains to the website you are analysing along with the most used and the least used anchor texts from the indexed back link profile.

The tool also provides an efficient feature that presents the inbound links in more detail. You can know if your link is a do follow or no follow link, if it is an image, the link placement (header or footer, etc.), visibility and context (if it is in content). It also mentions if the link is from a blog, generic or from a news website. It also lets you check the top sub domains that are linking to your website along with their Google Pagerank and MozAuthority. It is just amazing how many filters you can use to make your link analysis even more precise and deep. You can choose if you want to see only internal links or sitewide links. Plus, there is always an option to export the data to csv at any point of your analysis. This is one of the features that I love!

Link Management

Again, this is one of my favourite features as it automatically monitors all the links on the web. The link management tool keeps you updated with all the links that are live and the ones that are broken. It also lets you know the exact number of days since the changes took place. Plus, you get notified whenever any issue arises.

Regular Rank Tracking

The rank tracking tool provides the function of monitoring keywords for your website that you entered while creating a new campaign on CognitiveSEO. Number of keywords that will be analysed everyday (Google, Bing and Yahoo) depends on your plan with CognitiveSEO. You can also enter your competitors and compare the changes in ranking of the keywords on a daily basis.

SEO Project Management

This feature lets you manage your SEO work more effectively. You can assign tasks or responsibilities to multiple users and can also create to-do lists. This will in return, organise your work and would help in measuring your link building efforts.

Conclusion

As a first impression, this tool does stand out. Overall, this tool’s usability is remarkable. The interface and ease of use makes the task less tedious and convenient. The speed is good. It provides lots of data which can be presented in a creative way by using the pie charts available in CognitiveSEO.

The provision of bookmarklets makes SEO work even easier considering that you don’t have to enter the URL of your website again. The best feature is undoubtedly the in depth inbound link analysis. Though, there are some limitations regarding some data of sub domains that is not fully available yet. Social media analysis is also not possible yet but would be introduced later this year or early next year. Another weakness would be the link data sources limitation.

However, in my opinion, CognitiveSEO will provide you with some hardcore link analysis as compared to other link management tools and would “Benchmark and Outrank your SEO Competition. Easily!”

Take a quick tour and check it out yourself: