Rank Tracker | CognitiveSEO Launches Link Tracking & Analysis Tool

CognitiveSEO is a tool two years in the making that aims to provide all of the data and analysis necessary for link building campaigns in a single platform. "The idea of the tool is that it’s so good you won’t need to export to do your analysis in another program," said Razvan Gavrilas, founder and chief architect.

The tool combines link data from aHrefs.com , SEOKicks and Blekko (removing duplicates) and pulls link quality metrics from SEOMoz and MajesticSEO . A few unique features make it worth considering the switch to cognitiveSEO:

Link previews showing a snapshot of the site, highlighting exact positioning of the link

Data including anchor text, positioning, visibility, and website classification

A hover-over preview with additional information, negating the need to click through to visit each site

Advanced competitive research showing unnatural link profiles

Multi-user access with permission levels and to-do lists for project management

There are two options for link evaluation: Quick Reports or Campaigns. To set up a Quick Report, enter the URL and choose whether to limit sitewide links and exclude internal links. cognitiveSEO offers a bookmarkletfor these Quick Reports. These reports include all of the data you would expect in a standard SEO tool.

Setting up a campaign allows for more in-depth and ongoing analysis. This is where you can compare a number of sites for competitive analysis and keep track of link growth, as well as watching for dead links. Everything in the platform is actionable, so in the inbound links section, for example, you can perform your analysis within the program and create graphics or reports. cognitiveSEO crawls during campaign set-up, then re-crawls weekly with saved data points, if the user chooses.

Inbound links can be monitored on a daily basis; two statuses show live or lost links and users can set up daily alerts to notify them of changes in status. Rank tracking had been

Wiep Knol, co-founder of linkbuilding.nl, took an in-depth look at cognitiveSEO and the contents of each of section of the campaign; you can check out his full tool review on his blog .

We had SEW author and in-house SEO Brent Rangen try it out to see what he thinks of the tool.

"The link analysis report is sick. They did a very nice job showcasing the link portfolio's critical metrics without presenting it in a overly bulky or complicated way," he said. "I don’t think it’s ideal as a standalone rank tracker for search professionals; the workflow, rankings, and link management have a lot of room for improvement. Still, I love the link profile analysis and the rest has the potential to head in the right direction."

CognitiveSEO’s ranking comparison supports Google, Bing, and Yahoo, though they will consider supporting additional engines if there is demand. It is suitable for individual webmasters to enterprise level clients, with a 14 day free trialand packages ranging from $19 to $249, with custom options for larger clients.

CognitiveSEO is a self-funded team of five people led by Gavrilas, who worked with SEO clients for five years before setting out to build his own tool.