The SEO Blog from cognitiveSEO

* In this week's link building technique column I'd like to write about bragging. Yes, bragging, as in telling people you're the best. I don't just mean success stories and case studies. I'm talking about bragging like hip hop stars do. Also I want to explain how to make people link to you by bragging. Just watch the typical mainstream video with the "hot chicks", big cars and gold chains. These may be cliches but they are still working even after thirty years of hip hop. While you most [...]

* Welcome to our weekly linkbuilding technique column! Back when I first started out to use the Internet around 1997 it was all about hypertext. Hypertext, the interconnected text containing links where you do not have to structure reading in a linear way with numbered pages that follow each other. Instead you can use links like some wormholes to end up on the other end of the world within an instant. Links made a huge difference and we willingly embraced linking out as the early Web ent [...]

* In our weekly link building technique column I'd like to stress relationships again. Connecting with people is crucial as websites do not link, people link. Of course there are automated links as well but most of them aren't worth it. The best links are editorial links by real people. Who you get editorial links from? "Editors" obviously. On the Web there are all kinds of editors. They can be webmasters bloggers journalists curators social media users content creators busi [...]

* One of the most common blogging mistakes when it comes to corporate and business blogs is being opportunistic. Just earlier today I have been interviewed by one of the largest German radio stations. I haven't been interviewed as an SEO specialist or SEO blogger though.  I work from Germany and I also blog in German but not about SEO. One of my blogs I have created in the past for clients and still write for is called zeitgeist. As the name already suggests to some extent the blog deals [...]

* In our weekly link building technique column I'd like to elaborate on last week's post on ego feeding and introduce the concept of trust transfer. By definition links provide trust transfer to some extent. You link out to a site you trust in most cases, even if you disagree. There is even a so called Trustrank by Yahoo. Many people argue that Google uses a very similar concept to assign trust to websites. I don't want to cover this aspect of trust on the Web. Instead I'd like to focus on t [...]

* In our weekly link building technique column I introduce acquiring links by feeding egos. It might sound a bit weird as most people consider egoism or the ego itself a trait to be ashamed of. So do we actually forage on the negative or even try to take advantage of people into linking to us? No, we and you have just to appeal to those who you like and make it worthwhile to link back to you. So again this technique is not a "SEO trick" to fool people, it's a way to ensure a true win to win [...]

* A few years back I used to get popular on Delicious with my resources lists for SEOptimise. Delicious has been already neglected by then as their owner at that time, Yahoo didn't really invest in it. Nonetheless when a post got popular and thus entered the Delicious it still got around 1000 - 5000 visitors but more importantly it got many more Delicious saves which resulted directly in links on websites, often automatically. Later on, Delicious abandoned the front page concept and moved th [...]

* Earlier this week one of my favorite link building blogs, SEER Interactive, has published a post on why Google +1 votes are not a good ranking signal. The post by Wil Reynolds recapitulates 10 years of history of ranking factors in search to make its point. It all sounds very convincing unless that it is not true. The old school SEO thinking does not apply here in the case of Google +1 which rather has to do with social media than search. I'm far from a Google fanboy but the +1 votes, e [...]

* This is the third post in our weekly column - Link Building Technique 3: Hunt for Blunders. The probably most positive aspect of mistakes is that you can learn from them. Unfortunately in most cases people only learn from their own mistakes if at all. Learning from mistakes made by others seems to be too difficult. We rather repeat the mistakes from the past. On the Web the situation is completely different, it's much better. You can see how other people fail in real time and not only l [...]

This is our third infographic from our "cognitiveSEO Infographic Series". If you are doing SEO, you clearly know the following concepts : Black Hat SEOGrey Hat SEOWhite Hat SEO The infographic below will give you a short overview on each of the concepts above. It will answer the questions below and more: What Hat do I Really Wear ? What Hat should I Wear ? What Risks am I exposed to using Black Hat / Grey Hat or White Hat SEO techniques?What tactics are involved in Black Hat / Gre [...]