The SEO Blog from cognitiveSEO

Less than 24 hours ago, Matt Cutts, the head of the spam team from Google, announced via Twitter that Google is rolling out the Panda 4.0 update starting today. Although many speculations regarding the rise of a possible Penguin 3.0 have been made, it's about that time of the year when SEO news is a-buzz with one particularly cute animal: panda. Only it's not our Chinese bear darling that's occupying the minds of web experts, it's the Google algorithm. However, all the Google updates speculat [...]

Art is not, as the meta-physicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man’s emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being [...]

I think it's no secret for anyone now that cats rule the internet, and, in a more conspiratorial note, maybe the world. If a couple of years ago we found it hilarious that in Ancient Egypt cats were worshiped and considered gifts from the Gods, nowadays the fluffy felines are back in power. When Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, was asked at the celebration of the 25th birthday of the web what was the most surprising thing about his invention, he reacted promptly: “Cats! I [...]

A question came out at a radio station: "Is it true that Mercedes cars are being given to citizens in Moscow?" The  radio answers: "In principle yes, it is true, but it is not Moscow but Leningrad, not Mercedes but Ladas, and they are not given to but stolen from." Much like in the case of this joke, a lot of the beliefs that are popular about SEO are only true “in principle” and some turn out not to be true at all. Some of these ideas may have started as true, while others have always [...]

The antagonism between black hat and white hat strategies has been going on for years now. These strategies have been around since the existence of SEO. It seems they aren't obsolete. On the contrary, they’ve persistently lingered around the SEO world and seem to be fruitful even in 2014. We do not endorse or recommend the usage of these techniques. This blog post's intent is to show how black hat SEO works in 2014. Some of the techniques presented below are not only black hat but also "cra [...]

Google started to apply even more penalties and they are getting stricter and stricter when it comes to the link building strategies that you may be using. There is a lot of confusion and chit-chat floating around the unnatural links concept. For this reason I decided to host a free training webinar, to help you clarify what are the most important aspects when talking about a Google Penalty. The "Unnatural Links & Recoveries Webinar  with Razvan Gavrilas" was recorded and can be watch [...]

The concept of manual link building has been multiple time reviewed and re-analyzed over time. Putting it simply, a manual link building campaign is a process of actively trying to increase links to a website.   When it comes to ranking and natural links, leaders aren’t spawned overnight and they can’t just buy their spot. Those long-term top ranking sites get there by working smart. That’s the right price when it comes to achieving that goal. We're here to talk to you about manual link [...]

In nature, there is no such thing as opposite. The night is not the opposite of the day, as the light is not the opposite of dark. There are just different phenomena that exists in different shapes. Allow me to extrapolate this to links. When asked: “What is a natural link?”, the correct answer is: A natural/organic link is not necessarily “the opposite of the unnatural link”. It is much more than that. And although unnatural links are in fashion, maybe its time to put the spotligh [...]

When you start working in the SEO field, all your life changes. You begin to see the world differently, your relationships gain a special flair and your own existence takes on a new meaning. If you don't want to take my word for granted, let me illustrate what I am talking about by reviewing some regular moments from a day-to-day search engine optimizer's existence. In the SEO world, you usually have a at least half of these moments each day everyday: 1. Wake up Wake up early in the morning [...]

  With all the changes happening in Google's algorithms on unnatural links, spammy content, un-optimized mobile websites, it may be a bit overwhelming to keep track of all the Google Guideline violations. Some of them are an obvious violation of Google’s Quality Guidelines and some of them are not that easy to spot. The process of link development is already hard enough without Google's representatives (like John Mueller or Gary Illyes) breathing heavily down your neck.     Google's [...]