Insights, Tutorials & Best Practices

Link Building

Directory submission in 2026: what a listing is actually worth

Google's spam policy names low-quality directory links as link spam. We opened six web directories and read the raw HTML: the two that still pass link credit are the general-directory survivors, while every vertical directory worth being listed in withholds it. What the tactic is still good for, and what to check once a listing is live.

Andrei

Aug 13, 2026 • 11 min

Link Building

HARO link building in 2026: what's left after the shutdown

HARO shut down in December 2024, came back under new ownership four months later, and picked up rules on the way — including AI scoring on every pitch. What exists in 2026, what a placement actually gets you, and the four checks worth running once your coverage is live.

Andrei

Aug 07, 2026 • 10 min

Link Building

Niche edits: what you're actually buying when you pay for a link insertion

A niche edit buys you a seat on a page that already ranks. It also buys you the easiest link in the world to remove: the publisher deletes a sentence, the page still returns 200, and nothing alerts you. What insertions cost, what Google's policy says, and the four things worth re-checking after one goes live.

Andrei

Aug 06, 2026 • 11 min

Technical SEO

How to trace a redirect chain on a link you don't control

The page loads, your anchor is there, everything looks fine - and that check tells you less than it feels like it does. A bought link can arrive through hops someone else added after your money cleared. How to read the hop path on a link you don't control, and where a plain HTTP trace runs out of road.

Andrei

Aug 02, 2026 • 9 min

Technical SEO

How to find the outbound links on your own pages

Almost nobody audits the links leaving their own site, so the list quietly grows: an old resource roundup, a plugin's footer credit, an embedded feed. Then a domain changes hands and your page is recommending something you have never seen. Four ways to pull the list, and what no automated pass catches.

Andrei

Aug 02, 2026 • 7 min

SEO Strategies

What backlink monitoring costs (and what drives the number)

Pricing pages quote tiers; you want to know what your portfolio costs to watch at the frequency your work needs. Every price here came off the vendor's own page on 2 August 2026, with the arithmetic run at three portfolio sizes - including the sizes where our own metered pricing is the more expensive buy.

Andrei

Aug 02, 2026 • 8 min

SEO Strategies

What is a backlink manager (and do you actually need one)?

Search "backlink manager" and you get three different tools: one that watches your links for loss, one that scores toxicity and builds a disavow file, and one that runs outreach. Here's what the term really covers, what Google thinks about managing links at all, and the honest test for whether you need one.

Andrei

Jul 03, 2026 • 7 min

SEO Strategies

AI Overviews vs featured snippets: what's the difference?

Two boxes can sit at the very top of Google: a featured snippet that quotes one page, and an AI Overview that writes its own summary from many. People mix them up constantly. Here's how they actually differ, whether they still show together in 2026, and the honest answer on whether you can optimize for either.

Andrei

Jun 26, 2026 • 8 min

SEO Strategies

What is a Google AI Overview? How it works and who gets cited

You search something and Google answers it itself, in a box above the links, citing a few sites that aren't yours. That box is an AI Overview. Here's what it actually is, how Google decides which sources it cites, and the honest truth about whether you can get in, from a team that built a free checker for it.

Andrei

Jun 26, 2026 • 8 min