SEOMoz rocks, but is it breaking Google's webmaster guidelines when it comes to check rankings?
-
Hi all,
The Google's webmaster guideline in question reads...
"Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google."
So, when WebPosition Gold is not recommended then how come SEOMoz is acceptable to check ranks for websites belonging to SEOMoz PRO?
Do Google neglects breaking of few guidelines by good boys?
Thanks in advance.
-
Thanks a million Rand.
What bigger value a beginner member get from SEOMoz than getting personal replies from the CEO of SEO Moz.
Thank you so much. I'll take your all advices.
Best Regards, Vinod
-
Hi Vinod - looked through the other thread. I'd say the advice you got there was really solid. The content of that site is not very unique or valuable, the linking tactics you used were partially spammy, partially just low quality (directories, article links in syndicated directories, etc), and the effort put into the site overall feels subpar.
SEO in fields like pharmaceutical can be incredibly spammy and manipulative, thus looking at the top ranking folks (who usually only last a few days to a few weeks) is actually a terrible idea. Unlike in other spaces, overwhelming quantities of spam links and other manipulative tactics reign and Google appears uninterested in regulating this like they do in other markets. If it were me, I'd try to be one of the few legitimate, non-black-hat sites there, but I recognize that the spammers are likely to keep ranking with the churn-and-burn strategy, so it's up to you.
I do like your idea of starting over with a different type of site - perhaps a topic you're very passionate about that's less spammy?
Cheers,
Rand
-
Thanks everybody. Thanks a lot.
I am quite satisfied with Rand's reply. SEOMoz is awesome.
Best Regards, Vinod
-
Hi Rand,
I never expected to get answer directly from you. This is more than a surprise and kind of awesome feeling. Thanks a million.
Just to let you know.. I got answer to my this question when I was lying in bed. And something you said here. Sometimes we forget small things when we attempt to think something bigger and serious.
Actually I am damn frustrated with failure of my website. Please see my other question at http://www.seomoz.org/q/why-my-website-is-thrown-out-of-ranks-again-and-again
Hope you can figure out something for me. The main problems I have concluded so far about this website are:
(1) domain name... seems an attempt to take advantage in SERPs,
(2) Seems over-optimized
(3) Though i have attempted to write something valuable to users.. but seems failed in that. Just some extra wikipedia & 1-2 more site searches about topic and wrote on my website. I mean... my site is not providing some good amount of extra value to users.
(4) Might be small site, and more affiliate links.
Can you please have a look and show me that right direction. At this moment.. I am planning to get rid of this website and domain, and launch another website with some better mission.
Your little time on my issue will be much appreciated.
Thanks a million once again, Rand. You and your company are awesome. I am your big fan.
Best Regards, Vinod
-
Hi Vinod - we use APIs for some things (e.g. AdWords data, social shares, some rankings stuff, etc), and direct crawling for others (e.g. Linkscape itself obviously, fetching weekly site crawls, etc). I believe Google's violations primarily apply to software one installs on one's own machine that runs automated queries. We don't do that (as there's nothing to download and install with Moz). I believe this is what got WebPosition called-out on Google's site.
We're in relatively good touch with folks at lots of the major services we use - Google, Twitter, Facebook, Bing, etc. Googlers have asked us to make some changes and we've obliged (e.g. removing PageRank scores from our Mozbar/PRO app).
Hope that helps!
-
I know Google used to have an API for stuff like this, but that's not been available for a few years now. Perhaps they're still allowing people who had access previously to get into the data?
-
Hi Vinod,
I believe SEOmoz uses the Google API to power tools that utilize Google data.
If you would like more specific information about how the SEOmoz Ranking tool works, you can email the Help Team direct (help at seomoz.org) and I'm sure they will be able to help you out.
Hope that helps,
Sha
-
I am sure SEOMoz is using Google API to pull the data rather then essentially scraping Google that tools like WebPosition Gold do. I remember the days when people used to love WebPosition Gold...the industry has changed so much since then.....isn't it.
-
Its breaking guidelines but not in order to manipulate a sites rankings. I think this sort of thing might have less of a priority for Google. it's something they can't really control because there will always be ways around this.
Interested to hear an official SEOmoz response to this one though
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
My home page has an "A" rank in Moz and not ranking in Google.
My home page recently dropped from page one in Google to not being ranked for my top keyword. The page has an "A" ranking in MOZ for the keyword. Is there a way to find out the cause. I did have what looked like a duplicate page for a while 3 months ago when a domain was forwarding to my home page incorrectly. Appeared with second domain name instead of primary. Our business has been 95% through internet leads so quite an issue. Is there anyway to find out what is going on.
Moz Pro | | FredRoven0 -
Does anyone have an SEO strategic plan template for a beginning SEOmoz'r?
I'm fairly new to the SEO world and am going to be creating an SEO strategic plan for my boss (with his help). I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on a template to use, outline to follow, must have's/don't need, etc. Anything you're willing to share would be greatly appreciated!
Moz Pro | | kyle21ct0 -
Why don't Google+ URL's work in OSE?
Is there any reason why Google+ URLs does not work in OSE? Is it just that it is a secure URL or is there something bigger there? Why? Be cool to determine every website the person has been published on; especially if it is rel="author" verified. Jeff
Moz Pro | | WebBizIdeas1 -
Seomoz crawling filtered pages
Hi, I just checked an seo campaign we started last week, so I opened seomoz to see the crawl diagnostics. Lot's of duplicate content & duplicate titles showing up, but that's because Rogerbot is crawling all of the filtered pages as well. How do I exclude these pages from being crawled? /product/brand-x/3969?order=brand&sortorder=ASC
Moz Pro | | nvs.nim
/product/brand-x/3969?order=popular&sortorder=ASC
/product/brand-x/3969?order=popular&sortorder=DESC&page=10
/product/brand-x/3969?order=popular&sortorder=DESC&page=110 -
Alexa Ranking Sites
I found these two sites giving my competitor link juice: http://www.webnamelist.com/alexa/Alexa_186.html http://www.list-of-domains.org/alexa/Alexa_185.html I have seen these sites before and I just dont get why they are authoritative. The funny thing is I did a search for my competitors link on the page and its not showing up, is this a problem in site explorer? Why is site explorer mentioning these sites as my competitions best links when these links do not exist on their site?
Moz Pro | | SEODinosaur0 -
How do you use SEOmoz
I'm a newbie here. I've got a week left on my free trail. I really like SEOmoz, I might even love it a bit. 🙂 I'm trying to justify the cost. I usually don't spend money on my Internet Marketing. I've done it through finally buying some tools to help me get there. Massive change in the last year. I'm a long ways from getting rich YET though. 🙂 I've gone from $30 a month to $1000 a month in a year. So I think I'm on my way now. I'm trying to figure out why I should continue my subscription and actually start paying for it. If I were a developer I can certainly see why but the cost would so go way up. 🙂 I'm in the lowest level package with only five websites. I have 10 I'm working on. I know that's probably five to many at one time. I'm having a little trouble justifying the cost at this time. At my income level $100 a month is significant. I can see the value of seeing where my competition has backlinks. Sometimes my competition is Cnet. haha Well, I can beat them on a specific page at times. Hmm, can I search the URL list for links? Perhaps i can if I export it. That didn't occur to me. Now that could be of use if I can find my keywords. If their link is on Amazon though, I'm going to have trouble getting a link there. 🙂 Maybe I should work on less competitive links but I made good money last month with one page that was beating them. WAS beating them. How do you use SEOmoz? How do you justify the cost, that is offset the expense. If its not making me money i don't see the value. I can get a lot of this information for free but it sure is easier to get it here. Which saves me time. And the other tool i use isn't that good and not always reliable and slow. I've got a week left on my free trail. I had decided to let it go but now I'm reconsidering. $100 is a lot for me and I need to spend more on SEO outsourcing. I wonder if I wouldn't be better off dropping it for a while and then coming back. This certainly isn't mean to be a critical post at all. I'm looking for reasons to stay and make better use of it. Thanks for the thoughts, Rusty
Moz Pro | | RustyF0 -
SEOMoz Pro still hasn't crawled 10k pages for one campaign
I looked for a question in the forum already for this but couldn't find anything. Perhaps I am using the wrong keywords, so I apologize if this is a duplicate. I recently signed up with SEOMoz Pro and added two campaigns. For one campaign, 10,000 pages were crawled. For the other campaign, only about 300. It's been 2 weeks since I created the campaigns. Is there a way to force a crawl of the site associated with the second campaign?
Moz Pro | | SharieBags0