Changes at Raven Tools!
-
I received notification today that Raven tools will lose it's Adwords API, see below:
"Raven received notice from Google late last week that we would lose access to its AdWords API. Without API access, Raven can't provide Google AdWords research, management and reporting to our customers"
This is a massive blow as we use Raven to track progress for clients and also to run keyword research etc. Does anybody that knows Raven have a suitable alternative?
Thanks...
-
another update to this. Adwords was restored to Raventools today.
-
another update to this. Adwords was restored to Raventools today.
-
We've only received notice that we can't use it, even if we pay. I suspect that many other tool providers like us and Raven also had access revoked, but I can't say for certain.
-
Satisfying the shareholders at any cost really helps to simplify the decision making process considerably. Ever since the Google Wave debacle a few years back, it seems that everything I've seen new and innovative from Google has been less 'cool for techie' and more 'good idea to make more profit'.
It seems we can count the Adwords API as yet another project headed to join the scrapheap in the Google Labs junkyard. Useful for some but not profitable enough to keep around.
-
The EVIL GOOGLE trend continues...
They're acting this way because they can and they will continue to push down competitors until the government steps in. This is what happens when a company becomes a monopoly.
-
There is more from Raven on their blog today. https://raventools.com/blog/update-google-adwords-availability-in-raven/
Interesting what they are saying (or not saying) about other people having access.
-
Thanks Rand...
It's amazing that a company the size of Google with the monopoly that it has in most markets can operate in this way.
-
Thanks for the update Rand.
They're hard to communicate with, inconsistent, and don't have any guarantees, even though we pay...
In a weird sort of way it'd good to know that they treat customers of all sizes with an even hand
-
A few folks on this thread asked how this might affect SEOmoz. As you've probably noticed over the past couple months, our AdWords API and data access has also been intermittently down (and is now down again). This affects the keyword difficulty tool (though not the difficulty scores, as those don't use AdWords data), and it affects the keyword pages in the web app.
The basic story is that we're expecting Google not to give access back, but you never know. They're hard to communicate with, inconsistent, and don't have any guarantees, even though we pay for this data. Thus, my best guess would be that they'll be shutting it off for lots of organic tool providers (like Moz & Raven). If you want AdWords search volume data, you'll probably have to go direct.
Our plan in the short term is to start using data from Bing, and then eventually to see if we can build a good metric that correlates well with search volume as reported by AdWords (like we do with PageRank->MozRank or Page Authority->Google Rankings). It's gonna be a slog, but this appears to be how Google wants it.
-
Do we know yet if this is Raven specific or if this is something that will affect all tools which use the API? Moz - what are you hearing?
I'm naturally very suspicious of everything Google does and this seems like they're moving to eliminate third party reporting services. Thoughts?
-
Thanks Mat for a copy of their email.
-
I used Raven before they added lots of adwords tools and I'll use them if they go. I still think it is one of the best value toolsets out there. I say this as I don't want people to think I'm knocking a great product. However hereis the main part of the mail that went out:
--- start ---
Raven received notice from Google late last week that we would lose access to its AdWords API. Without API access, Raven can't provide Google AdWords research, management and reporting to our customers. There's no short-term solution that will allow Raven to keep its AdWords API access and not affect other tools important to many of our customers.That's why, beginning at 11:59 p.m CST (GMT-5) on this Wednesday, Nov. 14,** Raven Internet Marketing Tools will no longer offer AdWords authentication, tools or reporting data.**First, I want to stress that your Google AdWords accounts and campaigns will not be affected. You can still log in to https://adwords.google.com to manage those accounts and campaigns. This change only affects Raven’s ability to sync your AdWords data in our platform.Second, I want to apologize. We know that this is more than an inconvenience to you. We’re urgently researching alternate data to integrate with Raven, but we don’t have specifics or a timetable to share yet.Since we will no longer be able to provide AdWords reports, I strongly suggest that you export or report any Google AdWords metrics before the cut-off date. For step-by-step instructions on how to download or report on your Google AdWords metrics to date, please see this article from our Knowledge Base.-- end --They then went on to list the exact parts that will be affected - tool by tool and their plan for tackling each.
The impact on keyword manager and serp tracker are bad for me (particularly as these are two areas that I think they do much better than seomoz). I hope that they will find alternative, credible, data sources for those.
-
I did not see that email come in. But that's a big change. What does Raven have to say about it ? Any other vendors using Adwords API facing similar issues ? Knock Knock Moz team.
-
Oh crap, I'm glad I checked the Q&A today as I didn't event receive an email from Raven about this crucial change. This will obviously impact their reporting functionality and take away from their core value of having everything (adwords, analytics, social) available via the one login...
-
Exactly my thoughts...I haven't heard anything from SEOMoz so I can only assume that it's Raven specific, but that would be a big issue for Raven!
-
Received this today as well, just as I was leaving the office. Weird. Does this mean that Google are changing their API terms and everyone is going to have similar problems, or I wonder if it is specific to Raven.
I don't use them for PPC management, but they're still useful tools to have.
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
-
After 10th August ranking has changed
Good evening, I hava a questiong regardin the ranking after 10th August. I hava an online tire shop and the ranking has changed that means I was on the first position on search term "anvelope" and now I am on the 3 rd place. I have unique content, few duplicate content and still in front of my site there are sites with huge duplicate content and not so unique. Is it a coincidence that the position has changed on the 10 August or I was affected by Emanuel? How Emanuel update can affect an online tire shop? In other city's I am on the firs place. My site is www.anvelope.ro Thank's Florin
Keyword Research | | Vreaumobila0 -
Keyword search tool or API
Anyone have a suggestion for a simplistic (scaled down) version of a keyword research tool that I can put on our website? We need our clients to be able to perform some basic keyword research on their own without getting lost in the details of something too robust. We would like to control aspects of the tool, capture the data from the site visitor and move those results (from their searches) into a database or other web application.
Keyword Research | | webindustry0 -
What Keyword reasearch tools are you using?
I'm finding the Google tool to be inadequate for our needs. Does anyone have any suggestions of a better tool out there.
Keyword Research | | Xcellimark0 -
Has anyone tried SECockpit as their Keyword Research tool ?
I'm looking for a tool to help with keyword research, and judging by the presentation and few reviews I could find, SECockpit at http://swissmademarketing.com/secockpit/ seems to be a nice product. They pull their data (partly) from SEOmoz, which is a good sign. Any feedback ? Thx Gil
Keyword Research | | iung1 -
SerpIQ vs. Keyword Difficulty tool
http://imgur.com/6uidr Is this any good for keyword research? I see they use some weird metric and I'm not sure whether those are relevant at all, plus it's really hard to do a bulk research. Let me know what you think.
Keyword Research | | jest0 -
Missing Tool!!
What SEOMOZ tool or other resource should I use to find a list of Google's most popular keyword searches. The "Keyword Difficulty" tool will allow me to check out information about a particular Keyword. For example if I want to check out the top 1000 most popular Keyword Searches in the .co.uk area, irregardless of industry. Thanks Peter
Keyword Research | | peterds0 -
Should we change our site domain name to include our keyword?
Our niche has one keyword phrase that is much, much more active than any other comparable phrase. Let's call that phrase "math problems". Within this phrase, the "math" is absolutely the most important keyword, as it is also used in every spin-off search phrase, like "math answers", "math practice", etc. We've had our domain since 1996, and is currently the company name - "Rocketproblems.com". Over the last year (2010-2011) our SERPs have steadily dropped to the point where we're not getting a sustainable level of business from organic search, whereas in 2009 we were doing fantastic. However, we've also had "Rocketmathproblems.com" since about 2000, just gathering dust. What I've noticed from the top search results is that nearly every domain has either "math" or "math problems" in its URL. Do you think it's worth it to switch to the keyword-rich URL? It is a bit more verbose, and the "Rocketmathproblems.com" v.s. "Rocketproblems.com" example perfectly captures the different feeling. My inclination is that SEO is only becoming more competitive, and if we aren't getting worthwhile business from organic search at the moment then we should bite the bullet and make the switch for the future, along with ramping up our content generation. However, I also noticed that in late 2009 a previous webmaster switched to "Rogermath.com" but switched back within a month when our SERP for the key phrase was a page lower - I gleaned this from a Moz Juicy Keywords Report :). Thoughts?
Keyword Research | | ACann0 -
What keyword research tools do you recommend to help with SEO?
We are looking for a keyword research tool to help with our SEO efforts for our ecommerce site. We sell food gifts and are looking for a tool to help us identify which keywords we should go after. Beyond Google's free tool - what tools would you recommend? We are willing to pay for a tool.
Keyword Research | | agolomb1