When changing the properties of the add-on Google thinks some sort of
malware (which it's not) and gives the following error:
We're sorry...
... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a
computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't
process your request right now.
We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again
soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network
has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware
remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other
spurious software.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again
on Google.
Tools like this generally put together statistics which may seem
interesting, but they come at a cost: the numbers are often found
through automated querying of search engines. On all major search
engines, this kind of behavior is explicitly forbidden by the Terms of
Service. We recently did a blog posting about the message you're
seeing: http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2007/07/reason-behind-were-s...
As mentioned there, "Overly aggressive SEO ranking tools may trigger
this message, too." Additionally, our webmaster guidelines mention
"Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check
rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate
our Terms of Service."
> Tools like this generally put together statistics which may seem
> interesting, but they come at a cost: the numbers are often found
> through automated querying of search engines. On all major search
> engines, this kind of behavior is explicitly forbidden by the Terms of
> Service. We recently did a blog posting about the message you're
> seeing:http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2007/07/reason-behind-were-s...
> As mentioned there, "Overly aggressive SEO ranking tools may trigger
> this message, too." Additionally, our webmaster guidelines mention
> "Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check
> rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate
> our Terms of Service."
Hi John. Does Google penalize webmasters in other ways for using tools
like WebCEO and SEO Quake? I don't see how it could be done but Google
has astonished me in the past so I'm curious. I can see a situation
happening where a particular software program like WebCEO leaves a
footprint that Google can identify and analyze.
Btw, thanks for the warm welcome to the group! I have to say it's been
very helpful.
> I wasn't aware that this type of behavior from the Add-on isn't
> allowed on Google. I'll uninstall it now and read the links below.
> On Jan 10, 4:57 pm, JohnMu wrote:
> > Hi Dolemite and welcome back to the groups!
> > Tools like this generally put together statistics which may seem
> > interesting, but they come at a cost: the numbers are often found
> > through automated querying of search engines. On all major search
> > engines, this kind of behavior is explicitly forbidden by the Terms of
> > Service. We recently did a blog posting about the message you're
> > seeing:http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2007/07/reason-behind-were-s...
> > As mentioned there, "Overly aggressive SEO ranking tools may trigger
> > this message, too." Additionally, our webmaster guidelines mention
> > "Don't use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check
> > rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate
> > our Terms of Service."
I think it should be clear that these kinds of tools, can and will
leave usage patterns wherever they are used. Seeing that these kinds
of tools violate our Terms of Service, it doesn't really make sense to
say what may happen if someone were to use them regardless, right?
Our webmaster guidelines mention in the quality guidelines: "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(tm) that send automatic or programmatic queries to
Google." as well as "(...) we strongly encourage you to pay very close
attention to the "Quality Guidelines," which outline some of the
illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from
the Google index or otherwise penalized." Our guidelines can be found
at http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
That said, I fully understand that some clients demand fancy charts
with numbers that can reasonably only be obtained using tools like
that. Perhaps you can turn that around and see it as an opportunity to
inform the client of the problems associated with such reports
(similar to how you would inform them about the value of keyword meta-
tags on their sites). The data in those reports is not only
problematic to gather but also potentially misleading. There are so
many factors involved in crawling, indexing and ranking that it is
almost impossible to reduce them to a single ranking number of a
keyword or phrase on "Google".
Webmaster Tools provides a wealth of information, including ranking
numbers for keywords across locations and search types. What in
particular are you missing which you can only find in other tools?
Perhaps we can work on providing data which you could use for these
kinds of reports in a way that does not tax our servers and also is
relevant enough for you and your clients to act upon.
Thanks for your reply, John. That's very helpful and it does make
sense. But it also makes sense that because programs like WPG break
the TOS, Google would see it reasonable to issue penalties if they can
positively identify the site(s) being "optimized" by the program. You
mentioned that these programs leave usage patterns so I find it very
likely that the geniuses at Google can and will find a way if they
haven't already.
I will definitely try to take your feedback about turning things
around. Enough said on that note. :)
As far as suggestions, I'll be honest with you. I'm getting to be very
close with Webmaster Tools recently. I love all the new stuff (Top
search queries especially) but would want to see something as
extensive as one of the bad programs before ever considering a switch.
The fancy graphs are important. More than 20 top queries are
essential. And the convenience of automation is required. BUT these
tools simply can't provide the data you can so if Google can come up
with something, I'm eager to try.
> I think it should be clear that these kinds of tools, can and will
> leave usage patterns wherever they are used. Seeing that these kinds
> of tools violate our Terms of Service, it doesn't really make sense to
> say what may happen if someone were to use them regardless, right?
> Our webmaster guidelines mention in the quality guidelines: "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(tm) that send automatic or programmatic queries to
> Google." as well as "(...) we strongly encourage you to pay very close
> attention to the "Quality Guidelines," which outline some of the
> illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from
> the Google index or otherwise penalized." Our guidelines can be found
> athttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
> That said, I fully understand that some clients demand fancy charts
> with numbers that can reasonably only be obtained using tools like
> that. Perhaps you can turn that around and see it as an opportunity to
> inform the client of the problems associated with such reports
> (similar to how you would inform them about the value of keyword meta-
> tags on their sites). The data in those reports is not only
> problematic to gather but also potentially misleading. There are so
> many factors involved in crawling, indexing and ranking that it is
> almost impossible to reduce them to a single ranking number of a
> keyword or phrase on "Google".
> Webmaster Tools provides a wealth of information, including ranking
> numbers for keywords across locations and search types. What in
> particular are you missing which you can only find in other tools?
> Perhaps we can work on providing data which you could use for these
> kinds of reports in a way that does not tax our servers and also is
> relevant enough for you and your clients to act upon.
The primary reason that we use, whether or not clients demand it, is
so that we can analyze, base on a ranking snapshot, where a site
ranked on a given day.
We can accept that these numbers are not completely reliable, like
toolbar PageRank, but to be able to say to a client:
1) Here's where you are at the beginning
2) Here's where you are 4 weeks later
3) Here's where you are at 4 week intervals based on our ongoing or
previously completed work.
... is entirely the reason for having recorded reports on rankings,
not just for Google, but for other engines as well.
So, as to your question "what could be added to GWT" to encourage us
to stop buying this software at $150/annually, I would need a reliable
snapshot tool where I could enter a group of keywords, get a snapshot
as to the rank for between 1 and 5 URLs using those keywords/phrases
and be able to file those as reports that I can give my clients access
to, just like we do with analytics. Reports should be able to be
generated into PDF for storage, excel for data analysis and be able to
be run on a schedule or on demand.
I'd be glad to help Google spearhead this effort by describing how I
use reports to deliver client services.
> I think it should be clear that these kinds oftools, can and will
> leave usage patterns wherever they are used. Seeing that these kinds
> oftoolsviolate our Terms of Service, it doesn't really make sense to
> say what may happen if someone were to use them regardless, right?
> Ourwebmasterguidelines mention in the quality guidelines: "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(tm) that send automatic or programmaticqueriesto
> Google." as well as "(...) we strongly encourage you to pay very close
> attention to the "Quality Guidelines," which outline some of the
> illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from
> the Google index or otherwise penalized." Our guidelines can be found
> athttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
> That said, I fully understand that some clients demand fancy charts
> with numbers that can reasonably only be obtained usingtoolslike
> that. Perhaps you can turn that around and see it as an opportunity to
> inform the client of the problems associated with such reports
> (similar to how you would inform them about the value of keyword meta-
> tags on their sites). The data in those reports is not only
> problematic to gather but also potentially misleading. There are so
> many factors involved in crawling, indexing and ranking that it is
> almost impossible to reduce them to a single ranking number of a
> keyword or phrase on "Google".
> WebmasterToolsprovides a wealth of information, including ranking
> numbers for keywords across locations and search types. What in
> particular are you missing which you can only find in othertools?
> Perhaps we can work on providing data which you could use for these
> kinds of reports in a way that does not tax our servers and also is
> relevant enough for you and your clients to act upon.
Hi, that is from the "Guidelines" about "Automated queries " :
"Google's Terms of Service do not allow the sending of automated
queries of any sort to our system without express permission in
advance from Google. Sending automated queries absorbs resources and
includes using any software (such as WebPosition Gold(tm)) to send
automated queries to Google to determine how a website or webpage
ranks in Google search results for various queries."
As read in the Guidelines, Google don't allow auto-queries, but do
they penalize a Site? Do they inform the webmaster or set a message to
the webmaster account?
Please, can you tell a Site owner if "somebody", like competitors,
hurt the Site with such "attacks"?
Peter
> I think it should be clear that these kinds of tools, can and will
> leave usage patterns wherever they are used. Seeing that these kinds
> of tools violate our Terms of Service, it doesn't really make sense to
> say what may happen if someone were to use them regardless, right?
> Our webmaster guidelines mention in the quality guidelines: "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(tm) that send automatic or programmatic queries to
> Google." as well as "(...) we strongly encourage you to pay very close
> attention to the "Quality Guidelines," which outline some of the
> illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from
> the Google index or otherwise penalized." Our guidelines can be found
> athttp://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
> That said, I fully understand that some clients demand fancy charts
> with numbers that can reasonably only be obtained using tools like
> that. Perhaps you can turn that around and see it as an opportunity to
> inform the client of the problems associated with such reports
> (similar to how you would inform them about the value of keyword meta-
> tags on their sites). The data in those reports is not only
> problematic to gather but also potentially misleading. There are so
> many factors involved in crawling, indexing and ranking that it is
> almost impossible to reduce them to a single ranking number of a
> keyword or phrase on "Google".
> Webmaster Tools provides a wealth of information, including ranking
> numbers for keywords across locations and search types. What in
> particular are you missing which you can only find in other tools?
> Perhaps we can work on providing data which you could use for these
> kinds of reports in a way that does not tax our servers and also is
> relevant enough for you and your clients to act upon.
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