What's the future of SERP Tracking? And... Is SEOMoz's SERP Rank Tracking in compliance with Google Adwords API Terms of Service?
-
My question is:
Is SEOMoz's SERP Rank Tracking in compliance with Google Adwords API Terms of Service?
Background:
The reason I ask is because Raven Tools is now removing their SERP Reporting tool because it uses scraped Google position data.
So, it looks like SEO's will either have to find a new rank tracking tool or find new ways to traffic the effects that rankings have on a website traffic volumes.
For instance, there is a way to get the position a search results was in Google when it was clicked. We could create a secondary profile in Google Analytics for each client and use a custom filter to record the position that the keywords was in when the search result was clicked ( http://www.seomoz.org/blog/show-keyword-position-using-filters-and-advanced-segments )
Or perhaps we'll have to use Google Webmaster Tools' SEO Report to get data somehow ( http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1308626 )
What are your thoughts on this? As you know, ranking data is still a great way to show clients if they are gaining or losing visibility in the search engines. It helps SEO's to report how effective their efforts have been.
Because other ranking software companies uses Adwords API data to show the keyword search volume and advertiser competition of a keyword, they can not or eventually will not be able to use scraped ranking data any more.
But, if another rank tracking tool out there doesn't need to be in compliance with the Adwords API TOS because they don't use that API to show search volume and advertiser competition, they can still technically provide their ranking data and not be violating any TOS, right?
I'm just trying to understand the best way to continue reporting impact of organic keyword rankings on a website.
Does the SEOMoz SERP Tracker comply with Adwords API? Is there another rank tracking tool out there that already is using Average Position data from the GWT SEO Report tool? Should we all just stop reporting rankings to clients altogether?
Scott
-
ANAL, but from my understanding of the US laws (LinkedIn vs. hiQ Labs) and having worked on SerpAPI.com, if the data is public, it's in your rights to scrape it.
-
Where did you read that at? I was not aware of that? Is it the same for analytics?
-
Ah ha. I can see how that wouldn't be nearly as useful.
-
No an average ranking from WMT will not be useful because it is based on broad match not exact match.
-
I saw a tweet from Raven, which basically suggests that they will implement the Google Webmaster Tools rankings data into the reporting tool. Probably that's the best way of presenting keyword rankings, because it shows the average positions. Rankings are being affected by so many factors, that it's difficult to tell which ranking report is the most accurate. Location, search history, logged in personalised data, etc, etc.
An average ranking report from Google Webmaster Tools might be more useful than the ones from Raven or SEOMoz.
-
Just a little followup on this topic on my blog here: http://www.scottofford.com/2012/12/what-is-the-future-of-serp-tracking/ ~ Scott O.
-
I was worried too, so I asked SEOMoz on Twitter: I really hope @__SEOmoz__ won't shut down the rank tracking tool, like Raven Tools did.
and they replied: We currently have no plans to change our data service options & are listening to what our community has to say
-
One of the most important things to me was Raven's ability to do automated reporting as PDF files sent to my clients' inboxes on a monthly basis. That, combined with Traffic reports, etc was a cornerstone of our progress reporting.
I'm not considering abandoning Raven just yet. A lot of our internel processes are tied into Raven and their Content Manager and Link Manager, and other tools they have, but it does make it much more appetizing to go find other viable solutions that can help me manage my Internet Marketing client base.
-
The simple answer is NO. Scraping SERP data is against Google's TOS and they have not given permission/ rights to any company.
The situation with Raven really stinks. In my opinion its Google using its dominant position in search to enforce their rules. And I hope we do not lose access to SEOMoz's Ranking data.
Also, is there a clarity about Google Analytics API? Does that also have the same condition (that you cannot use Google Scraped data)?.
I think this whole thing is counterproductive. Google forcing an SEO SaaS company to change one of its core service - is an example of bullying which reminds me of MS. The easier option would have been to create a rankings API and give it to SEO community. They had a Search API before (which was broken and never worked). And the Google WMT data is unreliable at best. I anticipate more automated search queries to google behind private proxies or more business to companies like AuthorityLabs.
-
Hi Scott. I have never used Raven Tools and am just at the end of their 30 day free trial. I have always used SEOMoz rankings reports and SEO reports to give to my CEO (I am in-house). Honestly, he rarely looks at the rankings and is far more interested in the trend and sources of organic traffic and revenue. I appreciate where he's coming from because if the rankings look great but revenue stinks, then the rankings aren't really worth a hill of beans. I think it's much more valuable for me to identify opportunities and threats more than anything else.
Now that Raven Tools isn't going to have the Rank Tracker or SEMRush info (I was more disappointed about that part actually), are you reconsidering your Raven Tools subscription? Do you think it's still worth the money? The reason I ask is that my free trial ends on December 9th and I've already got approval to upgrade, but am not sure if I want to now. Thoughts?
-
Dana, how do you currently report rankings to your clients or team members? Do you plan on continuing doing it that way or will you try to ween off of using ranking reports in the future?
Scott
-
Hi Dana. I guess SEOmoz doesn't have Adwords API data right directly inline with ranking results, so that could be true. It seems they use the Google Analytics API more than anything.
There is a lot of discussion going around here about this on Raven's announcement:
http://raventools.com/scraped-data/ (127 comments as of the time I posted this reply)
Perhaps someone from SEOmoz knows for sure?
Scott
-
Great question Scott. I was wondering the same thing when I read the notice from Raven Tools this morning. My guess is that this isn't an issue for SEOMoz because they aren't pulling Adwords data in as part of their SEOMoz pro tools reports.
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
-
All ranked pages on Googles SERP only links to home
I got a problem regarding my website called musik.dk, and hope you guys are able to help. I just got my first ranking results from Moz. My question is: All my keywords are linking to the home page, and not the artist page? For examples if I were to search on Rihanna on Google, then when musik.dk appears on the SERP, it only links to the home, and not musik.dk/rihanna.. This problem applies to all the given artists ranked on Googles SERP, it never shows the artist page itself, only links to home. Let me know if you need any information, and I gladly supply, this is kind of frustrating to me.. As a note: all pages besides the home has a PA of 1, and it doesn't really seem to change. UT3OBHr kVp7z38
Moz Pro | | Morten_Hjort0 -
SeoMoz Directory List ?? where is it
Hi there i must be missing something,, i have been looking for the list and cant find it ? where do i go to see it ? I am a pro member but all i can find is posts talking about the directory list.. Where is it ?
Moz Pro | | 365ToursSafaris0 -
SeoMoz: Competitive domain analysis report doesn't add up?
Hi, When I check OSE against the Competitive Domain Analysis report in my account the numbers are way off. If the CDA report was 100%, OSE is showing 30% of that. I'm looking at linking root domains with no filters applied. Is the data not pulled from the same db? Thanks.
Moz Pro | | Bondara0 -
My Google Keyword Rankings are Missing. Anyone else having this problem?
I logged in to pull my reports for my clients and noticed that I am missing all of my ranked keywords for my campaigns for the Google columns. One word is ranked. All the rest have a TUES sign that looks like it references Tuesday. Is anyone else having this issue? I had over 30 words ranked last week. Only showing 1 today. The rankings for Bing and Yahoo are intact though. There is no report showing a decline in ranking for all those words either (in the google column.) This is also happening in another campaign of mine but they have a WEDS in place of the google ranking... ugh Frustrated...
Moz Pro | | JChronicle1 -
Why does Seomoz report other values then Google Webmaster?
Dear Seomoz Community I check my Seomoz ranking from time to and today I saw a big discrepancy between the reported domains linking to my site in the Site Explorer and Google Webmaster tools. Seomoz reports 19 linking domains
Moz Pro | | menelik
Google shows 150 domains linking to my site. Is there an explanation for this discrepancy? Thank for helping me out 😉0 -
Can Google see all the pages that an seomoz crawl picks up?
Hi there My client's site is showing around 90 pages indexed in Google. The seomoz crawl is returning 1934 pages. Many of the pages in the crawl are duplicates, but there are also pages which are behind the user login. Is it theoretically correct to say that if a seomoz crawl finds all the pages, then Google has the potential to as well, even if they choose not to index? Or would Google not see the pages behind the login? And how come seomoz can see the pages? Many thanks in anticipation! Wendy
Moz Pro | | Chammy0 -
Is there a way to manually update the keyword rankings tool in SEOmoz?
It appears that our keyword rankings update weekly on Thursdays. Is this the same across the board or is there a way to manually run an update?
Moz Pro | | Motivators0 -
Which Google API do you use to creat a rank checking tool?
I can't seem to work this one out. Basically I want to make a very simple rank checker tool something similar to http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/ where a user simply type in a domain and a keyword and in return is shown the position within the results. The problem is I can’t work out which API's I need in order to build it, does anyone know what I need to poke about with? It must work with Google and ideally with Bing and the rest
Moz Pro | | therealmarkhall0