Hi All, I was just over at sew and got the impression that if you run a rank check from a static ip G- can tell and may penalise. I just set up the advanced script and ran a rank check only to see all my 1-2-3-4 ranked phrases fall to 160. I thought this was a result of Jagger but am now wondering as I only use white hat. Any thoughts? s.
The keyword tracker uses the Google API, so it's not against Google's TOS. Penalization from Google would be from automated rank checking systems that don't use the API.
What about your competitors checking your rankings without using Google API? Won't it affect your rankings in the SERPs? Old verbiage = "There is nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking ..." New verbiage = "There is ALMOST nothing a competitor can do ..." An obvious concession that Google thinks that at least some dirty tricks work!
Well, I didn't mean there WOULD be penalization without using the API, only that there wouldn't be if you use the API. I have no clue if Google actually penalizes if you don't use the API (never tried it myself).
You said "Penalization from Google would be from automated rank checking systems that don't use the API." Now you said "I didn't mean there WOULD be penalization without using the API" Doesn't your first post contradict your second statement?
Unless you do something incredibly stupid, Google will not/cannot penalize you for checking your rankings with automated tools. They can ban the IP from which the checking is done, but they cannot ban your site. This about it. You set up your software to check the top 200 ranking for "widgets", "blue widgets" and "red widgets". You run that software every day. It queries Google way too fast to possibly be a human, so Google knows it is software and is against its TOS... What site(s) does Google ban? Every site listed in the top 200? I don't think so. Keyword searches do not tell google what site you are looking for. That info is stored in your software (and not passed to Google in a query). Now, if someone were dumb enough to be running that software from the server or even same network that was hosting their site -- maybe you have a problem. But anyone thoughtless enough to do that probably has bigger problems in life anyway ;-)
But they "could" ban the sites on the IP where the automated tool is being run from. Poo poo for those on a shared server.
Do you know of any tools designed to run on a remote server that screen scrapes? I think most screen scrapers are software designed to run on people's desktop machines.
You could try that. Find competitors on a shared IP. Write a script to query Google fast and furious. Open a site on the sake shared IP. Run your script from there and see what happens. My bet: All that happens is that IP gets banned from querying Google. No effect to the web sites hosted there. but it would make an interesting experiment. Maybe someone with more time than me (and more to gain) can give it a try.