Hi, I am relatively new to SEO and have purchased Market Samurai, and am evaluating other possible SEO software to purchase such as Internet Business Partner, SEO Powersuite, etc. I came across a thread in an SEO forum in which an (apparent) expert on SEO answers one fellow’s inquiry about the best SEO software to use, by replying that ALL such software such as WebPosition etc is not strictly whitehat. Any responses to this, or is he indeed, correct that automated page rank inquiries, etc are not strictly white hat? Here is the The Thread: …are you saying that you never use search rankings tools at all? Well, no 'white hat' practitioner of SEO ever can. Use of any software to perform automated searches (to see where you rank) is expressly forbidden in the webmaster guidelines. Under "Quality guidelines - basic principles" (in Google) we have: QUOTE (from Google) 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. Then under "Quality guidelines - specific guidelines" it says: QUOTE (from Google) Don't send automated queries to Google.