Search Engine Rankings Software Not Working on Google

Many SEOs are feeling the pain not being able to automatically check search engine rankings in Google for themselves and their clients. Web Position and other ranking software have not been able to retrieve rankings from Google lately.

Has Google finally decided to ban this software, as suspected in the past? It’s well known that Google does not like automated queries of their database because of the amount of resources it uses and they would rather see these resources used by searchers. Google has to realize that even without automated queries there are an enormous amount of queries performed every minute by users not searching for information but checking their own rankings. I’m sure it’s not as vast as the automated queries but perhaps they should measure this.

Why doesn’t Google provide access to this information? They are opening up search volume numbers through the use of Google Trends, Keyword Tool and the new Google Insights. The information comes from a portion of worldwide Google web searches from all Google domains so they aren’t providing the real volume numbers. However, what they provide is great and very worthwhile for analysis. They could structure the rankings checker the same way. And they can monetize it!!!

The main reason Google would not want to do this is the fear of making it easier for SEOs, white hat or black hat, to figure out their algorithm and manipulate the rankings. Cmon Google – isn’t that your job to outsmart us and constantly be changing things to ensure this can’t be done. We can hope that Google will figure out an acceptable way for us to automatically check rankings just as we hope their system remains democratic and their rankings aren’t skewed toward Google properties like Knol.

Lynn Jebbia is a Senior Project Manager at ArteWorks SEO. Her focus is
SEO Strategy, Keyword Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Web Site Audits, Pay Per Click Management and Client Account Management.