Web Position and Ask Jeeves

[Izzmo]

Working for an SEO company, I use Web Position to conjure up reports for our clients to see how the are doing in the rank for the top search engines. Lately, we've been getting kicked and banned from the Ask Jeeves server and can no longer get ranks from their database for our clients. We can also no longer access their site to do search queries either.

Has anyone else seen this happen to them, if you have web position?

I'm not sure why Ask Jeeves would be kicking us from their server.

Thanks.

[cspelts]

You may have problems with Google as well if you use WebPosition Gold. From Google Information for Webmasters:

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.

[marketershandbook.com]

I use web position once or twice a day, for less then 30 keyword rank checks.

Am I in any danger of being kicked?

I use the "be considerate to search engines" feature, which waits 5 -15 seconds between each query.

[cspelts]

Long ago I used WebPosition Gold, but I haven't used it since I read the above on Google's site. To me, it's just not worth the risk. I've heard there are programs that do the same tasks, but comply with Google's TOS, but I've never used them.

Can I ask why you check all your search terms once or twice a day? I do a search for my main search term once a day, but I can't imagine taking the time to analyze the stats for 30 search terms! Especially if you have multiple sites to monitor.

[marketershandbook.com]

it's a new site, and im eager haha :)

I know it's a bit excessive, but I'll calm down eventually.

It only takes 5 minutes with web position gold, so it's no big deal to do even 10 times what I'm currently doing.

[brian.mark]

I check once or twice per week. It's not like there are any huge fluctuations all that often, and when there are I hear about them here before I'll see any shakeup on the terms I monitor. Our profitable words don't get affected much.

Brian.

[luismorais]

Izzmo,

Your problem with askjeeves and with any other search engine is caused because Web Position Gold is overquerying the server or giving the search engine all the signs it has been consulted by a software.

Check what marketershandbook says:

I use the "be considerate to search engines" feature, which waits 5 -15 seconds between each query

That is what you have to do if there is no other slower option. My advice is that you do not use Web Position Gold until you are really familiar with SEO e SEM. Although I use Web CEO, I have to admit that it is unfair that the software be blamed for that. It sounds a bit like saying 'do not use Dreamweaver to produce webpages because you can click all the buttons there and make a mess.'

These bans should not last more than a few days and normaly after some time your ip is cleared up again but do not exceed because you might be put in a black list and never alllowed to access the page again, well, at least that is what I would do if I were the guys in Askjeeves.

If you guys want to avoid this in the future try accessing the search engines from a proxy server or from a dial up connection with a dynamic ip. Your company should have set up a 'filth' connection (a dynamic internet connection from a different isp in your office) for this kind of stuff.

Also if possible get a rank checking schedule organised so that groups of queries be distributed during the day, and spread over the week.

Well mate, good luck and give it some time. Please tell us how you are doing.

Cheers,

Luis

[incrediblehelp]

Izzmo are you using the Scheduler in Web Position?

[KeithO]

Being eager and being overzealous are different. I run my reports through WebCEO, used to use WPG, every other week. I also have it space out the time between queries. Between the roughly 30 clients I have, it takes about 3 hours to run all the reports. The results do not vary enough within one week to justify more queries.
Spread them out, keep to the essentials that will help the rankings grow and it makes those less frequent reports more rewarding. Think about it in a basketball game. When playing, you should be focused on the game and not checking the score every time you run up and down the court. Its easier to stay focused on the true task at hand.

[Izzmo]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Izzmo are you using the Scheduler in Web Position?

Yes, we are. Is using the schedular bad?

Originally Posted by luismorais

Check what marketershandbook says:

I use the "be considerate to search engines" feature, which waits 5 -15 seconds between each query

We use this feature, and it still does not let us qeury to Ask Jeeves. But we can still always query to other servers such as Google, AOL, MSN, etc.

Originally Posted by luismorais

If you guys want to avoid this in the future try accessing the search engines from a proxy server or from a dial up connection with a dynamic ip. Your company should have set up a 'filth' connection (a dynamic internet connection from a different isp in your office) for this kind of stuff.

We have a dedicated server just for running WebPosition, and it is on a Static IP except for the occasional reboot.

I think what our problem is, is that we are trying to run too many reports at the same time, sometimes up to 3 at once. We are going to even them out so it is only running 1 at a time.

We have 70+ clients though, so it will take time.

Thanks for all of your input! It really helped us out a lot.

Thanks.

[greeneagle]

Google put their foot down during the "Bourbon" update, against such queries.

So strongly, that www.googlerankings.com went down for several days, while they adjusted their service to require a GOOGLE API license.

That license allows, but limits the number of such queries, and is the only "legal" way in now, that I know of.

This policy change makes it much easier for the GOOG to recognize "unauthorized" requested by any software and subsequently penalize the offending party.

Ken

[incrediblehelp]

I only get the banned response when I use scheduler. I run reports all day long without the scheduler and have no issues. If you do get the capucha error page when querying Google, just clear you temp internet files and it will disappear.

[KeithO]

Its for that reason that I use WebCEO. It requires a google search license to query google thus making it safer than WPG.

[incrediblehelp]

Web Position allows you to use the Google API as well, but using the API is very limiting in the number of query's per day. Doesn't Web CEO has these same API limitations?

[KeithO]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Web Position allows you to use the Google API as well, but using the API is very limiting in the number of query's per day. Doesn't Web CEO has these same API limitations?

We were using version 2, I believe, that didn't use the API's. WebCEO still has the 1000 quereies per day ceiling.

[Izzmo]

Originally Posted by greeneagle

Google put their foot down during the "Bourbon" update, against such queries.

So strongly, that www.googlerankings.com went down for several days, while they adjusted their service to require a GOOGLE API license.

I think their still down eh? Lol.. there PHP is all messed up.