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Is Google Watching Your SEO Company? Part I

If you run an SEO company, you've probably asked yourself if Google is watching you. After all, even white hat tactics are technically against the rules considering that you're taking deliberate steps in an effort to gain links, shares, reviews, etc. While it's extremely unlikely that Google would reveal if they were watching SEO firms, most privacy advocates appear divided about how well the search giant protects the information it inevitably collects, and what it does with that information. The following are 4 major ways that Google could be watching what you do.

1.) Signed in to Google

If you use Google Chrome as your web browser or have joined Google+, then you've basically given permission for the search engine to collect and use data about you. This includes the websites you visit, the searches you conduct, the social media you explore and basically everything you do as you go about your business and personal life on the web.

This means if you use Google Chrome to visit the new company that replaced BMR, they're going to know about it. And they'll also know if you converted to a sale while on that website; especially if the website is using Google Analytics.

Most people think the solution in this case is to simply log out of Google and continue as normal. However, if you're using the search engine's browser and connecting from the same IP, you might as well not bother signing out at all, as all of your patterns and usage are still plainly visible.

If you're concerned about the big G watching your SEO firm's movements, then it's best not to use Chrome and not sign in to any of the company's tools, gimmicks, plugins or social media. Consider using Firefox instead, or only use Chrome and other products when you're not conducting business on behalf of your organic search related clients.

2.) Google Tools

Some of the best search engine optimization tools on the market are owned by Google. This includes Analytics, Chrome, Adsense, Adwords, Webmaster, SEO for Chrome and other tools. Many SEO practitioners use these tools without considering that they're revealing everything they do in the course of business to the search engine company.

The real problem with these tools is that if you run an SEO firm and one of your clients is hit by the search engine - for whatever reason or for no reason at all - now your entire client group is also at jeopardy because you're almost certainly using similar strategies and tools across them all.

For example, let's imagine that as part of your internet marketing strategies you build blog comment backlinks for clients. Technically, there shouldn't be any problem with this - you're visiting other sites, reading their content and leaving relevant, meaningful comments with a link pointing back to your site for further reference. While this might seem perfectly okay, you're still deliberately building links. Whether Google will ever take action against you for this is unknown, and even if they DO, they may never tell you why.

So why risk it? If Google can see everything that you do and has a whim to send your sites to the bottom of the SERPs, it can do so with no repercussions. No repercussions except for those suffered by you and your clients, that is.

There are plenty of other tools out there that you can use to conduct your SEO business professionally and as far within the big G's Webmaster Guidelines as you want to be, but that information is for another article. In Part II of this series we're going to take a look at how even other tools like Market Samurai and Link Assistant can still result in your business practices being watched by Google, as well as how similarities in your client groups can lead to scrutiny.

But if you're tired of trying to figure out these complexities yourself and need expert guidance, call the number at the top of your screen now for an immediate consultation that is completely confidential. We operate a 100% white hat Pittsburgh SEO company, but even still we're careful to mitigate the information we put out there. Find out how this can help your website or business by calling us right now.

Chris Vendilli
About the Author
Chris is the founder and CEO of Vendilli Digital Group. In his free time, you’ll find him camping, fishing, or playing beer league ice hockey with a bunch of guys who refuse to admit they’re already over the hill.
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