In Is Google Watching Your SEO Company? Part I, we revealed how staying signed in to Google+, using Google Chrome and other products from the search engine giant like Analytics, Webmaster Tools and Adwords can send a stream of valuable information to the search engine company that you may not want revealed - even if your business is strictly white hat. In this final installment of the series we'll look at how non-Google tools can still send data to the search engine, and how similarities in your client groups can get you into trouble.
3.) Other Tools & Searches
Many SEO professionals mistakenly believe that just by shunning Google-specific tools they'll avoid detection and unwanted "information leaking" to the search marketing company. However, this isn't always true. In fact, if you use tools like Market Samurai, Link Assistant or any other tools that operate from your computer's system, you're still sending data through your own IP every time you conduct a search. Even if you log out of Google it's still obvious that the queries are coming from your IP, and you can be sure that Google is taking notice of this even if they deny it. And although some people claim that the search company collects far more data that it could possibly analyze, taking a chance with your client's livelihood - and therefore that of your own - just isn't worth it.
The only way to use outside tools properly is to ensure that you are logged out of ALL Google products, use rotating proxies and a comprehensive captcha service. If the tools you're using don't offer these, then it may be time to look into getting something better.
Another safe option is to use a tool that doesn't require an installation on your PC and doesn't make use of any of your PC's resources. This means you can use companies like RavenTools and SERPBook to track rankings and make queries without being associated with your IP, network or systems because everything is run through their private network of IPs, proxies, and so on.
4.) Similarities in Client Groups
If your SEO services firm has 25 clients and you run the exact same services for each of them month after month, you're going to leave an easily identifiable footprint. Is Google looking for footprints like these? We don't know, and we really don't know what they'd do - if anything - if they caught the patterns and could figure out conclusively that company X manages the SEO of a certain 25 web properties.
For this reason even white hatters should vary their practices a little from month to month, but also because it makes sense to test new strategies. For instance, you may discover that only some of your clients are in niches that get press release attention on Mondays, while others are better at targeting weekenders, and some might not be newsworthy at all.
Another example is article publishing, where some clients have demographics that respond well to posts published between 1pm and 4pm on Fridays, and others get a lot of attention from posts published late at night on weekdays.
Finally, another good reason to vary your "footprint" (ideally, you shouldn't be leaving much of a footprint at all) is to avoid reverse engineering by your competitors.
The ideas presented in this article series are in no way intended to aid people in duping the search engines. Instead, this has effectively been a call to action in the general vein of "Don't Put all Your Eggs in One Basket." White hat operations know that their integrity can remain intact even if Google puts the smack down on them, but this won't help save your business or your client's in the event that you're targeted because you freely provide enough information for Google and your competitors to figure out exactly what you're doing. Protect your proprietary information and data, and you'll be protecting your clients as well.
In order to learn more about how to accomplish this goal while still achieving top search results, call the number at the top of your screen now for an immediate consultation. At ProFromGo, you'd be surprised what we can help you with - even if you're already an SEO professional. Call now to find out for yourself.