Will Search Engine Optimization Software Really Get You a Google Top Ranking?

This post was written by on November 22, 2008
Posted Under: Search Engine Optimization  

Anthony & I  had a lot of questions recently on the use of various search engine optimization software and software to automate things like content creation, automatic setup of accounts at websites, and automatic posting of content to websites.

In theory it sounds great doesn’t it??

Press a button and all your content gets created for you automatically, and your accounts created, and then your websites uploaded.

You then just sit back and wait for your Google top ranking to kick in, and get ready to spend all the money you are going to make when you’re on page one of Google.

But then….. you wake up! :)

Remember the old saying, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is?

Do you really think it’s that easy?

Well it isn’t that easy, and we speak from experience here.

This type of full automation is really just black hat techniques, and is going to ultimately waste a lot of your time and money. Sure you may have some initial results, but your results won’t stick, your accounts can get banned, and you can really just end up where you started from.

The other issue is that the web 2.0 sites are getting smarter about this, they realize people are trying to “beat  the system”, and are actively looking at ways to prevent this automation from working.

You see, computers are dumb, real dumb, they don’t think like humans, they just blindly follow instructions entered by a programmer. What is obvious to you is not obvious to a computer.

Software automation can be defeated by changing a few lines on a web page. I’ll give you an example.

A particular web page has a box on the screen for your username and password. This particular web page has called them Username and Password (nothing original there). If you came back to the web page the next day and found they were now called Login and Security identifier, you may think to yourself, gee this is new, but then enter your username and password into the new boxes and continue.

However a software program would be stopped dead in it’s tracks, because it was looking for the words Username and Password, and didn’t find them, so gave up! Suddenly your expensive program is no longer working, and you have to wait till the programmer gets notified of the error, fixes it, releases a new version of the software, etc.

Most of the popular web 2.0 sites are doing advanced versions of the above, and on an ongoing basis.

Meaning the programmer trying to get the automated solution going is flat out trying to keep the existing programs working, let alone introduce new functionality. Too bad if they need to take a break or go on a holiday! Or worse still, if you stop paying and they have no incentive to fix things for you.

And this is only a really simple example. Sometimes it gets a lot more complicated.

I was actually a developer (part of a team) for a major web 2.0 site a few years ago. My particular job was to write code to combat these automated programs, and also to detect them.

Here’s  the thing.

They are usually pretty easy to detect for a number of reasons. Firstly, as I mentioned before, they don’t act like a human. A human (usually) does not go to a website, enter their username and password in 0.005 seconds and then 1.15 seconds later post and then 1.5 seconds after that logout.

The average person will login, and probably take 5-10 seconds or more to type in their username and password, maybe a few minutes typing in the post, and maybe forget to logout sometimes, or enter a second post.

So what I did was write a program looking for “non human” behavior and it wasn’t hard to find, and then a few more simple checks for things like “automated” account names e.g. a1122029d, or links to all the same domain, or “spammy” looking content, and then the account get marked for deletion.

Again this is a simple example, the software looked for a lot more things than that, but can you see where I am coming from?

This was a few years ago, can you imagine how much further they have come today?

We believe you are wasting your time and money investing in a complete automated solution because ultimately it’s going to be flagged and your content will get deleted. It’s just a matter of time.

Note that we say “complete automated solution” is a waste. There are parts of the process where automation can be a good idea, and in fact in our Page One of Google step by step plan for massive traffic, we have some automation where it makes sense.

Being unique on the Internet means you should not be doing things the same way each time. We spend a lot of time educating our members on the concepts of leaving footprints (or rather how not to), and the use of purely automated software leave footprints, and lots of them :)

The downside of all this?

Yes you are going to have to create some content, yes you are going to have to manually create some accounts, and yes you are going to have to manually upload some content on your websites. Of course this can be outsourced (to a real person).

Is this really that big a deal?

Wouldn’t you rather do this, safe in the knowledge that your not leaving footprints, and that your content is going to “stick”?

Stickability is a HUGE factor in all of this guys!

And even from an ethical point of view, wouldn’t you rather be doing things properly and not trying to “beat” the system?

Black hat is too much work.

We are not interested in it at all!

Doing the right thing with your content and with the search engines is actually easier and will help you rank better in the long run.

And of course you can outsource this function anyway, and get someone to do this type of work for you, we just suggest that “someone” is not a computer program.

Your Google ranking is in part due to you being unique and standing out in the crowd of “average” competitors.

But what ever you decide, tread carefully and avoid leaving footprints!

Until next time,

Keep on ranking!

Cheers

Tim & Anthony

P.S.

If you haven’t already, we suggest you take a read of our Plugins for WordPress article.

About

Tim writes a lot about Internet Marketing on this blog. If you have a question ask away and I feel sure you will get a reply. Anything about Internet Marketing in general, but also search engine optimization, web 2.0, google+, twitter, even yucky ol Facebook.

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  • http://www.toejointpain.net Mike

    I use a couple of auto-seo/backlink software tools. I also use an auto-content tool for my sites totally devoted to adsense. Never had any trouble with my sites ranking or being sandboxed. I guess it depends on what ones you use.

  • http://www.affiliatevideoblogging.com Jay

    I couldn’t agree with you more Tim. Plus, I think quality content says a lot to the customer as well when they are reading it. It says:
    1.)You care and
    2.) That you can be trusted to deliver products that get results.

    I purchased the New Web Traffic Web Traffic Blueprint v2.0 because of this very reason and am totally happy and by implementing the steps, was some of the first money I had seen in my inter webs adventure.

  • tim

    Hi Richard,

    I see where you are coming from and can understand your frustration e.g. Who to trust, which tools to use, etc.

    If you research Matt Cutts, he actually has videos on youtube telling you what to put in titles, discussing backlinks, and the like and to use Video sitemaps as I suggested.

    So they are happy for you to optimize your pages, and to get backlinks, but of course they dont want you to use black hat, which is fair enough.

    The thing is with spinning Richard, if done properly google have NO IDEA the content is spun! Thats the beauty.

    It should also be remembered that Google do not “own” the internet – They are not the police and it’s not against the law to use whatever tools you want (unless you start hacking people, etc).

    You do realise Google uses this information against us right? e.g. Go into your gmail account and take a look at the ads to the right of your emails. Google READS YOUR EMAIL and serves up ads based on your EMAILS CONTENT.

    How nice of them to do that! :) So they are very much “doing it to us” (and making a pile of money in the process). Good on them I say.

    Yes I agree the label black hat is vague and does change, although generally something blackhat does not become grey or white hat, it generally stays the same, but just becomes irrelevant and no longer works and people forget about it.

    Our focus with our tools we develop and sell are “time savers” to save real minutes and hours or even days of work compared to doing something manually.

    Regards

    Tim

  • Richard

    You are right. I very much overstated my case. I was in a mood. I should’ve been more careful.

    But I do not look at things so “black and white.” If anything, my problem is that all I see are shades of gray.

    The marketers I am thinking of, believe me, are a lot more than just teachers or salespeople.

    I use one of your tools, and I do not think your tools are blackhat — but I was not speaking of my opinion.

    I have never seen anyone at Google comment on your specific tools or what they think of them, but the last time I looked, Google said they pretty much don’t want you doing anything artificial to enhance your SEO. Either that, or I simply don’t understand what’s being said — a possibility, I suppose.

    Spinning, I believe, no matter how well done, might not get Google’s full approval. Turning every post into an RSS feed might not either. I don’t know. I’m just saying.

    Your points in your post were quite valid. I wasn’t arguing with them. What I was thinking and should’ve said is that what seems to work well seems to depend a lot on the niche, how transitory the market is, the combination of strategies one uses, and so forth.

    I guess my real point should’ve been that black hat is kinda in the eye of the beholder, and what is and is not widely considered to be black hat changes over time. I just don’t think a condemnation of black hat, without explaining what your definition of black hat is, is all that helpful.

    Every marketer I know tries to do what works. When any particular technique — black hat, white hat, or gray — stops working, they stop soon thereafter, regroup and try another approach.

    In the end, folks who are going to stay in the money are going to do what works — at least up to the point that it is still legal — whether it is whitehat, blackhat or gray.

  • http://www.takeoverpageone.com Tim

    Richard,

    I am not sure where you are coming from, but unfortunately you are not correct. Most of our tools we recommend and use are not blackhat even in Googles eyes.

    I’ve watched videos on youtube for example where matt cutts from Google says if you use video you should use video sitemaps to get your videos more discoverable in Googles eyes. Does that make the Video Traffic Genius (a tool to do just that) that we developed and sell black hat?

    Of course not, and I can quote many other examples.

    Spinning if done correctly leaves no footprints and is unique content.

    Tools like Senuke X can give you great results that survive long term rankings in Google if you use them properly.

    If you are getting great results from what you are doing now, then don’t change what you are doing.

    Otherwise be option to change things and get them working for yourself.

    Also what is your definition for “successful” marketers? Teachers? Or those in the trenches doing it day by day? (We do both incidentally).

    Many of the so called successful Internet Marketers AKA guru’s are nothing but salespeople, and I do not call those people successful at all.

    My recommendation is for you to not look at everything so “black and white” but rather see any tool can be used for good or bad and that there is more than one way to succeed online with Googles blessings.

    Regards

    Tim

  • Richard

    Wow. Sometimes I get the feeling nobody knows anything. Either that, or everybody knows everything.

    I hear from the most successful marketers there are that SenukeX works great. I hear from other very successful marketers it is a waste of time.

    Likewise, I hear spinning is pointless, again from the best marketers around, and I hear it is a necessity from others just as successful.

    And finally, as for not liking blackhat, your products and everything you recommend is blackhat according to Google — because spokespersons for Google have said, more than once, that anything that is done, other than good, unique content, that is for the purpose of trying to improve SEO is bad. Anything at all. In other words, it’s pretty much ALL blackhat as far as Google is concerned.

  • http://www.takeoverpageone.com Tim

    Hi Howard,

    You have misread the entire article! we are NOT recommending to do that at all.

    A quote from the post

    “We believe you are wasting your time and money investing in a complete automated solution because ultimately it’s going to be flagged and your content will get deleted. It’s just a matter of time.”

    Spinning does have it’s place though, just not in a completely automated manner with no regards for quality or uniqueness of the content.

    Regards

    Tim

  • Howard Paul

    Some of this information seems questionable if you are recommending using spinning tools and putting the same content on perhaps hundreds of websites aren’t you defeating what you are saying. There seems to be very little interest and comment here.

  • http://www.Online-Grocery-Stores.net/bridal-wedding-mall.html James Jonea

    Great Article Guys but I have always had in question about some of the tools like SENuke-X I have used it and had some great success on my ranking. But how long will this last before it catches up.

    I see now market samurai has a new article submission tool but as I understand they have permission to submit to their own partners.

    I have a habit of wanting to take things a part right down to the very core. I’m going to keep a close eye on how this plays out so please keep us informed. I have been following you guys for some time and I appreciate all the great info.

    James

  • Jeff @ Marketing Online X

    Tim and Anthony great article, I’ve heard Google is working toward removing all sites/web pages using content generators ..even data feeds from their listings and moving them to supplemental index.

    I was a member of your course a few years ago and I thought it was excellent.

  • tim

    Hi Pasquale,

    Thanks for the kind words, we appreciate it !

    My take on automation is I agree with google. The “mis-use of it is bad”. In other words if the quality of the content is low, if you are effectively just sending out spam, if your posting the exact same article to hundreds of pages, then yes it’s bad.

    Not only that there is a lot of evidence that it just won’t rank very well either, so you could argue it’s also a waste of time.

    If you have a decent quality article to start with, then the best spinner will do a good job re-spinning because the source article is good. If you are just grabbing any old content and spinning then that is going from bad to worse.

    Likewise if you are using WTG for evil purposes (posting hundreds of times per day) then it’s likely you will not be happy with the results and I’d have to say in this case you’re probably a spammer.

    Yes paying someone else to spin and post is an option most certainly, the software seeks to automate those mundane tasks we do not want to be spending our time on.

    Regards

    Tim

  • Phil

    Well, guys, after some thinking about this post, I would like to offer three points.

    1) Most important – I have great respect for what Tim and Anthony do. They’ve blazed their way and have given much, much, much back to the community of eager beavers wanting to learn IM. Few people have done as much for internet marketing as Anthony and Tim.

    2) I have seen, and no, I cannot tell you where or give you the link, an interview with Google’s Matt Cutts in which he says that Google is not against automation per se, but the misuse of it.

    3) If automation is wrong, then where does that leave Web Traffic Genius, RSS Bot, Article Submitter, Video Submitter, and The Best Spinner. I seem to recall receiving invitations from MA and TOPO to buy these products. Am I misunderstanding something here?

    Finally, what is the fundamental difference between paying someone in Hyderabad, Manila, or Beijing to spin your articles, post things for you, link articles for you, make videos for you – vs using a program to do the same things? The purpose of both is the same.

  • http://www.seoexpertiseconsulting.com Pasquale (I love Seo ranking tips)

    Can you provide more information on this? take care

  • Mike Steinberg

    Anthony & Tim,

    I agree with you completely. You also have to look at things from the standpoint of, “Am I going to become a true professional at this, and am I going for the long haul?” I would like to try and master this profession.

    Mike

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