Recently, lots of popular and widely used SEO tools in global and local markets have faced direct blocks and restrictions from Google’s side. Search engines started implementing stricter control over Google scraping, SEO, SERM and other spheres. Let’s look in more detail at what is currently happening in the industry.
What is Happening With Google SEO Tools?
Google has started escalating its confrontation with the search engine scraping tools. This practice became a backbone for lots of the businesses and spheres of operation, so this action from Google’s side already started to have a heavy backfire.
For quite some time SEO tools and search engine scrapers collected different kinds of data from Google search results without any major limitation. But now, the internet giant decided to take a proactive role in this process and started to block and restrict lots of popular tools and options for data harvesting.
Do you have any issues with Google Search scraping? We have a solution! Ask now!
Contact UsAccording to Google, automated data collection causes disturbance for regular users. Search engines have a position that constant resource consumption from scrapers blocks access to some of the resources for all of the users.
Moreover, Google sells its own API that allows retrieval and display of search results programmatically, so getting rid of the competition is a logical step. The problem with the API is, of course, the price. Most of the tools and companies that rely on Google scraping cannot afford it.
Technical Side of the Problem
As of today, lots of the popular and well-known tools and public persons in the SEO community reported serious problems with sustaining regular operations. Google parsers are increasingly getting the pages with a redirect to search results, instead of search results themselves.
This was caused by a new Google requirement for utilization of the JavaScript for Google Search. Company claims that these rules are made to better protect Google Search against bots and automated activity. The company also states that without active JavaScript, lots of the search features won’t be working in any way, and the quality of the search results can drop. From official statements, it also follows that less than 1% of all requests to the search are made without the JavaScript enabled, so the company decided to sacrifice users and prohibit access for them.
What Consequences Will Google’s Decision Have?
Most of the marketers already suspect that such actions will lead to a rise in the costs of SEO tools in the near future. Many market participants also express the opinion that Google is killing the only working method of such data harvesting and not providing any other cost-effective option.
Another side of the coin here is that blocks and restrictions cost Google lots of resources. Scrapers are used to develop lots of tricks and tools for avoiding the most sophisticated antibot protection, so Google is also required to create new options for tracking this activity, making the whole process a game of cat and mouse. Smaller scrapers are currently adapting to the constant changes of antibot system behaviour, but this requires solid resources from both sides.
Why Google Chose to Strike Now
Why Google decided to put such resources on the map now is not fully clear. Many tend to think that this can be somehow connected with the rise of the AI race, which requires lots of fresh data to train new models. Another version lies in that Google is planning to increase its API and paid solutions portfolio and currently is cleaning the space for the launch.
Google’s decision already created major chaos in the SEO market. Businesses that rely on such tools are required to adopt new options and paths at a fast pace to avoid any serious damage. As of now, it looks quite certain that new restrictions will lead to a price increase across all lines of tools that can work with search engine data. All of these tools will heavily depend on innovation and new methods of block and tracking avoidance.
Do you have any issues with Google Search scraping? We have a solution! Ask now!
Contact UsScraping has been a long-lasting problem for Google, and it seems like now the company is starting to change the whole SEO field. Businesses that rely on data collection of this kind will be forced to adapt and find new options to conduct the previous work pace. SEO tools, in their turn, will start to drastically diversify sources of data and explore new possibilities in this matter. Overall, all of the market participants have to either wait for some solution from the Google side and hope that it would be affordable enough or invest in R&D and experiment to stay on track during the fast changes in the whole field.
How PrivateProxy.me Can Help
In addition to providing the best rotating proxy solutions that can power your scripts, we have also invested in creating our own all-inclusive solution that help to overcome the recent issues. Please contact us to learn more!
Frequently Asked Questions
Please read our Documentation if you have questions that are not listed below.
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Why did Google start blocking the SEO tools operations?
It is not fully clear why Google started doing it just recently, but concerns about public data collection from Google Search were up for a long time. So now, Google just started targeting the specific tools and operations to protect search from scraping.
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What proxies can help to avoid some of the Google restrictions?
Overall, you can look at using the different types of rotating proxies, but only with the scripts that support JavaScript and browser emulation. Proxies will not solve the issue on their own if the scraping scripts are too basic. If you don’t have a suitable script, please contact us to discuss the solutions we provide in addition to proxies.
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How can you avoid blocks from Google and still collect needed data?
As of today, you can avoid these restrictions by referring to more niche and advanced tools that implement JavaScript and emulate browser activities. Please contact us to discuss the options we can offer.
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