# Overview

SEO Studio comes bundled with a service that allows users to circumvent Google's rate limiting of web scrapers. This document explains how the service works, what rights you have when enabling it, and the terms under which you may activate it.

This service is not required to use this script, and is disabled by default. By activating the service, you must fully understand the terms and conditions described below. If you disagree with the terms, please do not activate the service.

# Purpose

Some tools in this script perform automated searches on Google Search in order to retrieve essential data. If these automated searches occur too frequently, Google will temporarily block the IP address of your server. This is harmless, except it will break some tools for the duration of the block.

We created this service to fix that problem and keep tools working even when you are temporarily blocked. The next section will explain how it works.

# Functionality of the service

To ensure your tools continue working while blocked, this service establishes a network of servers that can perform a Google search on your behalf while you are temporarily blocked. In exchange, you will also make your own server available to occasionally perform searches for the network.

This is similar to using proxies, except you have access to a large collection of fast, high-quality servers at all times, configured automatically for you by the service.

Please note that if we are unable to connect directly to your server over port 80 or 443, we will not allow you to activate the service. Furthermore, if we are unable to connect to your server after the service has been enabled and for an extended period of time, we may disable your access until your server is again reachable.

# Eligibility for the service

To be eligible for activation of this service, your application must be hosted on an open website; that is, a website which our servers can connect to in order to perform search queries. If we are unable to connect to your application over the Internet, you will not be able to activate the service.

# Impacts on your server

The service will not expose the IP address or domain name of your website or server to other users. Instead, the service will connect to your server on behalf of users, acting as a middle-man to conceal your identity. The service will send no more than twenty requests per hour to your server, and no more than 480 requests in total each day.

The service will regularly ping your server to a) ensure it is online and b) measure latency. During these pings, we may also identify the country in which your server is hosted and record it. This will allow the network to deliver more accurate results, by sending requests to servers near or in the intended country.

# Limits of your usage

The service will accept a limited number of requests from your server per day, for which it will execute Google searches on your behalf. The daily limit is not fixed, and may change at any time depending on your overall contributions to and usage of the service. You will be able to see your limit at any time through this admin panel after enabling the service.

If this is your first time enabling the service, you will be granted an initial limit of 100 requests per day. This will automatically be raised to 200 requests per day once we fully connect to your server, and then will be raised to 500 requests per day once we perform our first web search with your server ( this normally happens within 24 hours). After hitting 500 requests per day, the limit may increase or decrease regularly as described in the previous paragraph.

To conserve resources, the service will execute no more than one single request at any given time for your application; any additional requests will be held until the current active request is completed.

# Service guarantees

We are unable to guarantee the reliability, performance, uptime, or availability of this service. We are also unable to guarantee the success of individual requests sent to the service.

# Restrictions & abuse

Your usage of this service outside of SEO Studio is prohibited. If such activity is detected, your rights to use the service may be permanently revoked. We reserve the right to reduce your daily request limit, or temporarily or permanently suspend your right to use the service, at any time and for any reason.

# Liability & disclaimers

If you are using this service in a commercial environment, it is of course your responsibility to ensure you are compliant with local laws regarding commercial use of scraped data from publicly-available sources. The service itself operates in the United States of America, where such activity is legal.

# Free & paid access

Your access to this service is free with the requirement of a valid license of SEO Studio purchased from Envato (codecanyon.net). You are entitled to a separate rate limit for each individual license. This license, and subsequently your right to use this service for free, does not expire so long as the service remains online.

We reserve the right to assess a fee, either once or recurring, for users who need a guaranteed or adjusted rate limit, and/or for access to parallel processing techniques which may improve the speed and reliability of the service for the user's application.

# Outside participation

This service is not exclusive to SEO Studio, and your server(s) may perform web searches for applications outside of the service. We may at times conduct sampled experiments with search results to improve our scraping techniques; your server may be included in these experiments at random.

# Recording & monitoring of data

Please understand that all requests sent to this network by your application are logged, and potentially monitored by both humans and automated systems. We only collect data necessary for service to perform its operations safely.

# Collection & deletion of collected data

You may request a copy of all data the service has collected from your application, or the deletion of all this data, by sending an email to google@baileyherbert.com. Please note that we only retain records for a limited amount of time and may not be able to send a complete archive.

# Changes to these terms

We will collect your email address at the time of activation. If these terms are ever changed, we will attempt to notify you at that address of the changes.