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Abusive Bots & Services Behind the AdWords Keyword Planner Data Restrictions

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abuse keyword plannerIt appears as though we now know the reason that Google made the recent Keyword Planner Tool changes that sees some advertisers and SEOs see restricted data instead of detailed data – it was to prevent bots and other services from abusing the intended use of the Keyword Planner.

In a response to multiple people on Twitter about the new estimate ranges for keyword data, AdWords confirmed that abusive bots was at least part of the reason behind the change.  Here is the tweet:

In addition, the changes will prevent “bots” and other services from abusing the intended use of the Keyword Planner.

From a business perspective, it does make sense that Google would provide more generalized data to some users as a response.  And advertisers had been complaining about the stability of the tool due to errors when using it.  Since Google made the change, I haven’t seen anyone complaining about the errors.

There are some SEO and keyword tools that are impacted by this change.  So the change Google made seems to be solving some of the issues with the bots they feel are abusing the tool.  But other tools are reporting business as usual, without any issues.

Since this was the reason Google restricted the data, it is unlikely we will see them reverse position on this.  We still don’t know what the required ad spend is for the detailed data to show instead, but those with lower budgets will also see the restricted data.  There is also a restriction on the number of queries that can be performed as well.

Here is the full tweet exchange from AdWords:

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post
Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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