Privacy Policy

Last updated

This policy describes what information SEO Leaderboard collects when you use the site, how that information is used, how long it is retained, and the choices available to you.

Information we collect

SEO Leaderboard does not offer user accounts and does not collect names, email addresses, or other contact details. There is no registration.

When you submit a domain for analysis, the IP address of the request is combined with a secret value and hashed, and a short portion of the resulting hash is stored in order to enforce submission limits. The IP address itself is not stored, and the stored value cannot be reversed to recover it. These records are deleted after 24 hours.

Domains submitted for analysis, together with their scores and the date of their most recent analysis, are stored and displayed publicly on the Leaderboard and on the domain’s own Scorecard page, which also shows plain-language findings derived from the analysis. No information about who submitted a domain is recorded.

Analytics

We use a privacy-focused analytics service, provided by our hosting provider, to measure how the site is used. It does not use cookies. For each page view it records the time, the page visited, the referring site, an approximate location (country, region, and city), and the browser, operating system, and device type. Visitors are distinguished by a hash derived from the request, which is discarded after 24 hours. This information is aggregated, is not linked to an IP address or to any individual, and cannot be used to identify you. Aggregated statistics are retained by the provider; reports cover the most recent month, and the provider may retain the underlying data for longer.

The same provider also measures page performance. For each page load it records the page, the connection speed, the browser, operating system, and device type, the country, and standard loading-performance measurements together with the page element they relate to. These measurements are anonymous, are not linked to an individual or IP address, and are reported in aggregate over the most recent seven days.

Cookies and local storage

The site does not set cookies for visitors. A single cookie is used by the site’s operator to access administrative functions; it is set only when the operator signs in and contains no visitor information. Your choice of light or dark theme is stored in your browser’s local storage and is never sent to the server.

How information is used

The information described above is used solely to operate the site: to enforce submission limits, to display the Leaderboard, and to understand how the site is used in aggregate. We do not sell, rent, or share personal information, and we do not use advertising or marketing trackers. Where data protection law applies, this limited processing is carried out on the basis of our legitimate interest in operating and securing the site.

Data retention

  • Submission records: deleted after 24 hours.
  • Analytics visitor hash: discarded after 24 hours.
  • Aggregated analytics and performance measurements: retained as described under Analytics.
  • Leaderboard entries and Scorecards (domain, scores, findings, and analysis dates): retained as part of the public Leaderboard.

Service providers

The site is hosted, its database is stored, and its analytics are processed by third-party infrastructure providers acting on our behalf. These providers handle requests to the site and the data described in this policy in order to provide those services. We do not disclose information to any other third party except where required by law.

Other websites

Analyzing a domain involves fetching pages from that website with our crawler, IndexBot, and requesting publicly available data about the domain from third-party services. The crawler identifies itself, respects robots.txt, and stores measurements derived from the pages rather than copies of them. Details, including how to prevent it from accessing a site, are on the IndexBot page.

Your rights and choices

Because the site does not collect information that identifies you, there is no personal data for us to provide, correct, or delete on request. You may use the site without submitting a domain, and your theme preference can be cleared at any time by clearing your browser’s local storage. Requests concerning a domain listed on the Leaderboard may be sent to the address below.

Changes to this policy

This policy may be updated from time to time. The date at the top of the page indicates when it was last revised.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or requests concerning a domain listed on the Leaderboard, may be sent to bot@seoleaderboard.com.

IndexBot

IndexBot is the crawler behind SEO Leaderboard. It visits a website only when someone submits that domain, reads it the way a search engine would, and leaves.

What it does

  • Fetches the homepage, robots.txt, the sitemap, and up to 24 more pages, at most four at a time.
  • Reads raw HTML only. It runs no JavaScript and loads no images, fonts, or scripts.
  • Visits a domain at most once every 24 hours, however many people submit it.
  • Stores what it measured, never full copies of pages.

How it identifies itself

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; IndexBot/1.0; +https://seoleaderboard.com/bot)

How to let it in

Bot protection often turns IndexBot away before it reads anything, and the domain then cannot be scored. If you run the site, allow the User-Agent IndexBot. In Cloudflare that is a WAF skip rule; most other tools have the same idea under a different name.

(http.user_agent contains "IndexBot")

IndexBot has no fixed IP range to allow instead, so the User-Agent is the only thing to match on. It never tries to disguise itself as a browser, and the limits above are the whole of what it asks for.

How to keep it out

IndexBot obeys robots.txt. Add this and it will not read your site, and your domain cannot be scored.

User-agent: IndexBot
Disallow: /

Questions

Write to bot@seoleaderboard.com.