Title: SEMrush “integration”
Last modified: October 14, 2020

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# SEMrush “integration”

 *  Resolved [Ate Up With Motor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ate-up-with-motor/)
 * (@ate-up-with-motor)
 * [5 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/semrush-integration/)
 * I just got the 15.1 update and saw in the settings that it automatically activates
   SEMrush integration without any notice. I know I’m going to regret asking this,
   but:
    1. What information does this “integration” collect and transmit?
    2. Does it transmit information to SEMrush or other third parties if I have NOT
       created a SEMrush account?
    3. WHY is this feature turned on by default in 15.1?
 * Although I know Yoast is based in the EEA, your sloppiness with regard to these
   co-branding deals and the arbitrary integration of new information-gathering 
   third-party features suggests a complete disinterest in either your or your users’
   obligations under the GDPR, CCPA, and similar privacy laws. I never could get
   a straight answer out of Yoast or Ryte about what data is gathered by the Ryte
   integration, and I’m guessing this is more of the same. Automatically enabling
   features like this is at best strongly discouraged by the GDPR, but Yoast keeps
   doing it anyway, which is frankly unacceptable.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

 *  [testwp75](https://wordpress.org/support/users/testwp75/)
 * (@testwp75)
 * [5 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/semrush-integration/#post-13537501)
 * +1
 *  [Md Mazedul Islam Khan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mazedulislamkhan/)
 * (@mazedulislamkhan)
 * [5 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/semrush-integration/#post-13539472)
 * We understand you are concerned about the new integration with the SEMrush. You
   identified multiple queries that you want us to address and we’ll address them
   in order:
 * **What information does this “integration” collect and transmit?**
    We track 
   if the integration is enabled, if a connection with SEMrush is established (auth
   token), and the current country database that’s used for querying SEMrush. No
   personal data is transmitted.
 * **Does it transmit information to SEMrush or other third parties if I have NOT
   created a SEMrush account?**
    While the SEMrush integration is disabled or not
   authenticated, it doesn’t send any information to SEMrush.
 * Related to both; we care about privacy very much. We’ve written about that [here](https://yoast.com/privacy-policy/)
   and [here](https://yoast.com/help/gdpr/) and [here](https://yoast.com/terms-of-service/)
   for example.
 * **WHY is this feature turned on by default in 15.1?**
    The SEMrush integration
   is enabled by default because we are convinced it’s a useful integration and 
   our users will find it very helpful.
 *  Thread Starter [Ate Up With Motor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ate-up-with-motor/)
 * (@ate-up-with-motor)
 * [5 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/semrush-integration/#post-13542056)
 * [@mazedulislamkhan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mazedulislamkhan/):
 * > The SEMrush integration is enabled by default because we are convinced it’s
   > a useful integration and our users will find it very helpful.
 * You could not be more mistaken. Yoast’s recent determination to reinvent the 
   wheel (in answer to questions I don’t think any of your users were actually asking)
   and the rush to roll out changes like this without any consideration suggests
   a deeply disturbing “We know best” attitude and a blithe disdain for the problems
   you may be creating for users.
 *  [Taco Verdonschot](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tacoverdo/)
 * (@tacoverdo)
 * [5 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/semrush-integration/#post-13542507)
 * [@ate-up-with-motor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ate-up-with-motor/) 
   thank you for your feedback. I also truly appreciate the time you’ve taken to
   ask your questions here.
 * At the same time, it makes me sad to learn that you think we suffer from a ‘we
   know best’ attitude. We’re actively listening to our users and what challenges
   they have when doing SEO with WordPress. One of the things we’ve heard a lot 
   is that keyword research is hard. And we agree. It is hard. So we found a way
   to make it a bit easier, which is the integration with SEMrush.
 * Lastly, you mention you feel we’re blind to problems we may be creating for our
   users. Since SOLVING problems for our users is our goal, it seems like we’re 
   doing something completely wrong in your eyes. Given that you post this in a 
   thread about the SEMrush integration, my guess is that you feel the SEMrush integration
   is creating a problem for you. Can you please share with me, either here, in 
   the WP Slack or via a DM on twitter ([https://twitter.com/TacoVerdo/](https://twitter.com/TacoVerdo/))
   what problem the SEMrush integration caused?
 * Thanks a million!
 *  Thread Starter [Ate Up With Motor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ate-up-with-motor/)
 * (@ate-up-with-motor)
 * [5 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/semrush-integration/#post-13542567)
 * [@tacoverdo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tacoverdo/): The problems it
   has caused me — and I sincerely hope you won’t think I’m being flip here, because
   I’m completely serious — has been to waste my time.
 * Website owners now live in an extremely complex and contentious regulatory environment.
   Lawmakers and regulators are writing new “privacy” rules almost every day that
   even quite small websites are expected to abide by. Those rules include an extremely
   expansive view of what constitutes “personal information,” what constitutes “
   sharing” that information, and what may be considered “selling” such information.
   The penalties for violating those rules even _accidentally_ can be extremely 
   stiff.
 * When I add a new piece of software or a new plugin, or if some existing product
   issues a substantial update, this means I have to audit it to figure out what
   information it might be collecting or sharing and with whom. I had never heard
   of SEMrush, but I had to find their website, review their privacy policy, and
   make updates to MY privacy policies EVEN THOUGH I HAVE NO INTENTION OF USING 
   THEIR SERVICES. That took a great deal of my time and energy that I could ill
   afford.
 * Furthermore, I had not forgotten the Ryte integration issue last year, where 
   I was never able to get a coherent answer from either Yoast or Ryte about what
   information they might be collecting. That integration too was automatically 
   enabled. It did not leave me with confidence in Yoast’s good faith.
 * What I really don’t understand is why you would enable it by default. If you 
   wanted to include it as an option because you genuinely think it’s useful, fine—
   default the option to “OFF” and let users decide for themselves. Since the Yoast
   SEO plugin already has a notification system, and since if I understand correctly
   the SEMrush service requires creating an account, the net result would have been
   the same, except that you would not have consumed more than an hour of my time
   and left me scrambling to put out a potential fire.
 *  Thread Starter [Ate Up With Motor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ate-up-with-motor/)
 * (@ate-up-with-motor)
 * [5 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/semrush-integration/#post-13544077)
 * I want to add here that I’m not comfortable having the plugin communicating with
   Yoast, either. I prefer to limit my websites’ communications with outside servers
   for privacy and security reasons, and Yoast has driven home the importance of
   doing so. I’m still furious that the plugin incorporates a blog feed widget that
   automatically communicates with Yoast servers even when hidden and can’t be fully
   disabled through the plugin; I finally had to add a custom function to stop it
   from loading. It does not make me trust Yoast’s privacy practices or good intentions.
 * Again, I have no objection to making this functionality and these options available
   to users who want them, but features that communicate with external servers —
   including Yoast’s! — need to be opt-in.
 *  [Taco Verdonschot](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tacoverdo/)
 * (@tacoverdo)
 * [5 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/semrush-integration/#post-13544801)
 * Thank you so much for your elaborate answer. I now totally get where you’re coming
   from and why this caused so much frustration.
 * I’m not here to make promises I can’t keep, so I can’t and won’t tell you that
   we’ll change our whole approach to integrations built into Yoast SEO. Both because
   I don’t know and because it’s not my decision to make.
 * What I see in your story that I probably can influence is that we should make
   sure you don’t have to dive into the 3rd party’s website to find their privacy
   policy, if we already know that we’re not sending over any data unless you manually
   authorize the integration.
 * Finally, what I really want to stress is that we do care a lot about privacy.
   We have never, and will never, store our user’s data if we don’t have to.
 * All of that said, I will provide a summary of our conversation here to my colleagues.
   And again, thank you for taking an extra hour to help me understand what caused
   your frustration with this release. I appreciate it a lot!
 *  [jetxpert](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jetxpert/)
 * (@jetxpert)
 * [5 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/semrush-integration/#post-13546811)
 * **Dear Community,**
 * For those who don’t want SEMRUSH (and other bad bots) to track and extract info
   from your website, please add the following to your robots.txt file:
 *     ```
       # Bad Bots
       User-agent: semrushbot #website crawler
       Disallow: /
       User-agent: zoominfo #website crawler
       Disallow: /
       User-agent: woorank #website crawler
       Disallow: /
       ```
   
 * Above should block the “bad bots” even if the Yoast SEMRUSH option is turned 
   on.
 * For additional information on how to block SEMRUSH, please visit their website
   at [https://www.semrush.com/bot/](https://www.semrush.com/bot/)
 * Cheers!
 *  Thread Starter [Ate Up With Motor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ate-up-with-motor/)
 * (@ate-up-with-motor)
 * [5 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/semrush-integration/#post-13546818)
 * [@jetxpert](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jetxpert/) Thanks!

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

The topic ‘SEMrush “integration”’ is closed to new replies.

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## Tags

 * [ccpa](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/ccpa/)
 * [semrush](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/semrush/)

 * 9 replies
 * 5 participants
 * Last reply from: [Ate Up With Motor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ate-up-with-motor/)
 * Last activity: [5 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/semrush-integration/#post-13546818)
 * Status: resolved