Terms of Service
Last updated: [date placeholder — set when this is finalized and published]
1. The service
SEO Rating (seorating.net), distributed on the Shopify App Store as “TNS SEO & AI Visibility”, is a software application provided by TheNextSprout (“we”, “us”). It is installed into a Shopify store by the merchant (“you”) and provides search-optimization and AI-visibility tooling, including AI-ready discovery file generation, robots.txt management, SEO tag and image alt tag generation, on-page audits and content optimization, structured data and search-appearance settings, keyword research, and store performance audits.
By installing or using the app, you agree to these terms. Features may be added, changed or removed over time; where a change materially reduces functionality you rely on, we will make a reasonable effort to notify you.
2. Accounts and eligibility
Use of the app requires an active Shopify store and the permissions you grant during installation. You are responsible for the accuracy of the information in your account, for the actions taken by users you give access to, and for ensuring you have the right to publish the content the app writes to your store.
3. Plans, billing and AI credits
- Plans. Four plans are available: Free ($0/month), Growth ($29/month), Pro ($49/month) and Scale ($99/month), each billed monthly through Shopify’s Billing API with no free trial period and no annual billing option. Each plan includes a fixed monthly AI credit allowance and keyword-search limits, stated in the app and on our pricing page, and may be adjusted with notice.
- Upgrading, downgrading and price changes. Moving to a different plan is a new subscription request that Shopify asks you to approve. If we change a plan’s price, that change applies to new subscribers and to existing subscribers only if and when they re-subscribe or change plans — Shopify does not let us silently re-bill an active subscription. If we change what a plan includes (credits or usage limits), that change can take effect immediately for everyone already on that plan, including partway through a billing cycle.
- AI credits. AI features consume credits. Your plan includes a monthly credit allowance; unused included credits do not roll over. Credit costs are shown in the app before an action is run. Pay-as-you-go credit top-ups are not currently offered.
- Refunds. Refund handling: [placeholder — to be finalized].
- Taxes. Charges may be subject to taxes as determined by Shopify’s billing arrangements and your jurisdiction.
4. Acceptable use
You agree not to use the app to:
- generate or publish content that is unlawful, infringing, deceptive, or misrepresents a product;
- publish deliberately misleading structured data or manipulate search and AI systems in ways that violate their published guidelines;
- attempt to circumvent usage limits, credit metering, rate limits, or billing;
- reverse engineer, resell, or provide the app as a service to third parties without written agreement;
- interfere with the app’s infrastructure or the third-party services it depends on.
We may suspend access where continued use presents a legal, security or platform-compliance risk.
5. AI-generated content and no performance guarantee
AI output is a starting point for your review, not guaranteed-accurate content. Meta tags, alt text, article ideas and content suggestions produced by the app may contain errors, omissions or claims that are inaccurate for your products. You are responsible for reviewing and approving anything before it is published to your store, and for its compliance with advertising, labelling and consumer law.
We do not guarantee any search ranking, traffic level, indexing outcome, or that your store will be cited or surfaced by any AI assistant. Search engines and AI systems control their own ranking and citation behaviour.
6. Third-party services
The app depends on Shopify (platform and billing), Anthropic (AI content generation), DataForSEO (keyword data), Google (Search Console and PageSpeed Insights, where you connect or request them), Bing IndexNow (URL submission, where enabled), and our own hosting and email infrastructure. Their availability, rate limits and terms are outside our control, and interruptions to them may affect app functionality. See the Privacy Policy for how data is shared with them.
7. Intellectual property
We retain all rights in the app, its interface and its underlying software. Your store content remains yours, including content you approve and publish that was drafted with AI assistance. You grant us the limited rights needed to operate the app and process your data as described in the Privacy Policy.
8. Limitation of liability
The app is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranties of any kind to the extent permitted by law. We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, or for lost revenue, lost traffic, lost rankings, lost data, or loss of goodwill.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the app is limited to the amounts you paid us for the app in the [12 months — placeholder] preceding the claim. Nothing in these terms excludes liability that cannot be excluded by law.
9. Termination and cancellation
- You may cancel at any time by uninstalling the app from your Shopify admin. Uninstalling ends recurring charges in line with Shopify’s billing behaviour; charges already incurred, including AI credit usage, remain payable.
- We may suspend or terminate access for breach of these terms, non-payment, or where required by Shopify or by law.
- On termination, data handling and deletion follow the retention and deletion section of the Privacy Policy, including Shopify’s shop redaction process (your store record is deleted on Shopify’s own schedule, typically within about 48 hours of uninstall).
- Settings the app wrote to your store (meta tags, alt text, structured data, robots.txt rules) remain in your store unless you change them.
10. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms as the app changes. The “last updated” date above will change, and material changes will be communicated in the app or by email. Continued use after a change constitutes acceptance.
11. Governing law and disputes
These terms are governed by the laws of [jurisdiction placeholder], and the courts of [venue placeholder] have exclusive jurisdiction over disputes. Dispute-resolution mechanism (informal resolution period, arbitration or courts): [placeholder — to be finalized with counsel].
12. Contact
Questions about these terms: apps@thenextsprout.com. Legal entity and registered address: [placeholder].