For pretty much a decade Google’s Search Console (the original Webmaster Tools) has helped SEO experts (and some less expert analysts) get to grips with information about our websites.
But recently a number of industry developments, most notably the way that mobile sites have transcended desktop in terms of users, and how these are tracked and ranked, has meant that Search Console found itself a little out of date.
But fear not, the search engine giant has made some updates – completed and ongoing – that should bring the tool back up to speed.
The Changes
There are three major categories into which the updates fall, according to Google. These are Insights, Workflow and Feedback Loops.
Insights
- A diagnostic tool designed to root out issues hampering the crawling and indexation of pages
- These issues are then consolidated into Tasks, allowing users to create and track any fixes
- Insights is also part of the broader machine learning programme that aims to automate repairs and laborious tasks to streamline efficiency.
Workflow
- Users will now be able to share issues and fixes with various team members within the platform, thus exposing the problem to a far broader group of experts across the globe to help solve.
Feedback Loops
- These are designed to tackle one of the long-standing frustrations of Search Console – the lag between the submission of a potential fix, and the feedback as to whether that fix actually worked.
- Feedback Loops will now offer an instant preview that reveals whether a user’s fix has worked or not, although a full site crawl remains necessary for the final confirmation.
There are also some Beta features in development, including Index Coverage report (a more intuitive dashboard showing the count of indexed pages and other information), and the AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) fixing flow, Google’s open source initiative to improve mobile page loading speeds using stripped-back HTML.
Finally, Google is also working on improving the data processing lag (normally around 48 hours) to create process efficiencies for users across the board.
To ensure that your website meets all the standards set by Google, give Realnet a call today for a free website review and consultation. Contact us on +44 1223 55 08 00 or click here.
Image: Google