What’s in the New Google Search Console Beta?
On January 8, 2018, Google announced that it will be making its new Search Console features available to everyone. Most registered users will now be able to access the new Search Performance, Index Coverage, AMP status and Job posting reports, which give sites access to nearly four times the amount of data that was available in the past.
This Search Console redesign is still incomplete, and a lot of current tools are not available in the beta version. However, Google will continue to transfer improved features from the old Search Console to the new Google Search Console beta. Both versions of Google Search Console will remain live and interconnected until the new version is complete.
More Data
The biggest addition to the Google Search Console beta is the extra 16 months of data that webmasters now have access to.
With 16 more months of data and updated functionalities, website owners, and SEO and PPC firms like Radd Interactive, will be able to improve the overall success of a business in search even faster.
In the past, the maximum date range for comparisons capped out at around 3 months. Now, you can analyze trends over months, terms, and even years. Year over Year comparisons are an especially invaluable performance tool. You can discover and analyze long-term trends, both improving the predictions you make and providing your business new opportunities for growth.
New Search Performance Report
The Search Performance Report also got an upgrade. It still houses much of the same information that was available in the old Search Analytics report, such as CTR and positions. However, webmasters can now choose to filter by multiple variables at a time. This is extremely helpful for business who may be geotargeting, or for webmasters who are interested in seeing the performance of their site on different devices.
Updated Index Coverage Report
Much of the information in the new Index Coverage Report was housed in the Index Status and Crawl Errors reports. With the new Google Search Console beta, you will not only get notified of URL errors, but you can also find advice on how to fix them. Once the error is addressed, you can resubmit the page for reconsideration. By resubmitting the fixed URL and prioritizing it for a re-crawl, your content will likely be back in the search results faster and seen by the potential customers or readers that you hope to reach.
AMP Status Report
The improvements to the Accelerated Mobile Project are Google’s answer to making the switch to mobile-first sites easier.
With the new AMP Status Report, you will be able to monitor how your pages are performing and get notified when errors arise.
In the past, users were given information about AMP issues without any advice on how to fix them. Now, the report shows you issues Google has found and groups these issues into categories. You can also request that Google validate your changes to an AMP URL that has been fixed and get your mobile-friendly page back in the search results.
Job Postings
Google first tested the Job Postings feature last year. A much-anticipated aspect of the new search engine console is the ability to monitor your on-site job postings’ performance. According to Google, “this report helps you monitor Google’s ability to process JobPosting rich results on your site, and to inform Google about any fixes or updates that you have made to those pages.” This is a useful addition for webmasters in locations with Google for Jobs.
Looking ahead:
While the new Google Search Console beta improves, change is inevitable as Google receives feedback from its users. For example, the bug that affected the crawl download time in late February has been fixed. The Google Job Posting report is still in its second year, and many other features continue to receive feedback as well.
The SEO specialists at Radd Interactive know how valuable new data is to a site’s success. Contact us today to find out how Radd Interactive’s SEO and PPC marketing team can improve your business’ performance in Search.