Analytics
November 24, 2023
Crawl rate limiter tool goes to the shelf
As of January 8th, 2024, Google is deprecating the Crawl Rate Limiter Tool in Search Console. Despite being available for over a decade, the tool’s utility has diminished with advancements in crawling logic and alternative publisher tools. While the tool had a slower effect, the deprecation comes with a shift to a lower minimum crawling speed, aligning with past crawl rate limits. Users are encouraged to leverage server responses and refer to the provided documentation for managing crawl rates effectively. [Search Console]
November 20 to 23, 2023
Google Search Console Reporting Issue
Google confirmed a reporting issue in the Search Console affecting various reports, including Core Web Vitals, HTTPS, and AMP. This issue is causing a noticeable decline in valid pages but does not impact indexing or ranking. [Search Console]
November 22, 2023
Introduction of Sampling in GA4 Standard Reports
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has recently implemented sampling in its standard reports. Previously, all standard reports in GA4 were unsampled, providing fully comprehensive data. This change marks a significant shift in data reporting within GA4, potentially affecting the granularity and precision of analytics used for PPC strategies. [post] (Charles Farina)
November 14, 2023
Extended GA360 event parameter limits
Google Analytics now allows enterprise GA360 properties to expand event parameter values, both predefined and custom, from 100 to 500 characters. This significant update, beneficial for more detailed tracking and analysis, is currently rolling out over 1-2 weeks. However, free GA4 users will still encounter the original limits. [post] (Simo Ahava) [Google Analytics Help]
November 14, 2023
GA4 introduces scheduled report feature
Google Analytics 4 has rolled out a valuable new feature allowing users to schedule up to 50 standard and custom reports for email delivery at regular intervals. This update ensures the accounts include data for specific date ranges and any pre-set filters or comparisons. Adding a dedicated dashboard to manage these scheduled reports, including error identification, enhances efficiency and control for GA4 users. [post] (Jude Onyejekwe) [Google Analytics]
November 14, 2023
GA4 revamps admin interface
A new Admin design in Google Analytics 4 simplifies navigation by categorizing settings and streamlining tasks like adjusting report data presentation. This update aims to enhance user efficiency with fewer clicks and increased clarity. [Analytics Help]
November 14, 2023
GA4 revamps admin interface
A new Admin design in Google Analytics 4 simplifies navigation by categorizing settings and streamlining tasks like adjusting report data presentation. This update aims to enhance user efficiency with fewer clicks and increased clarity. [Analytics Help]
October 23, 2023
Analytics in your hand
Google Analytics has rolled out a mobile app for on-the-go business monitoring. This app allows real-time insights, report creation, and action-taking capabilities to enhance account performance. Google recommends the new app to the users through Google Analytics 4 Home page for those who haven’t recently used the app. [source]
[October 16-22]
Redesigned Admin Panel in Google Analytics 4 Spotted
Users are reporting a new layout for the admin panel in Google Analytics 4, aimed at a more user-friendly experience through organized settings. [source] Christiaan Dollen
Week 41
Calculated Metrics Feature
Google Analytics 4 now allows you to create Calculated Metrics, a feature that combines standard or custom metrics through mathematical formulas to derive new, more actionable insights. This update enables businesses to apply their own logic to metrics, making data more directly relevant for decision-making in Google Analytics. [source]
Previous update: Some accounts now display a new ‘Calculated Metrics’ feature within Google Analytics 4, even though it has yet to be officially announced. This feature simplifies generating custom metrics and is viewed as a positive addition to the platform. (Rick Dronkers – post)
(picture from Himanshu Sharma – post)
Week 40
Data redaction
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) allows you to configure web data streams to redact email addresses and user-defined URL Query Parameters. This feature helps protect against collecting sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) while providing a valuable tool for data privacy compliance. [source]
Week 40
Better control over Google Signals data
Google Analytics now offers the option to exclude Google Signals data from reports. This feature is handy for users aiming to dodge data thresholding while still collecting valuable demographic and interest data for audience targeting and Google Ads optimisation. [source]
Week 39
Data Masking Features
Google has rolled out a new feature in GA4 that allows users to mask specific data directly from the data stream settings. The feature offers two options: one for masking emails and another for manually managing parameters like page_location, page_referrer, and more. (Guido Barbacci)
Week 38
Checkout Journey Report
The new Checkout Journey Report in Google Analytics 4 provides valuable insights into each checkout process step on e-commerce platforms, showing the number and percentage of users who advance through the funnel. The report can be found under the Monetization topic in the Life Cycle collection or Drive Online Sales in the Business Objectives collection on the left-hand side in Reports. [source]
Week 38
Checkout Journey Report
The new Checkout Journey Report in Google Analytics 4 provides valuable insights into each checkout process step on e-commerce platforms, showing the number and percentage of users who advance through the funnel. The report can be found under the Monetization topic in the Life Cycle collection or Drive Online Sales in the Business Objectives collection on the left-hand side in Reports. [source]
Week 35
New Google tag
Finally, Google Tag Manager is introducing a new Google tag to replace the existing GA4 Configuration tag. This update offers enhanced integration with other Google products, allows for reusable settings variables at both the configuration and event levels, and simplifies tag management using a single Tag ID. [source]
Note: Existing GA4 configuration tags will be automatically upgraded, requiring no action from users. The changes aim to streamline data sending to multiple Google product destinations and make managing event and configuration parameters easier.
Additionally, 3 new settings variables are rolling out soon to help you configure event parameters and tag settings in bulk: Event Settings variable, Configuration Settings variable- & User Properties variable. (Simo Ahava)
Week 33
Behavioral modeling in path and funnel reports
GA4 now incorporates behavioral modeling data into path and funnel explorations, including the user purchase journey report and custom funnel reports. This update addresses data gaps from visitors or app users who decline Analytics cookies. (source)
Week 33
Google Sheets connector for Google Analytics 4
The GA4 Reports Builder for Google Analytics lets users generate reports for GA4 properties via Google Sheets. Yet, it comes with the inherent constraints of Data API access and retentions. It also lacks filtering and sorting capabilities. (download here – Simo Ahava, Charles Farina & Himanshu Sharma)
Week 33
User Data export
The User Data export feature has been introduced to GA4 properties, marking a first for BigQuery. (Charles Farina)
It now reveals the Audience a user belongs to and showcases predictive metrics such as churn, revenue, and propensity.
User data export will have information about individual users such as times of first and last activity, audience memberships (start and expiration), user properties, device information, geo, lifetime value, and generated metrics like likelihood to purchase in the next 7 days. (Luka Cempre)
You can also learn more about behavioral modeling below, and here’s a guide on how to implement it: [see link]
(thanks for that, Borja Gutiérrez Fernández & Johan van de Werken)
Week 31
Campaign Manager integration
This feature was previously only available in the paid version (360). With this integration, GA4 users can track performance and improve analytics capabilities using Floodlight links (Charles Farina).
Week 30
App Campaign Performance
Google Analytics 4 has rolled out a range of new features designed to improve app campaign performance.
(1) Robust audience tools: This includes a new “unnotified users suggested audience” to engage existing app users who haven’t received push notifications. You can also re-use app and web audiences efficiently and create Google Analytics 4 audiences directly within Google Ads.
(2) Additional performance uplift: You can now enable the use of additional consented, signed-in data for automatic optimization of App campaign performance.
(2) Comprehensive web-to-app conversion measurement: GA4 introduces a privacy-safe URL parameter called gbraid, which allows better iOS app conversion measurement for web campaigns that deep link users into an app.
(3) Better iOS campaign measurement and performance: New features include integrations with SKAdNetwork, on-device conversion measurement using consented, first-party email data (now expanded to support phone numbers), and geo-based conversion lift measurement (currently in beta).
(source)
Week 30
Set a default conversion value
Google Analytics now allows setting default values for conversion events. If ‘currency’ and ‘value’ parameters are unset, your predefined default value is utilized, enhancing event tracking accuracy. (source – Himanshu Sharma / Matteo Zambon)
Week 30
GA4 audiences in Google Ad Manager
Google Ad Manager now supports integration with Google Analytics 4, allowing users to utilize third-party segments for refined audience targeting. With this feature, audience data is automatically exported to Ad Manager upon linking and enabling specific settings, offering opportunities for enhanced audience targeting, combination, and analysis. (source – Himanshu Sharma)
Week 29
Audiences Report
Prior to this, you could only find this summary in the Admin section. Now, it’s easier than ever to access and understand your audience data, which can help inform your marketing strategies and campaigns.
Week 29
Enhanced privacy options
A new data redaction feature just rolled out to the GA4 demo account (Charles Farina):
- Auto-redaction of email addresses: When this toggle is turned on, GA4 will automatically scan and redact any email addresses detected in your data. This is particularly useful for businesses that collect email addresses as part of their data tracking, but who also want to maintain privacy standards and comply with regulations like GDPR or CCPA.
- Manual redaction of specific query parameters: This toggle gives you the ability to specify particular query parameters that you wish to redact. For instance, if you have a URL parameter that collects sensitive information, you can list it here to prevent this data from being saved in your GA4 reports.
Week 29
Landing Page report
The key changes in the Landing Pages report are as follows (Charles Farina):
- The default Landing Page dimension will no longer include query parameters. This means that the URL shown in the report will be stripped of any additional data appended to it, making the URLs cleaner and more standardized.
- Google also addressed a bug that was causing blank rows to appear in the report. With the new update, this issue should no longer occur. However, it’s important to note that this fix isn’t retroactive, meaning it won’t correct blank rows that appeared in reports prior to the update.
Week 28
New documentation for setting traffic sources in GA4 Measurement Protocol
Instead of attaching traffic sources to a normal event, you can now set them by attaching them to a unique event called “campaign_details.” This allows for more accurate tracking and attribution of traffic sources in GA4.
(source – Charles Farina)
Week 26
Import Google Analytics 4 conversions
Import Google Analytics 4 conversions into Google Ads for better optimization: If you’ve linked a Google Ads account, you may now see a recommendation to import your web and app conversions from Google Analytics 4 into Google Ads. (source)
As Benjamin Wenner rightfully mentioned, Google is expected to improve data accuracy and better attribution of the user journey next. The ability to use GA4 imported conversions as the primary goal could become a significant development if it performs as described.
Week 26
Google Analytics 4 Audience Export API
You can now export user and device IDs from created audiences. Previously limited to direct integrations, like Google Ads and Firebase, this API is available in alpha for standard and 360 properties. Find more information in the developer documentation. (source – Matteo Zambon)
Week 25
Select which channels are eligible to receive conversion credit for web conversions shared with Ads
You now can choose the channels that can receive conversion credit for web conversions shared with Google Ads.
There are 2 options available:
- Google paid channels (formerly known as Ads-preferred)
- Paid and organic channels (formerly known as Cross-channel)
By default, the setting for properties creating a new link is Google paid channels. (source / Matteo Zambon)
Week 24
+100 GA4 dimensions in Looker
GA4 rolled out 170 new dimensions and metrics were added, including landing page, session conversion rate by event and even bounce rate. You need to refresh your data sources to access those.
(Peter Šutarík – Mehdi Oudjida)
Week 24
Custom Channel Groups
Google Analytics 4 data API (reporting API) now supports custom channel groups. Something that has never existed with the reporting API of GAU. (Mehdi Oudjida – source)
Week 24
Collect traffic source data at the event level
We can access collected traffic source data at the event level. That means every event will have information on the collected traffic source, including the UTMs or click IDs. This is reported regardless of the “sessionization”. (Jesús Martín Calvo – learn more)
Week 24
Support for Google Signals in the GA4 tag
You can now enable Google Signals directly into Google Tag Manager Server-side. If you don’t supply a Measurement ID, the server tag inherits the Google Signals settings of the Measurement ID used in the client-side GA4 configuration tag and the checkbox to enable Google Signals won’t be visible. (Matteo Zambon / Simo Ahava)
Week 22
Business objectives collection
Discover new tailored reports in Google Analytics, designed to align with your Google Ads goals and campaign objectives. (source)
Week 20
Audience builder
Audience builder – the audience builder gives you more flexibility and control when you create audiences. The update makes new dimensions and metrics available in the audience builder, improves options for controlling event value and event count, and adds the option to match between two dates. (source)
Low engagement sessions
Event value can be used on its own
Full set of operators for event count
Match between dates
Week 19
GA4 Reporting API limits
GA4 Reporting API limits have received massive boosts. (Charles Farina)
Week 19
Chat GA4
In the search bar from GA4, you can now ask Google questions using Chat GA4. (Adriaan Dekker)
Week 16
Enhancements to the Home page
Google Analytics has introduced new enhancements to its Home page for users of Google Analytics 4 properties. These include a welcome tutorial for new users, a banner for Editors and Administrators who advertise with Google Ads, and improvements to the Suggested for you section. Users can also dismiss irrelevant cards in the Suggested for you and Insights & Recommendations sections by clicking the thumbs-down button.
Week 15
New Experimentation Integrations
GA4’s new experimentation integrations are now rolling out (with non-Google testing platforms). Charles Farina mentions that it’s going to be interesting to see how the move to an audience-based measurement approach works.
Week 15
Conversion counting method
GA44 introduces a new counting method for conversion events, offering two options: Once per event (recommended) or Once per session (legacy). Choose Once per event for most cases, but opt for Once per session to closely match Universal Analytics property conversion counts.
(source / Krista Seiden / Charles Farina)
Week 14
Enable BigQuery linking for roll-ups and sub-properties
(for GA4 360 – Enterprise only)
Previously, BigQuery linking was only available for the source properties. This update allows you to create aggregate exports or sub-exports if desired. (Charles Farina)
Week 14
GA4 Onboarding
Google Analytics 4 now allows you to select business goals when creating new properties. This will change the available reports and their grouping. By choosing “baseline reports,” you can access the old set of reports. This update affects previous tutorials. (Julius Fedorovicius)
Week 14
Events using regular expressions
Google Analytics 4 now lets you use regular expressions (regex) when creating or modifying events, allowing you to define conversions for web data streams. You can also migrate destination and event goals that use regex from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4. (source)
Week 14
Data-driven “The new default”
Google Analytics is phasing out first-click, linear, time-decay, and position-based attribution models. Rules-based models lack flexibility so data-driven attribution will be the default for Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads. These changes will take effect in May 2023. (learn more)
As a reminder, “Cross-channel last click“ in Google Analytics ignores direct traffic and attributes 100% of the conversion value to the last channel that the customer clicked before converting. For instance, if a customer clicked Display > Social > Paid Search > Direct → 100% to Paid Search, the entire conversion value will be allocated to Paid Search. (learn more)
Week 13
“Reporting Identity”
GA4 has now introduced a feature that addresses lost “cookie consent” data, allowing for more accurate reporting figures 🍪. (Anna Simpson)
Week 12
Increased property limit
Large Enterprises/Agencies will need to contact the support less often to include more properties and sub-properties. (source)
Week 8
New sampling controls for Google Analytics 360 properties
The following new sampling controls allow you to adjust the level of precision and speed in your explorations:
More detailed results: Uses the maximum sample size possible to provide results that are the most precise representation of the full data set
Faster results: Uses a smaller sampling size to give faster results (option selected by default)
Week 7
“Conversion Differences”
In the Google Merchandise Store, you can notice a new report for understanding discrepancies in conversions between Google Ads & Google Analytics 4 (Charles Farina)
Week 2
New metrics at the item/event level
New metrics at the item/event level – Google Analytics now provides an item-scoped and event-scoped version of each e-commerce metric. For example, you can now easily analyze Items purchased by item name, which shows the number of times each item was purchased. (source)
Nov 1, 2023
Product studio, leverage the power of AI [US only]
Google introduces Product Studio, a suite of AI tools designed to help merchants enhance and manage their product images. This innovative tool is now being rolled out to all Merchant Center Next users in the U.S. Product Studio includes a powerful AI-powered scene generation feature, allowing users to effortlessly integrate products into creative scenes. Whether you want to add a holiday flair to your product images or experiment with new marketing trends, Product Studio provides the tools to transform your product visuals. [source]
Nov 1, 2023
New “small business” attribute for merchants [on Search and Maps]:
Google introduced a “small business” attribute on Search and Google Maps, helping shoppers easily identify and support small businesses. Merchants can add this attribute to their accounts, making it simpler for consumers to choose to shop locally. Google will also automatically add the attribute to some merchant listings based on specific factors. [source]
Week 41
Automated Product Population
Google is beginning to auto-populate the Google Merchant Center with products sourced from merchant websites using web crawling technology. If your site uses schema.org, Google can extract your product data more efficiently for this feature. (Martijn Beumer – post)
Week 41
Limited Availability Placeholder
Google has confirmed that product partners can now use placeholder values in the quantity attribute when they prefer not to disclose exact product quantities. ( Emmanuel Flossie – post – read more)
The specific levels are defined as :
- ‘In-Stock’ for more than 3 items
- ‘Limited Availability’ for 1 or 2 items
- ‘Out of Stock‘ for zero items
Week 40
New Customer Support Details
Google Merchant Center Next has introduced the ability for merchants to display their preferred customer support methods, including options for live chat and chatbot support. While yet to be seen in ads or free listings, the update will likely appear in shopping listings as merchants adopt the feature. [source] (Emmanuel Flossie)
Week 40
Merchant Center Next Update on Performance Metrics:
Google Merchant Center has expanded the data in the Performance -> Product Report to include traffic from Product Images and Website Links leading to the Product Detail Page. This could inflate your performance numbers if you’re unaware of the update. (Thomas Eccel)
Week 36
“Checkout_link_template”
Google has introduced a new attribute called “checkout_link_template” in Google Merchant Center. This feature allows merchants to include a quick checkout button in their free listings, directing consumers straight to the checkout page with the product already in the cart. Initially available only in the U.S., the checkout link template can be manually created, and it requires specific landing page elements like branding, product information, and price breakdown. (Emmanuel Flossie – source)
Week 34
Click Potential
Google Merchant Center has introduced a new column called “Click Potential.” This feature estimates a product’s performance in comparison to your top-performing items. (Kevin Kaneria – Google Ads Management)
Week 32
3D model link
A new attribute called 3D model link [virtual_model_link] allows merchants to display 3D images of their products in Google Search and Shopping. This feature is currently for shoes and home goods in the US. Merchants can create these 3D images independently or with partners like CGTrader, Epigraph, Ocavu, and VNTANA. Before the 3D model shows in search results, Google reviews it, which can take up to two weeks. (source)
Week 32
Enhanced Insights
Google Ads has updated its product page to provide detailed insights on issues such as stock inventory, missing feed information, and high bidding targets. (source)
Here are some of the performance Indicators & suggestions (Thomas Eccel):
- Low Manual Bids: Your bids were lower than top competitors recently. Try automated bidding or use a Performance Max campaign.
- High Target ROAS: Your target ROAS had lower bids than competitors. Adjust by lowering the target ROAS for this product’s campaigns.
- Low Maximum CPC: Your max CPC wasn’t competitive. Raise your max CPC or integrate into a Performance Max campaign.
- No Impressions: The product had no visibility in the past month.
- Not in a Campaign: The product isn’t part of any active campaigns.
- Campaign Issues: Issues detected in a campaign featuring this product. Add to another campaign or review product details for fixes.
Week 25
Integration with Cloud Retail
As of June 18, 2023, you can add Cloud Retail as a destination. This feature is specifically designed for Google Cloud Projects that can utilize Google Cloud Retail V2. Once activated, it can be accessed through the Cloud Retail program and is mapped to the attributes field within Google Cloud Retail. (Week 24 – source – Emmanuel Flossie)
Week 24
Ads/Organic Rate
In the competitive metrics report for the Free Listings, you can now notice a new metric Ads/Organic rate showing the fraction of ads and organic impressions for a merchant. (Tony Zara / Nick Quintin)
Week 16
Click Potential
Thomas Eccel shared how Merchant Center has a new column “Click Potential” including High, Medium and Low potential estimates.
Week 38
Google Tag Manager unveils new Tag and settings variables
Google Tag Manager has completed its roll-out of a new Google Tag and two new Settings variables. These updates are now available in web Google Tag Manager containers. For detailed insights, check out articles on Simo Ahava’s blog.
Week 36
Google Cloud Retail tag
Also, for advanced users, GTM introduced server-side tagging that allows the deployment of a Google Cloud Retail tag. (source)
Resource: If you are new to this change, check these articles (Settings variables for GA4 in Google Tag Manager &Google Tag Template) fromSimo Ahava and this video from Julius Fedorovicius
Week 23
Added RegEx support
Google Tag Manager has completed its roll-out of a new Google Tag and two new Settings variables. These updates are now available in web Google Tag Manager containers. For detailed insights, check out articles on Simo Ahava’s blog.
Week 23
Transformations
Google Tag Manager introduced a game-changing feature in the server side that allows you to modify event data objects, opening up a world of possibilities. Some use cases include flagging custom events as conversions, enriching e-commerce data, and augmenting events with user data. The community is excited to explore the potential of this feature in complex client-event-tag flows.
Read Simo Ahava‘s deep dive here.
Week 16
Visitor Region in Google Tag Manager (GTM)
Peter Šutarík shared how it can be useful to use the new variable type in server-side GTM called Visitor Region, It can be used for many different use cases, for example firing tags only for visitors in specific countries, or changing the consent logic based on the visitor location etc.
Nov 2, 2023
Combo maps in Looker Studio
Looker Studio’s latest addition, the combo map, lets you seamlessly merge the properties of filled and bubble maps into a single visualisation. With vector graphics and built-in 3D display capabilities, combo maps offer a dynamic way to convey data insights. [source]
[October 16-22]
Table Drilling and Tooltips Enhancements for Enhanced Data Insights
A new update in table chart reporting enables report creators and viewers to have a more interactive drill experience. The update allows multiple dimensions for drilling, as well as the ability to set up ‘Drill Through’ links to external URLs, providing deeper context to the presented data. [source]
Week 31
3 new chart types
DataStudio has introduced three new chart types to enhance data visualization capabilities: the Boxplot chart, Candlestick chart, and Waterfall chart. (source)
Boxplot chart: This chart allows users to visualize the distribution and spread of values in a dataset, making it easier to understand the overall range and variability of the data.
Candlestick chart: The Candlestick chart enables users to visualize ranges in their data, including opening and closing values, as well as the highest and lowest values within each range. This is particularly useful for tracking price movements in financial data or other time-series data.
Waterfall chart: With the Waterfall chart, users can effectively visualize how a sequence of positive and negative values contributes to a total value. This chart type is helpful for understanding the cumulative effect of individual data points on the overall total.
Improved thumbnail images: Thumbnails display a fixed-size image of 320 px X 240 px, and if possible, present a view of the entire report page. Previously, thumbnails only showed a portion of the page.
Week 28
New Features
Looker Studio has introduced several product updates, especially for Pro users:
- Scheduled delivery using Chat – Looker Studio Pro users can now schedule reports to be delivered using Google Chat. Reports can be sent to individual recipients or entire Chat spaces.
- Filter by email address for scheduled reports – Looker Studio Pro users can apply row-level security to data in reports scheduled to be delivered via email.
- Report and Data Source Location on the Home Page – The Location field on the Looker Studio home page indicates where your Looker Studio assets are stored. Free users can see ownership or sharing status, while Pro users can identify if the asset is in their My Workspace, Team Workspace, or shared directly. (source)
Nov 29, 2023
More organization details in Google Search
Google is expanding its support for organizational information by incorporating additional administrative data such as name, address, contact details, and various business identifiers. While continuing to recognize logo and URL fields, this update allows Google to utilize the markup in knowledge panels and other visual elements, enhancing users’ ability to find organization details on Google Search. The logo documentation is now merged into the new organization documentation, offering more extensive validations in the Rich Results Test. [Google Search Console]
Nov 27, 2023
Profile page & discussion forum structured data update
Google introduces support for profile page and discussion forum structured data, accompanied by new reports in the Search Console. This markup enhances the accuracy of first-person perspectives from social media platforms and forums displayed in Google Search features. Website creators can utilize ProfilePage markup to highlight creator information, while DiscussionForumPosting markup is designed for forum-style sites, improving their visibility in the Perspective and “Discussions and forums” features. [Search Console]
Nov 15, 2023
New robots.txt report and page indexing insights in GSC
Google introduces the upgraded Search Console robots.txt report, conveniently accessible from the settings page. Additionally, relevant information will now be seamlessly integrated into the Page Indexing report. As part of this enhancement, the robots.txt tester will be phased out. [Twitter] [Google Search Console help]
This upgrade greatly surpasses the old, underused robots.txt tester. Navigate through Settings > Crawling > Robots.txt to explore the new report. [post] (Brodie Clark)
Nov 15, 2023
List courses with course structured data on Google Search
Google now allows publishers to enhance course information in search results by providing detailed data such as pricing, educational level, ratings, and length through structured data. This information appears in the new course info-rich result carousel on Google Search, aiding users in discovering and comparing courses. [Search Console]
Nov 13, 2023
Search Console adds learning video rich results reporting
Google Search Console has introduced a new feature for tracking Learning Video rich results in its Performance reports. These learning video-rich results, first supported in June 2022, are tailored for educational content, detailing the educational level and concepts covered in the videos. [tweet] [source]
Nov 8, 2023
Streamlining page experience reports in Search Console
Google announces changes to Search Console’s Page Experience report, transitioning to a new page with links to general guidance. Starting December 1, 2023, “Mobile Usability” report, Mobile-Friendly Test tool, and API will be retired, emphasizing the ongoing importance of mobile usability, assessable through resources like Lighthouse. The Good page experience search appearance filter in the Performance report is also retired as of November 8, 2023, aligning with the evolving aspects of page experience. [via Google]
Oct 31, 2023
Mobile-first indexing finally makes its way
Google completes the mobile-first indexing, a journey that began in 2015 with a focus on mobile-friendly content. This significant change in Google’s infrastructure is a result of the growing importance of mobile web traffic. Google is simplifying the Search Console by discontinuing indexing crawler information in the settings page. With mobile devices at the forefront, crawl stats can now be found in the dedicated report. [source]
[October 16-22]
Markup Option for Vehicle Listings
Google has launched a new markup option for car dealerships, allowing them to list their for-sale inventory directly on Google Search. The feature simplifies the setup process and also offers a new Rich result report in the Search Console for monitoring structured data. [source]
Week 25
Interaction to Next Pain
Google has now added INP (Interaction to Next Paint) to the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console. As a reminder, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) will replace First Input Delay (FID) as a metric for Core Web Vitals in March 2024 (Brodie Clark / learn more)
Week 25
Search Insights
Google Search Console just launched Search Insights (Beta) available to all users. (Fay Friedman)
Week 19
GA4 Reporting API limits
GA4 Reporting API limits have received massive boosts. (Charles Farina)
Week 16
Expanded display of shipping and return information
Google Search now shows an expanded display of shipping and return information on Google Search text results for merchant sites. (source)
If your products don’t have shipping and return information or the shipping and return information was added incorrectly, you’ll receive warnings in the Merchant Listings report and via email notifications.
Week 13
Bulk Data Exports
Search Console announces an update to bulk data exports, allowing multiple properties to export to one Cloud project. To do so, you need to customize your dataset name when setting up your export to have a unique dataset name for each export. (source)
Week 13
Merchant listings and Product snippets
Google Search Console now offers two new ways to measure the impact of Merchant listings and Product snippets on website traffic through the Performance report and new reports named after the features. The Merchant listings report allows users to verify the validity of their product offers for merchant listings experiences. (source)
Week 8
Data available on bulk data exports
The functionalities added include:
- Distinguishing between verified and delegated owners
- Easier, immediate removal of verified owners (no need to remove their ownership token)
- Ability to change delegated owners’ permissions levels (owner, full, restricted)
- Ability to see your property’s verification tokens for all current and previous users and specifically see tokens leftover by previous owners
- Ownership events history
(source)
Week 8
User and permissions management
The functionalities added include:
- Distinguishing between verified and delegated owners
- Easier, immediate removal of verified owners (no need to remove their ownership token)
- Ability to change delegated owners’ permissions levels (owner, full, restricted)
- Ability to see your property’s verification tokens for all current and previous users and specifically see tokens leftover by previous owners
- Ownership events history
(source)
Week 7
Data available on bulk data exports
Once the bulk data export is set up successfully, you can log in to your BigQuery account and start querying the data. You can find detailed table guidelines and references in the help center; also check the explanation on the difference between aggregating data by property vs by page. (source)
Week 6
Google Merchandise Store
Google Merchandise Store (in the Alpha version): You can see new features in the roadmap incl. custom Channel Groups and item-scoped custom dimensions (Matteo Zambon)
Week 5
Video impressions overlay
Video impressions overlay: To make it easier to understand the performance of your videos, you can now see in the Video indexing report the number of daily video impressions over time and you can use a Sitemap filter to show only video pages that are present in a selected sitemap. (source)
