In February, Google has surprised us with so many important news, that we forgot about Facebook. That’s why we dedicate this month only to Google. Hope you don’t mind.

Google News - February 2022

 

URL Inspection API Is Finally Here

In February Google has announced something that the SEO community has been longing for for some time now.

Please welcome the new Google Search Console API, the URL Inspection API to be specific. Thanks to this, you can get all the important information you would get from the GSC Inspection tool, but more quickly and for more URLs at once.

The API will return data like indexation status, structured data, AMP, mobile usability.

However, the API has limitations of 2,000 queries per day and 600 queries per minute. It is something to keep in mind, but for most websites it should be enough.

Find out more about the URL Inspection API.

Will you be using this new feature?

Source: Google Search Central Blog

 

Performance Max Data Now in Google Data Studio

If you run Performance Max campaigns in Google Ads and wanted to visually report them in Google Data Studio, you most likely encountered a little problem. This new type of campaign was not compatible with Data Studio.

But that’s the past, we have some great news! From the beginning of February, data from Google Ads for Performance Max campaigns are also available in Data Studio. Google has confirmed this via Twitter.

By the way, Google has officially launched their new Google Partners Program. How did you do? Did you meet the requirements for Google Partner or for Google Premier Partner?

Source: Twitter @adsliaison

Screaming Frog x Google URL Inspection API

We are pretty sure that most of you are familiar with one of the most popular SEO tools – Screaming Frog. It’s a handy tool for scraping URLs in bulk in order to find technical difficulties.

Screaming Frog did not waste any time and right after the announcement of URL Inspection API, they implemented it into their tool right away. Thanks to this you get real-time data (indexation status, structured data, AMP, mobile usability) for your URLs once you connect Google Search Console to Screaming Frog.

Let us remind you, that there’s still the 2,000 queries per day and 600 queries per minute limit.

We highly recommend updating your Screaming Frog.

Find out more about this version of Screaming Frog.

Source: Screamingfrog.co.uk

 

Google Chrome Journeys Are Here

You can maybe remember, that in October 2021, we have informed you about Google Chrome trying out Journeys – a new, more user-friendly experience for Google Chrome’s history.

The main goal of Journeys is to collect all your web search history and cluster them in thematic chunks. This will give a better visual representation of your recent searches and let you continue where you left off.

Journeys are available on the desktop version of Chrome in the following languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese and Turkish.

Find out more about Google Chrome’s Journeys.

Source: Google Blog

Google Improving Ad Extensions in Search

Google is implementing some changes for Google Ads regarding ad extensions in Search. The changes are focused on automated ad extensions, mainly on sitelinks, callouts, and structured snippets.

Starting from mid-March, automated extensions will be eligible to show together with manually created extensions. This means, that if you have 2 manually created sitelinks, Google can add 2 more (automatically), so in the end, 4 sitelinks will be eligible to serve. Prior to this change, automated ad extensions were not eligible to show with manually created extensions.

Performance of manually and automatic extensions will be found in the ad extensions report.

Moreover, if higher-level extensions (e.g., account level) are more likely to improve your performance in Search, they will be eligible to serve alongside with lower-level extension (e.g., ad group). Previously, higher-level extension could not serve with lower-level extensions.

Find out more about the updated ad extensions.

Source: Google Ads Help

Performance Max Campaigns Are Getting Better

Google has announced some news regarding Performance Max campaigns via Twitter.

Google is planning to add negative keyword to PMax in the near future. Thanks to this, advertisers will be able control the keywords they ad will serve on. It’s important to note, that Google is only planning on adding negative keywords, not targeting using keywords.

Moreover, the new version of Google Ads Editor will support Performance Max campaigns for more quicker and easier use.

Source: Twitter @adsliaison

Google My Business – New API

Google has introduced a new API for the Google My Business platform. Its name is rather interesting, they named it My Business Business Calls API. No, that’s not a mistake on our end, that’s what they named it.

This new API lets you access data that is available in the GMB browser interface. Using the API you can use data in you reports such as call history, number of received and missed calls.

Find out more about this new Google My Business API.

Source: Google My Business APIs & SEO Roundtable

Google Merchant Center: Boost for Shopping Campaigns?

Google is letting know advertisers using Merchant Center about a new report called Shopping Experience Scorecard.

Google wants to reward merchants who offer outstanding customer support by giving them higher rankings and more visibility in Google Shopping search.

This scoreboard will be based on metrics such as:

• Delivery time
• Shipping cost
• Return cost
• Return window

If merchants will excel in all these areas during a given period, they will be rewarded and they will also receive a badge.

You can find this report in Google Merchant Center under Growth. To participate, all the mentioned services must be activated.

Find out more about the Shopping Experience Scoreboard.

Source: Google Merchant Center Help