Updates on free Google and Bing Tools
Let’s talk about the tools that have disappeared, and the new tools that are available.
Google temporarily disables issue validation in Search Console.
They are updating the criteria for the issues provided by the coverage report.
And here are a few that have come back:
‘Request Indexing’ is now back in Google Search Console.
You can find it under the URL Inspection navigation. Here’s Google’s announcement.
Google Structured Data Testing Tool – Moving to Schema.org in April 2021
SEOs were frustrated that Google discontinued the tool, and it seems like Google was listening. SEOs will be able to find a refocused version of the tool on Schema.org by April. In the meantime, I recommend using schema.dev.
And there are a few completely new tools available:
There is a new crawl stats report in Google Search Console.
This discovery was my SEO nerd excitement moment from last month. It’s hard to find in the navigation, and you can access your report here, but it’s Google log file analysis for your site. SUPER exciting for those that can’t get access to their log files regularly. Here’s more from Google’s announcement.
New Bing Webmaster Tools now has free heat mapping.
The data is powered by Microsoft Clarity and is free to activate inside Bing Webmaster Tools. It only requires you to add the tracking code to your site.
Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.
Listen to the previous episode: Page Experience Update – Core Web Vitals Resources
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