SEO News Roundup: Google Cutting Off Keyword Data, New Version of WordPress Out, + More

This past week Google announced it would be cutting off data in keyword planner for low spending advertisers, missing data from Google Search Console has been restored, and a brand new version of WordPress is out.

Full details about these headlines and other major stories from the week are included in this week’s SEO news roundup.

Google Cutting Off Data in Keyword Planner

A representative from Google announced an update to Keyword Planner this week which has the potential to create problems for certain users. Going forward, new and low spending AdWords accounts will not have the full access to data in Keyword Planner that they once did.

“Advertisers with lower monthly spend may see a limited data view in the Keyword Planner.”

Specifically, this change will affect data in the ‘average monthly searches’ column. In the limited data view, the tool will now show ranges of data as opposed to showing specific values. For example, if a keyword has 1000 searches per month, the limited data view will display a range of 1K–10K. Clearly, that is a wide range, making it difficult to estimate how many searches are being conducted each month for that keyword.

In addition to this change affecting new and low-spending AdWords accounts, it’s also possible to trigger the limited data view as a large-spending advertiser by performing too many searches in Keyword Planner.

Unfortunately, Google has not provided any further details on what’s considered to be a “low-spending” advertiser, nor has the company said how many searches in Keyword Planner are considered to be too many. However, Google did state that “most” advertisers will continue to see average monthly search data in Keyword Planner as usual.

WordPress Version 4.6 Available Now

WordPress, our number 1 recommended content management system for ease of use and SEO-friendliness, released its latest update this past week. WordPress version 4.6 comes with several useful new features that are worth highlighting.

New Features in WordPress 4.6:

• Broken Link Checker: Now, when adding links in your content, WordPress will notify you right away if there is an error. The new version of WordPress highlights broken links similar to how it highlights typos. With this update, you can easily correct broken links before publishing new content.
• Content Recovery: Losing your work is one less worry with the new version of WordPress. Now, unpublished work will be safely stored in your browser as you type, which can be easily recovered if an incident were to occur.
• Faster Dashboard: Doing any kind of work in the back-end of WordPress has gotten faster, thanks to the utilization of native fonts. That means the WordPress dashboard will run using fonts you already have stored on the device you’re using. This will make moving around in the back-end more efficient, letting you get work done more quickly.

In addition to the features we highlighted, WordPress 4.6 also includes a number of under-the-hood performance and stability improvements. You can upgrade to the latest version today, or you may already be running it if you have automatic updates enabled.

Link Data Restored in Google Search Console

Recently, site owners have been running into a reporting error in Google Search Console where all data had gone missing from the ‘Link to Your Site’ section. Everyone from small business to large publishers have been affected by the glitch.

Google became aware of the glitch and assured it was being looked into. By all accounts the data now appears to be restored. If the data has not yet returned to your account, don’t worry because it has not been lost permanently. It shouldn’t be long before the data comes back to your account as well.

Wrap Up

Google is throttling Keyword Planner data for new and low spending advertisers, Search Console has restored missing ‘Links to Your Site’ data, and a much improved version of WordPress is now available.

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Pam Aungst

President & Chief Web Traffic Controller at Pam Ann Marketing

Pam Ann Aungst, M.B.A., President of Pam Ann Marketing, LLC, is widely recognized as an expert in search engine optimization (SEO). A self-proclaimed “geek”, Pam began studying computer programming at 6 years old, started creating websites in 1997 and has been working professionally in the field of e-commerce since 2005. Referred to by Sprout Social as a “Twitter Success Story,” she harnessed the power of social media to launch her own agency in 2011. Pam has been interviewed by publications such as Internet Retailer magazine, regularly publishes articles in top internet marketing news sources, and speaks on topics such as SEO and social media. Click here to read her full bio.

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