2018 updates to the Siteimprove Platform

Modified on: Fri, 7 Jan, 2022 at 3:54 PM

Here you can see the updates made to the Siteimprove platform in 2018.

December 12, 2018

Quality Assurance

Redesigned Spelling feature: The new Spelling simplifies the workflow for sorting out misspellings and approved words, and gives users more control over which pages and sites their spelling decisions affect. It even predicts how likely it is that a word is a misspelling to help you prioritize which words to review first. Read more about the new Spelling in Spotlight on New Features and Updates.

SEO

Keyword position filter (SEO Pro/Enterprise/Advanced) in Keyword Monitoring: Filter your monitored keywords to see the ones on which you're ranking in the top 100.

November 28, 2018

SEO

SEO insights in CMS plugin: Get all the insights of the SEO module in the CMS plugin, so you can make SEO improvements as you're creating and editing content.
Competitor Settings (SEO Pro/Enterprise/Advanced): Edit, add, or delete competitors from Activity Plans on the Competitor Settings page.

Analytics

Internal search terms filter: New filter allows you to segment visitors by the search terms they have used on your internal search engine.

November 14, 2018

SSO

New version of SSO that supports SHA-256: For customers who haven't added Siteimprove to their SSO solution yet, we've now made it easier to configure, disable, add and update users. The new SSO is more stable and supports the SHA-256 security standard.

SEO Pro/Enterprise:

Top-ranking Pages by Keyword feature: Search on a keyword and see the top 50 ranking pages for it. Use it to discover potential new competitors and analyze their SEO strategy for those keywords.

Analytics

Ability to disable/dismiss Feedback box on mobile devices: You can now choose to give your visitors the option to dismiss feedback survey icons after they have given their input, or even disable them all together on mobile devices for a less cluttered user experience.

October 31, 2018

Policy

Redesigned Policy Library: The Policy Library has a new look and navigation to make it easier to find the policy templates you need.

Data Privacy (previously known as the GDPR module)

Personal Identifiable Information in documents: We can now identify Personal Identifiable Information (PII) in documents (Excel, ppt, PDF, XML, etc.). You also have the option to ignore PII detected in documents.

October 17, 2018

Analytics

Live Analytics: Wouldn't it be neat to get real-time data about what's currently happening on your website? Now you can do exactly that with Live Analytics, which brings you up-to-the-minute data on visitor activities.

SEO

Images missing width and height attributes no longer flagged if website is mobile-friendly: If your website is mobile-friendly, images should resize according to the visitor's screen dimensions. As such, images on a mobile-friendly site will no longer be flagged as a problem if they do not have width and height attributes.

October 3, 2018

Analytics

An easier way to fulfill information requests from your visitors: New Visitor Data feature in Settings > Analytics allows you to retrieve data on the activities of a specific visit in order to fulfill information requests from your visitors (i.e. if they ask to find out what kind of analytics data you're storing on them). Only Account Owners or users with customized Account-Owner roles are able to retrieve visitor data.
"Outbound link" trigger in Key Metrics: We've added an Outbound Link trigger that is distinct from the existing Exit Link trigger. Outbound links are links to external pages, but which visitors access without leaving your website. Exit links are links to external pages which end a visitor's session on your website.

Data Privacy

GDPR module will be renamed "Data Privacy": As of October 18, the GDPR module will be renamed "Data Privacy" to better encompass the full range of features available. The module has always been meant to help organizations with a broad range of data privacy concerns affecting their websites, and now the name will also reflect that.

Policy

Policy template identifying documents published on or after 23 September 2018 (EU accessibility directive): All documents published on public sector websites on or after 23 September 2018 must be made accessible by 23 September 2020 according to a new EU accessibility directive. This policy template helps you identify the documents on your site this directive applies to.

SEO

Branded keyword settings: Since you're most likely already ranking high on keyword searches that contain your brand name, it may not be that useful to get data on branded keywords when doing SEO research. This new settings section lets you exclude branded keywords from Keyword Discovery, Keyword Suggestions, Keyword Monitoring, and Google Search Console.

Integrations

New Business Intelligence integrations: Integrate with three new business intelligence dashboard-builders and tools. Whether you use Klipfolio, Power BI, SeoToolsforExcel, or Tableau (our first business intelligence integration), now you can access Siteimprove data in some of the leading business intelligence platforms on the market. Read about all our integrations here.

CMS Plugins

Plone CMS plugin: The CMS plugin is now available for users of Plone 5.0+.

September 21, 2018

SEO

Search Snippet Preview: Preview how your page title and meta description look in Google search results.
All backlinks table: In your link profile, you can now see a table of your top 500 and bottom 500 backlinks by Trust Score, irrespective of whether they meet the Trust Score threshold to be included in High-value Backlinks and Undesirable Backlinks. (Previously we only showed you your high-value backlinks and undesirable backlinks. Now, if there are neutral-value backlinks in your top 500 or bottom 500 backlinks, you will see those in the "All Backlinks" table).

Platform Accessibility

Accessibility improvements: We've added accessible labels to selection controls (e.g. Selecting site and group, date range, checkpoints, dashboards). This should improve the experience for users of screen readers (or other users who like to navigate using their keyboard).

API Improvements

SEO issue categories: API users can get data on the number of issues you have on each page and which category of SEO issues they fall under.

September 5, 2018

Jira Connector

Create Jira issues in SEO: You can now create Jira issues within Issues and Recommendations in the SEO module.
Create Jira issues for Policy matches and specific pages affected by an Accessibility issue: Create Jira issues for Policy matches on specific pages and for all detected occurrences of an Accessibility issue at the page-level (previously you could only create Jira issues for Policies and Accessibility issues as they applied to your entire site.)

SEO

See URL suggestions when adding target page: When you set a target page for a monitored keyword, start typing and you'll get a list of suggested URLs on your site to add.
Visit page directly from Target Page Optimization: We've made it easier for you to see a target page by adding a button that opens the page directly from Target Page Optimization, just next to the "Re-check page" and "Edit keywords" buttons.
Mobile-friendliness issue page links to Mobile-Friendly Test: Previously we were linking to the Google PageSpeed test from the Mobile-friendliness page under Issues and Recommendations. It now links to Google's Mobile-Friendly Test, which is more relevant as a check of how mobile-friendly your page is.
Graphs in SEO Google Search Console now exportable: All the line graphs (Search Terms, Pages, Countries, Devices, Indexed Pages) are now exportable to Excel.
Updated check for Structured Data Markup: Our check for structured data markup now detects three of the most commonly used structured data markup implementations. This means you might see a small increase in your SEO Score.

August 28, 2018

SEO

Focus issues for target pages: In the target pages component of your Activity Plans, you can see all the focus issues that need to be fixed for those pages.

August 22, 2018

SEO

Updated meta description character limits: We've updated the character limits for meta descriptions in our SEO checks. Descriptions are now flagged when they're shorter than 110 characters or longer than 160 characters.
Add tags to multiple keywords in bulk: Add multiple tags at once to your selected keywords. Makes it convenient to categorize a large amount of keywords at once.

Accessibility/Dashboards

New Accessibility editor dashboard: A new system dashboard showing issues and PDFs with issues filtered by the editor role at WCAG Level AA. (As it's a system dashboard, you can't edit it, but you can make a copy and customize that.)

August 13, 2018

Jira Connector

Create Jira issues: Create Jira issues for Policy and Accessibility issues directly in Siteimprove.

Integrations menu

Browser extensions, Tableau, and Jira Connector added: Last week we introduced the new integrations menu and this we're adding the Accessibility and DCI browser extensions, as well as an integration with Tableau. (Note: only Administrators and Account Owners can see the Integrations menu).

August 8, 2018

SEO Pro/Enterprise

Backlinks: One of the most important factors driving organic traffic is the make-up of links that link to your website. Learn what your link profile's strengths are, whether your backlinks are contributing to or damaging your SEO, and more.
Set target pages for all keywords, not just ones with data: Previously you couldn't set target pages for keywords if we had no search volume data on them but now you can.

Feedback surveys

Feedback feature always shows in side menu: Even if you don't have any feedback surveys created yet, it now shows up in the left-hand menu so you can easily create new ones.

Accessibility

Filters are saved for Issues page: Now when you've filtered out issues by role, conformance level, severity, or priority on the Issues page, those filters are saved even if you leave the page, so you can easily resume working with the same list of issues that you left off with.

New Integrations menu

API keys, Share Widget, CMS plugin now under the same menu: All the apps and plugins that connect Siteimprove with your other applications are now collected under "Integrations" in the main left-hand menu (and stay tuned for new additions soon).

LRS Antilles Plugin

CMS Plugin now available for LRS Antilles: If you use the LRS Antilles CMS, you can now access Siteimprove insights there via the CMS plugin.

July 31, 2018

DCI/Quality Assurance

DCI Score points no longer subtracted for presence of XML files: Previously a bug meant that users were penalized for the presence of XML files on their site. This has been fixed.

SEO Pro/Enterprise

Position Distribution graph in Keyword Discovery: See how your discovered keywords are distributed across different search results positions for a visual illustration of keyword performance.
Search volume in Content Optimization: See the monthly search volume for keywords mapped to your target pages for a quick quantification of how many searches a target page could be showing up for.

Analytics

New highlights bar in Behavior Maps: A new highlights bar provides quick reference on number of visits, page views, etc., including a segmentation of data on interactions, clicks, scrolls by device.

July 10, 2018

Accessibility:

Guideline updates: WCAG 2.1 was made an official W3C recommendation on June 5, 2018, and the Siteimprove guidelines page now reflects the additional success criteria that were added. 12 new success criteria have been added on level A+AA in WCAG 2.1, and 5 new success criteria have been added on level AAA. Most of the new WCAG 2.1 success criteria are related to: Mobile, Cognition and Low vision.
No automated checks are currently available for the new success criteria. Read more about the WCAG 2.1. and Siteimprove in our help center article.

SEO:

Issue progress graphs: Progress graphs are now available for each SEO issue – enabling you to track the progress of specific issues over time.

SEO Pro/Enterprise:

Search box for discover competitors: We have noted that our users use search boxes more than we expected. Therefore we have added a search box to discover competitors to make it easier to find relevant competitors from a potentially long list.
Display if a keyword is already included in an Activity Plan: A column has been added to the keyword suggestions table, so you can quickly see if any of the keywords are already included in Activity Plans.

Customizable Dashboards:

SEO issue progress graphs: Progress graphs for SEO issues can now be included in your dashboard. The graphs can be added as widgets through the platform, or you can choose Issue Progress Graph from the widget library and use the new issue selector to find the issue you are interested in.

July 3, 2018

CMS Plugin Integrations

CoreMedia: CoreMedia’s clients include major global brands with complex and content intensive sites in retail, the public sector and other industries. The idea for a plugin was developed during a 'Hackathon' at the CoreMedia Headquarters in Hamburg in November 2017. The Siteimprove CMS Extension bridges the gap between the CoreMedia content management system (Cloud-based version) and the Siteimprove Intelligence Platform. Download the Plugin for CoreMedia

June 26, 2018

CMS Plugin Integrations

VisionLive: Vision Internet provides technology and professional services to government agencies in the US. The Siteimprove CMS Extension bridges the gap between the VisionLive content management system (CMS 6) and the Siteimprove Intelligence Platform. Contact Vision Support to Enable the Plugin.
i:Create: The eSolutions / i:Create platform is popular in the Canadian market within the fields of local government, education, and healthcare. The Siteimprove CMS Extension bridges the gap between the i:Create content management system (i:Create 2.27 and later) and the Siteimprove Intelligence Platform. Contact eSolutions to Enable the Plugin.
TYPO3: TYPO3 is a very popular content management system within Europe, and a plugin has repeatedly been requested by customers in Germany, Sweden, and countries within the Benelux region. The Siteimprove CMS Extension bridges the gap between the TYPO3 content management system (Versions TYPO3 6.2 to TYPO3 8.7) and the Siteimprove Intelligence Platform. Download the Plugin for TYPO3.

Check out all the content management systems that can utilize the Siteimprove CMS Plugin.

Accessibility

Check updates: The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recently made Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (WAI-ARIA) 1.1 an official recommendation. The update of WAI-ARIA from 1.0 to 1.1 introduces new ways of making web content accessible to users of assistive technologies. Siteimprove has updated two Accessibility checks to account for the update of WAI-ARIA to 1.1.

Analytics

Behavior Maps widget: The overview of all pages that have been added to Behavior Maps can now be added as a widget to your customizable dashboards.

SEO PRO/Enterprise

Quick links on Overview page: New quick link icons for Activity Plans, Issues & Recommendations, Content Optimization, Duplicate Content, Keyword suggestions, and Google Search Console give you easy access to the SEO features you use regularly.

GDPR

Cookie Details: A new column has been added to the Cookies Overview table displaying on how many pages we have seen each cookie. Clicking on the number of pages or the Cookie name, will take you to a details page where you can view which of the pages on the site are setting each cookie. The details page also provides "Value" information, and this can be expanded if there is more than one value being set.

June 13, 2018

Customizable dashboards

Widget Library: Now you can search for widgets and add them directly from your dashboard.

Accessibility

13 improved checks: We've fine-tuned 13 Accessibility checks so that they align more closely with W3C standards. This means you should see a reduction in the number of occurrences you have for these 13 issues (though in some cases you might see an increase--but think of them as occurrences that would have gone undetected otherwise!), which might show up as a drop or spike in your progress graphs.

Analytics

% of total visits: In the graphs under Visitors, see what browsers and operating systems your visitors use, now broken down as a percentage of all of visits.

SEO

New tooltips: We've added some extra tooltips in SEO, including one in Keyword Suggestions to explain the different types of keyword suggestions you can get.

June 5th, 2018

Policy

4 Google Search Console rules: These rules are available for SEO Advanced subscriptions. The rules are for “Number of clicks”, “Number of impressions”, Click-through rate” and Average position”.
Fixed-width tables Policy: In accordance with responsive web design guidelines, fixed-width tables should be avoided to ensure that they are optimized for viewing on mobile devices.
Non-semantic HTML markup Policy: Looks for instances of tags that do not convey meaning about the information enclosed within them. Using semantic markup ensures that your HTML can be read by both humans and computers, making your pages more accessible and easier to find and index by search engines.
Pages missing viewport meta tag Policy: Without a viewport, your site will not be optimized for display on a mobile device. Setting a viewport tells the browser how a device's screen should be sized to fit content.
Broken media files Policy: Looks for broken media files that do not render properly due to an invalid URL or other reasons.

CMS Plugin Integrations

Sitefinity: The Siteimprove CMS Extension bridges the gap between the Sitefinity content management system (CMS) and the Siteimprove Intelligence Platform. Download the Plugin for Sitefinity, and check out all the other content management systems that can utilize the Siteimprove CMS Plugin.

Customizable Dashboards

Time period selector: You can now change the time period for the data being displayed when adding/editing a widget on the Customizable Dashboard. The selector will be visible only for components where a date selector is present in the platform.

May 31, 2018

Analytics

Visitor Privacy Settings: Details of who modified IP anonymization or Do Not Track settings and when it was last modified are now displayed next to the updated setting.
Quick links on Overview page: New quick link icons for Key Metrics, Behavior Tracking, Behavior Maps, Funnels, Feedback, and Events give you easy access to the Analytics features you use regularly.
User interface updates in Key Metrics: Charts and colors in Key Metrics have been given a visual update.

SEO Pro/Enterprise

Categorized keyword suggestions: Keyword suggestions are now classified into "Keyword phrases" (phrases that include the keyword you looked up) and "related keywords" (thematically related keywords).
Keyword length filter and low competition-sorting: A new filter in Keyword Discovery allows you to filter the list by long tail keywords (keywords longer than three words). A new sort option allows you to sort the list by keywords where you have the lowest competition.
Keyword Performance: See which keywords in Keyword Discovery have the most potential in the new Keyword Performance tab, which shows you the distribution of keywords in top positions and how that's developed over time.

Customizable dashboards

Dashboard selection is saved when adding multiple widgets: When adding more than one widget in sequence, your dashboard selection is saved so you don't have to re-select the dashboard you just added a widget to.

May 23, 2018

Data Privacy

Tracked Search Terms: Monitor terms, names, emails, or other personal data to see when they crop up on your site so you can take action to remove or modify them.
User Actions Log: Maintain complete oversight over actions being taken in the Data Privacy module which might affect data privacy.

May 16, 2018

SEO Advanced (Previously Pro/Enterprise)

New Keyword settings for Administrators and Account Owners: You decide when and from which locations keyword updates should be fetched, so that updates fit your schedule.
SEO Page Report: Implement fixes for keyword issues with new "How to fix" tips on the Page Report.
More widgets for your dashboard: All the tabs under Google Search Console in SEO Pro/Enterprise can now be added as widgets to a dashboard, so you can monitor important search metrics for search terms, countries, devices, indexed pages, and countries.
Hide competitor domains: Under Competitor Analysis in Activity Plans, there's a neat little tab called "Discover Competitors" that shows you a list of all your competitors for the keywords you're monitoring. Occasionally you might find that some of those competitors aren't so relevant to you, so now you have the option to hide these domains.

Analytics

% breakdown of visitor stats: Being able to see the number of visitors using different browsers, operating systems, and devices is great, but even better is if you could get a more representative long-term picture of your visitors' preferences. Now you can, by seeing these numbers as a percentage of all visitors and visitors over a specific time period in the trend graphs

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