2021 updates to the Siteimprove platform

December 16th, 2021

Reports: Improvement of adding recipients to Dashboard reports

Since the launch of our Dashboard reports, we have wanted to improve the way that recipients are added when scheduling reports. The update includes three options on how to add recipients: Defining a rule, Selecting individuals, and Adding external users.

• The Rules section allows the report owner to set up criteria to decide which users should receive the reports. Examples of criteria sets are user role, users with specific group access, site access, etc.
• With the Selecting individuals section, the report owner can choose recipients from a list of users on the account. The report owner can filter on user roles and tags or search to find specific users.
• The Adding external users section is a text field where the report owner can copy/paste email addresses of recipients. Here, it’s possible to add email addresses of external recipients that are not necessarily users on the account.

Read more about how to schedule a Dashboard report in this article "Configuring Siteimprove Dashboards and Dashboard reports".

November 25th, 2021

Accessibility Next Generation: Dismiss and prioritize accessibility issues

It's now possible to dismiss and prioritize accessibility issues. Users may want to hide occurrences of issues they cannot work on to manage workload, give a focused view of priorities, or report on progress.
Learn more about the dismiss options in this article: How to dismiss occurrences of accessibility issues. 

Accessibility Next Generation: Table column improvement

You can now customize which columns you want to see in the accessibility issues tables. This flexibility lets users pick and choose the data most relevant to them. Finally, we have added an additional two new columns to the issues table: 'Success criteria' and 'Abilities affected'. This is to provide more context and support a better understanding of the issues and why they should be solved. 

Performance: Now available in Dutch and UK English

The Performance product is now available in a Dutch and UK English user interface. This is in addition to the already available US English interface. The remaining platform languages will follow.

November 4th, 2021

SEO Advanced: Google My Business integration  

We have added Google My Business integration to SEO Advanced. This allows customers to manage their local SEO efforts directly in Siteimprove. It provides customers with insights needed to reach and attract local customers.
Read more in the article: How to connect SEO Advanced to Google My Business accounts. 

Dashboard reports and Analytics

We continue to evolve our dashboard reporting and build feature parity to the legacy reports.
We have added new rolling time periods to the Analytics dashboard widgets and throughout the Analytics product: “This month”, “Last month”, “This quarter”, “Last quarter”, “This year”, “Last year”.
This offers more flexible data presentation and reporting, and it supports a more coherent experience across the platform. Users can, for example, schedule reports to go out on the first day of a month presenting data from the previous full month.

Performance: Workflow and Performance profiles

We have improved the workflow in the Performance module. This is to offer customers a faster and easier setup when adding or changing performance measurements. This update includes the introduction of Performance profiles allowing customers to change measurements for multiple pages at once and select favorite profiles.
Read more in the articles: What is the new way of adding pages to Performance? and What are Performance profiles? 

Performance: Lighthouse engine to version 8

We have updated the Lighthouse engine to version 8, to ensure that suggestions and data are relevant. This will also ensure that the data is compliant with Google’s latest standards. 

October 28^th, 2021

Integrations

Siteimprove integrates with numerous digital tools. We've added "Marketing automation" to the main Integrations menu on the left. This gives you a more direct route to add marketing pages to Siteimprove. 

Siteimprove connects with the following marketing automation software: HubSpot, Salesforce Pardot, and Marketo.

October 14^th, 2021

Analytics

We use TLS (Transport Layer Security) to ensure that any visitor information shared with Siteimprove via our analytics script on our customers' web pages is encrypted, authenticated, and reliably unaltered.

From today, we no longer support TLS 1.0 and 1.1. We only support TLS 1.2 or greater. This is unlikely to affect our data collection. Please visit “Deprecation of TLS 1.0 and 1.1 support for Siteimprove Analytics script delivery and data collection” for more information.

Integrations

Siteimprove integrates with numerous digital tools. To improve visibility of the six CMS community plugins (Umbraco, Xperience, Sitefinity, Plone, Sitevision, and FirstSpirit), we have added them to the Integrations Overview within the platform.

September 23rd, 2021

Dashboard Reports

We’ve added a CSV export option to the list of scheduled reports. Exporting the list can, for example, help users get an overview of which reports a recipient receives.

Quality Assurance

Users can now add a 'Dismissed links' table to their dashboard like they can for 'Confirmed broken links' and 'Links to review'. The information in these widgets is more consistent with the information in the tables in QA. Finally, we have made the widgets more actionable. Users can now work on links from the widgets (confirm, dismiss, undo).

SEO Advanced

We've added extra elements to the graph in Google Search Console to highlight when we're presenting data for the current month. The chart trend can be misleading if you’re not looking at a full month. We have visualized this in the graph with a blue plot band, a dashed line, and a tooltip.

Data Privacy

Users can now monitor their content for Chilean national ID and phone numbers. Under Data Privacy Settings, they can configure which country format we should check for on certain sites.

Analytics

We have added a new Learn component to the Analytics Script page under Analytics Settings. This will make it easier for our users to independently add the tracking script to their website(s) to run our analytics service.

September 16th, 2021

Quality Assurance

Within the media file inventory in Quality Assurance, we now also identify Vimeo video links on your website. Note: Vimeo link must contain the following URL match to be identified as a video 

://player.vimeo.com/video/

SEO Advanced

In the Keyword Discovery section of SEO Advanced, we now consider four new metrics when we calculate the potential of a keyword: the search volume, position, branding, and competition. The new calculation provides you with an even more accurate picture of the potential of the keyword to bring organic traffic to your site.

September 9th, 2021

Quality Assurance

You are now able to configure the language(s) we use to spellcheck your sites. Previously, our team would have to assist you but now you can save time by reviewing and changing your spellcheck setup under Settings > Content > Spellcheck preferences. See more in How do I adjust my spellcheck language preferences?

SEO: hide pages with alternative languages

In the list of pages with duplicate content, it is now possible to filter out pages with hreflang tags. These tags tell Google which language you are using on a specific page so users searching in that language are presented with the correct page. Avoid potential false positives in your duplicate content list by hiding alternative language pages. Go to SEO > Optimize > Duplicate Content.

September 2nd, 2021:

Single Digital Gateway connector

Starting February 2021, all public authorities within the EU will are required to provide defined statistics around usage and feedback on their services in a new central repository managed by the European Commission – the Single Digital Gateway (SDG).

We have now added a Single Digital Gateway connector to the Siteimprove platform. This allows accounts with an existing Analytics subscription to automatically share their statistics with the new European portal, eliminating any additional development work and removing the inconvenience of manual data submission.

You can setup your SDG connection through Analytics > Analytics Settings > Single Digital Gateway Connection. Here, you can also find additional guidance on how to set up the connection.

You can also find the new connection on our Integrations Overview page.

If you want to learn more about the Single Digital Gateway regulation and our new connector, you can visit our website.

August 24th, 2021:

SEO: Increased keyword limit per target page

We have increased the maximum number of keywords per target page from 4 to 8.

This change has been done based on customer requests.

July 29th, 2021:

Updated Integrations Overview page

We have reworked the Integrations Overview page to make it a more user-friendly and intuitive experience.

The page has an overview of all our available integrations, an option to filter on integration type (e.g. CMS plugins, Browser extensions, etc.), and an option to search for specific integrations.

Each integration on the page offers you to connect, download, or a link to our website where you can learn more about how to set up that particular integration.

July 22nd, 2021:

Manage email templates

You can now find an Email template column on the Manage scheduled reports page. This shows you what email template is used for each scheduled report.

By checking off multiple scheduled reports, you can bulk-change email templates in one go.

This new update helps ease the administration of scheduled email reports in the Siteimprove platform.

You can read more about the Dashboard Reports on our website.

July 15th, 2021:

Quality Assurance: Dismissed links dashboard widget

We have added a new dashboard widget showing the number of dismissed links on your site.

The widget contains a status ring, the total number of dismissed links, and the terms of the dismissals (dismissed for now, dismissed forever, or ignored).

Ads: Insights for dayparting

We have updated our Insights feature in Ads by adding four new insights that are strictly about bidding based on the performance during any given day or hour.

These new insights present you with recommendations on increasing or decreasing your daily and hourly biddings in specific campaigns.

Bid adjustments exist at the heart of any optimization strategy and with our new insights, you can discover particular times when your target audience frequently converts. This allows you to squeeze performance improvements from existing campaigns.

Preview email templates

You can now preview your email when setting up or editing a dashboard report.

We have added a new Preview email button that leads you to a preview of your email reports. This helps you double-check the text and the email template before sending out your email reports.

You can read more about the Dashboard Reports on our website.

July 8th, 2021:

See your Dashboard Report recipients

You can now expand the Recipients column on the Manage scheduled reports page to see the recipients of a specific scheduled report.

The page can be accessed from the Dashboard by clicking the Reports button and going to Manage scheduled reports.

This allows you to maintain an overview of the recipients of your scheduled email reports.

You can read more about the Dashboard Reports on our website.

July 1st, 2021:

Ads: Insights for dayparting

[Live for selected markets: AU, CAN, IE, NZ, UK & US]

We have updated our Insights feature in Ads by adding four new insights that are strictly about bidding based on the performance during any given day or hour.

These new insights present you with recommendations on daily and hourly increasing or decreasing of your biddings in specific campaigns.

Bid adjustments exist at the heart of any optimization strategy and with our new insights, you can discover particular times when your target audience frequently converts. This allows you to squeeze performance improvements from existing campaigns.

Accessibility NextGen: Improvement of testing results

To improve the transparency of the accessibility checks, we are now pulling in more data from our Accessibility engine to the Page Report.

In this first instance of improvements, we have focused on three accessibility rules:

• Links are not clearly identifiable: We are now providing information regarding the link state in which a link fails.
• Required ARIA attribute is missing: We are now providing information on the attributes we found and those that are missing. We've also made improvements that ensure the consistency of this check.
• Label not included in name: We have made improvements that ensure the consistency of this check.

This is part of our continuous effort to improve our accessibility checks and avoid potential confusion or false-positives.

June 24th, 2021:

Performance: Jira and Azure DevOps integrations

You can now create tasks in Jira and Azure DevOps directly from Performance.

You can find the new option under Suggested Improvements on the Page Overview or Measurement Results pages.

In order to create external tasks, you need to make sure that your account is connected to your Jira and/or Azure DevOps accounts.

You can read more about our connectors on our website.

Add sites via API

Websites can now be added to your account in the Siteimprove platform via API.

You can add Content and/or Analytics sites based on your subscription. You cannot add Response checkpoints via API.

Learn more about how to connect to the Siteimprove API.

New Digital Marketing Reporting dashboard

We have added a new system dashboard to the Siteimprove platform.

The new dashboard provides you with a comparable overview of key data from SEO, Analytics, and Ads.

June 10th, 2021:

Accessibility NextGen: Browser extension page

We have updated the Chrome extension page in Accessibility NextGen so it now includes other browser options as well.

We offer the Accessibility browser extension for multiple browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Edge
• Opera

The page has been renamed "Browser extension", and it is available for all accounts that have switched to using Accessibility NextGen.

Learn more about Accessibility NextGen.

May 20th, 2021:

Crawler Management Dashboard widgets

You can now add two new widgets to your custom dashboards: Scan History and Scan Highlights.

With the Crawler Management widgets, you can easier keep track of the crawls on your websites, as well as maintaining an overview of all your sites' crawls.

The new widgets are available for Account Owners and Administrators.

New Accessibility browser extension available for Opera and Edge browsers

We have released the new Accessibility extension for Opera and Edge browsers. 

This free browser extension lets you check typical website pages and any multi-step form, dynamic content, or non-public page for accessibility issues. All analysis is done entirely within the browser, which means you can securely check password-protected pages, too.

The new extension can be found in the respective browser stores and it features Accessibility NextGen checks.

Accessibility browser extension: Explorer tab

We have added an Explorer tab in the new Accessibility browser extension.

The Explorer tab lets you explore a range of of vision impairments on any webpage. This should lead to a better understanding of the consequences of having an inaccessible website.

The Explorer feature can also be found in Accessibility Page Reports in the platform.

May 6th, 2021:

Performance: Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals is an initiative by Google to quantify the user experience on a website in a unified way and identify improvement opportunities. It focuses on three aspects of experience with a website: loading, interactivity, and visual stability.

To benefit from Google's new core metrics, we have also added new metrics to the Page Performance page.

The new metrics are listed in the Score Breakdown element, both on the Page Performance level and the Measurement Results level. Each line shows the current score you have within the specific metric and the maximum score for that given metric. These maximum scores express the weighting that is used to calculate the Performance score for the page, and it is intended to illustrate how each metric weighs into the calculations that are used in search engines when determining a page's user experience.

You can read more about our new metrics in What are the new metrics in Performance?

New Accessibility Firefox extension

We have released a new Accessibility extension for Firefox browsers. 

This free Mozilla Firefox extension lets you check typical website pages and any multi-step form, dynamic content, or non-public page for accessibility issues. All analysis is done entirely within the Firefox browser, which means you can securely check password-protected pages, too.

The new extension can be found in the Firefox Add-on Store and it features Accessibility NextGen checks.

April 29th, 2021:

Email Report Templates

We have added the option to create customized email report templates for our Dashboard Reports.

You can now customize your messaging in email reports, as well as adding text, links, your own company logo, and brand colors.

This should help you create email reports that are more visually appealing and relevant to your recipients.

April 22nd, 2021:

New Accessibility Chrome extension

We have released a new Accessibility extension for Chrome browsers. 

This free Google Chrome extension lets you check any multi-step form, dynamic content, or non-public page for accessibility issues. All analysis is done entirely within the Chrome browser, which means you can securely check password-protected pages, too.

Our Accessibility extension offers:

• On-the-go compliance checks
• Intuitive, visual feedback
• Straightforward tips and recommendations
• Compatible with password-protected pages

The new extension can be found in the Chrome Store, and it features Accessibility NextGen checks.

April 15th, 2021:

Policy: Redesign of My Policies page

We have redesigned the My Policies page in Policy, so it now offers actionable insights when clicking the "Details" button.

We now show how the number of matches has changed in the last 30 days. This means that you can sort your policies by least or most significant changes in matches.

Also, we have added a Favorites tab so you can easily manage and prioritize policies.

April 8th, 2021:

Ads: Monitor Ads Performance

We have added a new menu item to Ads called Monitor Ads Performance.

The menu item consists of three pages:

• Account Overview - The Account overview provides you with an overview of your connected Ads accounts. It also shows Clicks, Cost, Avg. Quality Score, etc. 
• History - The History page lets you choose what data you are interested in seeing, i.e. Campaigns or Ad Groups. The page resembles what was previously found under Data Explorer.
• Location overview - The Location overview offers a color-schemed map and a Location breakdown. This gives you a clear sense of where your ads are receiving the most clicks, impressions, etc.

The content of Monitor Ads Performance consists mostly of relocated reporting-related features that were previously found in Data Explorer. This is done to make reporting in Ads more clear and manageable.

March 25th, 2021:

Accessibility NextGen: Site tagging

We have added the option to filter by site tags on the My Sites page in Accessibility NextGen.

This lets you sort and delegate specific sites on your account and provides you with a clearer overview of your sites.

Learn more about site tagging in the Siteimprove platform in Creating Site Tags to organize content within Siteimprove.

March 18th, 2021:

Google Data Studio integration

We have added a Google Data Studio integration to our Business Intelligence integrations.

With Google Data Studio, you can visualize your Siteimprove data as customizable reports and interactive dashboards.

Read more about the integration and how you can get started in Siteimprove Google Data Studio connector and reports.

March 11th, 2021:

Analytics: Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics integrations

Users can now connect Google and Adobe Analytics accounts to the Siteimprove platform. We have added the option to configure Traffic Analytics providers at Settings > Content > Traffic Analytics data providers.

Read more in: Siteimprove Traffic Analytics FAQ

Traffic Analytics Provider data available in the CMS plugins

We have updated the CMS plugin so users can have Traffic analytics data directly within the plugin - Whether it's from Siteimprove, Adobe or Google. It is possible to see Page views from the last 30 days for a site or a specific page.

Users can connect to their analytics provider via the Integration Overview page.

You can learn more in: How to navigate the Siteimprove CMS Plugin.

Data Privacy: Phone numbers for Singapore

We have added Singaporean phone number checks, which will automatically be set up on Singaporean sites.

Read more on Data Privacy in: Siteimprove Data Privacy Overview

Quality Assurance: Score Breakdown Dashboard widget

Users can now export the QA Score Breakdown widget to dashboards.

Read more on Dashboards in: Configuring Siteimprove Dashboards and Dashboard reports

March 4th, 2021:

Accessibility NextGen: Learn more page

We have added a Learn more page that can be accessed in the left-hand menu after your account has switched to Accessibility NextGen.

The page helps you get started and introduces you to new key features.

Learn more about Accessibility NextGen.

February 25th, 2021:

CMS plugins: Accessibility checks in PrePublish

We have added Accessibility checks to our PrePublish feature. This is only available in our Drupal and Adobe Experience Manager CMS plugins.

Your account needs to be switched to Accessibility NextGen in order to start using Accessibility PrePublish checks.

February 18th, 2021:

Settings: Add multiple sites

We have added a button that allows you to "Add site, then add another". This lets you add a site and continue adding another site to your account.

The button is similar to the one you see when you add multiple widgets to a dashboard or create more than one dashboard report schedule.

You can add a new site to your account by going to Settings > Sites > Add site.

Web Security: Event Log occurrences

We have added issue "occurrences" to the Event Log on the History page in Web Security.

The Event Log shows you new occurrences of issues and the occurrences that have been resolved.

Settings: User role permission for CMS Deeplinks page

We have added a user role permission for the CMS Deeplinks page, found under Integrations in the platform.

You can edit the user role permissions by going to Users > Roles > Edit role.

February 11th, 2021:

Accessibility NextGen Product launch

The Accessibility Next Generation product has officially launched. It is now available for all accounts. 

The new product has a powerful new engine that increases accuracy and reliability of results. It also features several new key features: Setting a site-target, reviewing potential issues, identifying issues by page section, etc.

As of February 10th, Account Owners on all accounts can opt-in and switch to Accessibility NextGen as their default Accessibility product. 

Learn more about Accessibility NextGen.

Accessibility NextGen: DCI score

When your account has opted in and started using Accessibility NextGen, we will replace your old Accessibility score in the DCI section of the platform with the new NextGen score.

After switching, you will see an impact on your score in these areas:

• DCI Dashboard
• DCI Industry Benchmark
• The DCI Overview page
• The DCI My Sites page
• DCI API
• The Page Inspector DCI

Accessibility NextGen: Single Page Check

When opting in on Accessibility NextGen, you will see that we have added a Single Page Check page.

You might already be familiar with this page from our current Accessibility product or from Quality Assurance.

Analytics: Bulk configuration on Discover Parameters

[Live on all markets]

On the Discover Parameters page, we have added an option to bulk-track or bulk-ignore parameters found in your Analytics data.

This makes it easier for you to choose which parameters you want to track or ignore.

We have also added a Recommendation column to the table. It recommends what action to take on a specific parameter based on the URL to value ratio.

Last but not least, we have also updated our Learn content, which helps you get started on working with parameters in Analytics.

You can read more about parameters in our article: Parameters and their tracking options in analytics.

CMS plugins: Improved user interface for Prepublish checks

We have improved the user interface for our Prepublish section of CMS plugins.

The new interface groups checks by product and gives you a better overview of the checks.

Currently, you will only find our Prepublish feature when using the Adobe Experience Manager or Drupal CMS plugins.

Web Security: New Malware issue types

We have added four new Malware issue types to Web Security:

• Adware Installation
• Attack Detected
• Anonymous Open Proxy
• Malware Infection

These new issue types will supply you with even more information on vulnerabilities and detected malicious behavior on your domains.

February 4th, 2021:

CSV exports contain Page Report and CMS columns

We have updated our CSV exports to contain Page Report and CMS columns.

The Page Report and CMS columns are available in all CSV exports of tables that contain page titles and URLs. This will help you take quicker actions based on exports.

CMS columns will only feature in the export if CMS deeplinking is set up for the exported site.

January 28th, 2021:

Analytics: Bulk configuration on Discover Parameters

[Live on selected markets: AU, CAN, IE, NZ, UK & US]

On the Discover Parameters page, we have added an option to bulk-track or bulk-ignore parameters found in your Analytics data.

This makes it easier for you to choose which parameters you want to track or ignore.

We have also added a Recommendation column to the table. It recommends what action to take on a specific parameter based on the URL to value ratio.

Last but not least, we have also updated our Learn content, which helps you get started on working with parameters in Analytics.

You can read more about parameters in our article: Parameters and their tracking options in analytics.

January 21st, 2021:

Accessibility NextGen: New checks added

We have added 3 new checks to our Accessibility NextGen product.

We now also check for:

• First focusable is link to main content
• Links in paragraphs of text are distinguishable
• Actionable elements have a visible focus indicator

Sign up for our Accessibility NextGen product.

New version of the Drupal CMS plugin

We have released an updated version of our Drupal plugin.

The new version features a Prepublish functionality, also available in our Adobe AEM plugin.

The Prepublish functionality lets you proactively check and identify errors before content is published.

An updated installation guide and user manual are available through our Drupal page.

January 7th, 2021:

Analytics: Organic search filters

We have introduced 3 system filters to Analytics so you can filter organic search traffic from Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

You will find the new filters on the Filters page or in the Filters dropdown in Analytics.

The filters are available by default on all accounts.

Data Privacy: National IDs for Japan, Singapore, and Austria

We have added options to look for Japanese, Singaporean, and Austrian National IDs in Data Privacy.

On the Country-specific format page under Data Privacy Settings, you can now change the National ID format you want to check for on specific sites.

December 17th, 2020:

Accessibility NextGen: Export historic data

Users who have switched to Accessibility NextGen can export progress data from the previous version of Accessibility.

You can find this option at the bottom of the Overview page in Accessibility NextGen. Follow the link to "View archived history".

From this new page, you can export your progress on accessibility issues and occurrences.

Sign up for our Accessibility NextGen product.

Integrations: Jira On-Prem setup in the platform

We have added an option to set up a connection to your On-Prem Jira account from the platform.

You can do this by clicking "Add new Jira connection" on the Connections page under Integrations > Task Management. When adding the connection, you can choose if you want to connect from Jira cloud or a self-managed server.

Custom layout and text in Dashboard widgets

You can now add headings, text, images, and dividers to your custom dashboards.

The four new widgets can be accessed from the Widget library or via the new shortcut-buttons on a custom dashboard.

The new widgets are also available for Dashboard Reports, which makes it much more flexible when creating a report for your colleagues. See more at Configuring Siteimprove Dashboards and Dashboard reports