May 31st, 2023 – Q2 launch: Level up your content game

With the constant flow of content requests, stakeholder opinions, brand goals, and consumer expectations, it's tough to see the content forest through the trees.

Visibility means everything when it comes to your content efforts. Internal visibility ensures you have an overview of your content’s quality and performance, and external visibility means your content finds its way to as many people as possible.

Our Q2 product improvement aims to give you more of both. We've updated the platform to provide you with essential content insights that are both comprehensive and easy-to-understand, and that tightened up the tools you'll use to make your content stand out.

The features being launched will enable you to: 

1. Gain easy-to-understand quality and performance insights.
2. Focus on what matters most.
3. Optimize content and get the results you want.
4. Have an even better user experience in the Siteimprove platform.

This release note gives a high-level overview of all the updates launched as part of the Q2 launch on May 31st. If you would like more information on each feature, you can explore the links provided in each section.  

Content in this release note

• Level up your content game now – with these updates:
  • Gain easy-to-understand quality and performance insights:
  • Focus on what matters most:
  • Optimize content and get the results you want:
  • Additional updates being launched in the Q2 launch:
• In-platform Resource Center
• Deep-dive into the updates
  • New feature: All New CMS plugins (Integrations update)
  • New product offering: Content Analytics (New product within the Content Experience solution)
  • New feature: Custom Accessibility Goals (Accessibility update)
  • New product offering: SEO Professional (New product within the Content Experience solution)
  • Feature update:  Google oAuth flow API update (Integrations update)
  • Feature update: Sites management upgrade (Platform update)
  • General platform update: A simpler and more inviting user experience (Platform update)

Level up your content game now – with these updates:

Gain easy-to-understand quality and performance insights:

• New feature: All New CMS plugin (Integrations update)
• New product offering: Content Analytics (New product within the Content Experience solution)

Focus on what matters most:

• New feature Custom Accessibility Goals (Accessibility update)

Optimize content and get the results you want:

• New product offering:  SEO Professional (New product within the Content Experience solution)

Additional updates being launched in the Q2 launch:

• New feature:  Google oAuth flow API upgrade (Integrations update)
• New feature:  Simplify and accelerate sites management (Platform update)
• Design updates:  More simple and inviting user experience (Platform update)
• New feature:  Standalone Prepublish for Adobe E. F. (Integrations update)

In-platform Resource Center

Read more about these releases in the new Resource center directly in the Siteimprove platform! Simply click on the small Questionmark (?)-icon in the bottom right, then navigate to the “What’s new” section. 

Picture 1: Screenshot of the in-platform Resource Center. 

Deep-dive into the updates

Value: Gain easy-to-understand quality and performance insights.

New feature: CMS plugins 2.0 (Integrations update)

Why update the CMS plugins? 
We are future-proofing the CMS plugin so that it meets your expectations for CMS plugins going forward. The old CMS plugin needed to be modernized so that the underlying data structure continues to be sustainable for future development. 

Additionally, we added a pre-publish function to the Adobe Experience Fragments plugin. 

What did we do when we updated the plugin?
We made a new visual presentation of the information, which means the plugin is organized more intuitively:

Picture 2: How the plugin looks before and after the update.

The pre-publish check is now within the plugin.

The filtering options have been updated. This means that roles are preserved, new filter options are available, and they are sticky too. Because the plugin remembers the findings you’re interested in, this ensures that users can easily focus on the recommendations they care most about.

Picture 3: The filtering options in the new plugin.

The pre-publish function related to Adobe Experience Fragments enables the user to check content in Adobe before it is published, making sure content meets the standards necessary for the relevant audience.

The pre-publish plugin looks like this in the Adobe Experience Manager:

Picture 4: How the plugin looks in Adobe Experience Manager.

We’ve also made some back-end updates to the plugin to future-proof it for further development.

Additional information about the CMS plugins

• The new plugin is available from May 31st for WordPress and Adobe Experience Manager/Fragments and can be downloaded at the respective marketplaces.  Click here to read more about how to navigate the new Siteimprove plugin (opens in a new tab)
• The plugin for Drupal, Optimizely, and Sitecore will be released shortly. 
• Community build plugins can be converted into this new version from May 31st. 
• Please visit developer.siteimprove.com for more information.

Click here to read more about CMS plugins (opens in a new tab) 

New product offering: Content Analytics (New product within the Content Experience solution)

Why present a new Analytics product offering within the Content Experience solution? 
This new Analytics product will ease content marketers' work by providing useful insights, and strengthen the way they work by providing them with insights they would not otherwise have access to. 

What is Content Analytics?
Content Analytics focuses specifically on content marketers' needs:

• Understand the popularity of the website content and how each page is trending.
• Measure and evaluate how visitors engage with the content.
• Measure and evaluate how the content layout and design affect visitor behavior and interaction.
• Understand how the content being published contributes to website and business goals.

 The difference between the existing Marketing Analytics product and Content Analytics can be seen here:

Table 1: The difference between Marketing Analytics and Content Analytics.

Getting access to Content Analytics

• If you are an existing Siteimprove user, you need to contact your Customer Success Executive. 
• If you are not an existing Siteimprove user you should fill out the contact form on our website, and we will get in contact with you shortly.

Additional information about the Content Analytics

Click here to read more about the new product within the Content Experience solution.

Value: Focus on what matters most

New feature: Custom Accessibility Goals (Accessibility update)

Why develop the new feature Custom Accessibility Goals? 
We want to help managers focus their teams by working with them to identify and fix accessibility issues. This will make it easier to report on metrics they have decided are relevant.

We also want to enable users to fully customize their Site targets and to highlight how many points they are away from hitting their target. 

Implementing this update gives users a tangible number by showing how close they are to achieving their goal in addition to having our DCI score as a measurement tool. 

What is the Custom Accessibility Goals feature about?
When setting a site target, users will be able to pick:

• Which WCAG version they want to address.
• Which conformance level they will be targeting.
• If they want to include the WAI-ARIA authoring practices.
• If they want to include the Siteimprove best practices.
• If they want to include Issues, Potential Issues, or both.

A Site target can be created from a new Site target page for an individual site, and an account-wide site target can be set from a new page in settings.

Picture 5: Setting site targets for individual sites.

When a site target is set, users will see that:

• The issues displayed in the platform will be filtered to only show the issues matching the criteria they have selected
• They will be able to have a widget on a dashboard showing the distance to their target 
• There will be a progress graph showing how your distance to the target has evolved over time
• My Sites and Groups will show the distance to target 

Only admins and administrators will be able to configure the site target per default.

Picture 6 How to view the distance to your target in points and in a graph.

Additional information about the Custom Accessibility Goals

Click here to read more about Custom Accessibility Goals (opens in a new tab)

Value: Optimize content and get the results you want.

New product offering: SEO Professional (New product within the Content Experience solution)

Why present a new SEO product offering within the Content Experience solution? 

This new product will help content marketers by enabling them to write content that is easy to discover and access. This means that it will be optimized for search engines and use appropriate keywords, tags, and metadata. 

What is SEO Professional?
SEO Professional focuses specifically on content marketers' needs by providing them with relevant functions from SEO Enterprise without requiring them to subscribe to the full Enterprise version. 

With SEO Professional the user can:

• Get keyword insights.
• Discover traffic-driving keywords and filter them based on strategy.
• Get keyword suggestions and monitoring.
• Optimize the search engine content based on the keywords identified.
• Integrate with Google Search Console to enable the user to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their site's presence in Google search results.

Picture 7: Overview of information available in SEO Professional.

Getting access to SEO Professional

• If you are an existing Siteimprove user, you’ll need to contact your Customer Success Executive. 
• If you are not an existing Siteimprove user you should fill out the contact form on our website, and we will get in contact with you shortly.
• Please note that some of the functionalities in SEO Professional are not released on May 31st, but will be rolled out during the following months. 

Additional information about SEO Professional

Article about the new product SEO professional (link opens in a new tab).

There's more!
We've enhanced the Siteimprove platform with additional features, for an even better user experience.

Value: Better user experience when using the Siteimprove platform

Feature update:  Google oAuth flow API update (Integrations update)

Why update the Google API? 
As Google updated their API authentication library, we followed suit and transitioned to a new Google identity services library. 

We incorporated a few more functions that will benefit the users of the integration, which will provide a seamless onboarding experience for the user.  

What did we do when we updated the Google integration?
We deployed an update to the Google integration that uses the new identity services library. 

As part of the redesign, we have also improved the following:

• Import efficiency. 
• Error reporting. 
• Bulk user actions.

The user can now perform bulk actions for assigned users. The user can also delegate access based on the Siteimprove roles defined.

The old and the new versions of the integration can be seen here: 

Picture 8: The old version and the new version of the Google integration.

Additional information about the Google API update

Click here to read more about the Google API (opens in a new tab)

Feature update: Sites management upgrade (Platform update)

Why update the Sites management part of the Platform? 
We have made sure the loading of sites can be completed quicker. 

We also wanted to make the account setup and onboarding easier and faster, using bulk editing functionalities. 

What did we do when we updated site management in the Platform?
We did a re-work of the Sites overview so that: 

• Users experience better performance (loading time example: from 40 seconds to 3 seconds).
• Users can use bulk functionality when:
  • Editing users for multiple sites at once.
  • Editing multiple tags for sites at once.
  • Deleting multiple sites at once.
• Our new Sites overview serves as a basis for upcoming new functionality.

The tagging and bulk editing functionality looks like this:

Picture 9: Searching for tags.

Picture 10: Filtering on tags.

Picture 11: Bulk edit sites.

Additional information about site management

Click here to read more about how to edit user access to Sites and Groups (opens in a new tab).

Click here to read more about how to apply Tags to Sites and Users (opens in a new tab).

General platform update: A simpler and more inviting user experience (Platform update)

Why update the user experience? 
The desire for design and user experience changes over time on websites. To follow the current design and user experience trends in the market, we have made updates to the Siteimprove platform for a fresh and intuitive user experience. 

What did we do when we updated the user experience in the Siteimprove platform?

We have identified six user experience investment areas for our near-term roadmap. These touch upon visual design such as brand product unity and consistent language, and interaction design, where we look at navigation and workflows.

1. Brand-product unity
   Our product UI reflects and supports our brand identity.
2. Persona-aligned navigation
   Important flows are easy to find, and the navigation helps users understand how our product works.
3. Clear & consistent language
   The experience feels relevant, language provides guidance, and best practices are followed consistently.
4. Consistent interactions
   Our product is easy to learn because common tasks are completed in the same way across products.
5. Simplified workflows
   Short workflows that help users complete their tasks as quickly as possible.
6. Inclusive components
   A more accessible experience for all customers, including those with disabilities.

As a user, you will see these changes throughout almost all sections of the Siteimprove platform. The user experience refresh is a task that we will continue to improve throughout the entire year. 

This was the high-level summary of the Q2, 2023 launch. You are more than welcome to provide feedback regarding the features being released. You can do that by reaching out to you Customer Success Executive, or by providing feedback via the Siteimprove Community (found in the Resource Center within the Siteimprove Platform).