Two new Google Webmaster Tools features are now available to site owners: a structured data dashboard with site, item type, and page-level views, as well as a new domain verification option using DNS CNAME records.
Structured Data Dashboard Shows Whether Google is Picking Up New Markup
Google uses structured data like rich snippets to allow webmasters to highlight certain types of information in search results. The new Structured Data Dashboard is designed to let webmasters see clearly what Google knows about their website.
The first view in the new dashboard is found under Optimization and offers a site-level look at data organized by root item type and vocabulary schema. Webmasters can also look into per-page details for each item type.
Google WMT team members Thomas Biggs and Andrei Pascovici explain, “Google parses and stores a fixed number of pages for each site and item type. They are stored in decreasing order by the time in which they were crawled.”
Page-level view shows the attributes of each item on the page and links to the rich snippet testing tool.
According to Biggs and Pascovici, “Webmasters can use the Structured Data Dashboard to verify that Google is picking up new markup, as well as to detect problems with existing markup, for example monitor potential changes in instance counts during site redesigns.”
DNS CNAME Ownership Verification for Webmasters Without DNS TXT Access
The second minor change in WMT allows webmasters to prove ownership of their domain using CNAME records. Google explains the four-step process that allows webmasters to verify ownership of the domain and all subsequent subdomains:
- Add the domain example.com to your account either in Webmaster Tools or directly on the Verification Home page.
- Select the Domain Name Provider method of verification, then select your domain name provider that manages your DNS records or “Other” if your provider is not on this list.
- Based on your selection you may either see the instructions to set a CNAME record or see a link to the option Add a CNAME record. Follow the instructions to add the specified CNAME record to your domain’s DNS configuration.
- Click the Verify button.
Google software engineer Pooja Wagh advises, “Sometimes DNS records take a while to make their way across the Internet. If we don’t find the record immediately, we’ll check for it periodically and when we find the record we’ll make you a verified owner. To maintain your verification status don’t remove the record, even after verification succeeds.”
Webmasters can also use existing verification methods including the HTML file, meta tag, or Google Analytics tag to prove ownership of a site.
These changes are just the most recent in a number of improvements Google has made to Webmaster Tools in the last few months. In April, Google added 90 days of search query data, but dropped three other features. In May, they gave the interface a redesign, with new menus and an overall look and feel closer to that other Google products. At the end of July, Google added an index status feature, allowing webmasters to see exactly how pages are in the index.
What do you think of these recent Google Webmaster Tools improvements? Let us know in the comments.
Related reading
Migrating HTTP to HTTPS: A step-by-step guide
On February 8th 2018 Google announced that, beginning in July of this year, Chrome will now be marking all HTTP sites as ‘not secure’. If you are yet to make the switch, we’ve put together this guide to help you migrate to HTTPS.
The SEO’s essential guide to web technology
As an SEO professional, it is essential for you to understand the various languages and technologies and technology stacks out there that comprise the web - both for more effective collaboration with developers, and to aid in technical detective work, problem detection and prevention. Web tech can be complex and intimidating, but this guide will help make things a little easier.
Overcoming 4 black hat SEO techniques that spammers and scammers use to harm your search rankings
The dark side of SEO can be crippling to a business if they aren’t aware of how to fight back. Here are four negative (or black hat) SEO tactics to keep a keen eye out for, and how you can protect your site – and your business – from being a victim.
8 tips for boosting the speed of your WordPress site
Slow-loading web pages can slowly become the leading cause of high bounce rates, low user engagement, lost traffic opportunities, and abandoned sales journeys. If you have a WordPress site, there are a number of easy and effective methods you can use that will significantly increase your site's loading speed.
