New Google case study shows how Search Console APIs allows data to be reviewed and manipulated within a CMS or a proprietary SEO dashboard. While the article is a case study, a call to action at the end of the article reveals how Google is using APIs to transform search console from a SaaS to a data stream that can be manipulated in the GUI of your choice.
Application Programming Interface (API)
API is a widely used technology that acts as a bridge between two applications that enables one to manipulate the other. It’s use is everywhere, particularly in WordPress where an API can allow a plugin to access and manipulate the website information contained in the database.
Wix Case Study
The collaboration between Google and Wix embedded Google’s Search Console APIs within the Wix dashboard, streamlining the SEO process for millions of Wix users globally.
Users benefit by gaining easy access to useful insights and functionalities of Google Search Console within the familiar Wix dashboard, keeping a unified experience within Wix without having to learn a different user interface.
Implementation and User Benefits
Wix’s integration strategy focused on leveraging Google APIs to enhance its own SEO tools that users are already familiar with. The process involved choosing and integrating specific Google functionalities that complement Wix’s user interface (dashboard UI), resulting in a more intuitive experience of Google’s search console features.
The case study reports that users who integrated search console APIs experienced an average increase in traffic of 15% over the course of one year.
Ecommerce sites experienced a 24% increase in Gross Product Value compared to Wix similar Wix ecommerce sites that did not use the search console API integrations.
According to the case study:
“So far, over 2 million Wix sites connected their Search Console account and submitted a sitemap to Google through the new integration. They also regularly used the new features, such as Site Inspection and Analytics Reports to troubleshoot indexing errors, fix them and get insights on resulting changes in performance. “
APIs Enables Evolution Of Search Console
The successful integration of Google’s APIs into Wix’s platform demonstrates the value of collaborations between Google and companies that offer content management systems, including webhosts that develop their own point and click web builders based on WordPress.
But another goal of the case study is to show how inhouse SEO tools and dashboards can integrate Google Search Console functionalities through the use of APIs.
It’s not until the end of the case study that Google discretely makes a call to action soliciting organizations to contact them through a web form or Twitter.
The article writes:
“If you’re a CMS and interested in collaborating with us, reach out using this form or through our social media.”
The call to action shows how the API is changing how Google’s search console data is accessed and pointing toward a trend where it’s less about signing in to search console to view data within Google’s user interface.
APIs already enable importing search console data into Screaming Frog to combine it with crawl data and of course there are WordPress plugins that can use it, too. The Wix case study shows a novel application that showcases the flexibility of how search console data can be used in the future beyond how it’s currently accessed.
Read Google’s Wix case study:
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Catalyst Labs
