SEO BANDWAGON

Changelog

What changed on SEO Bandwagon: new pages, tools and fixes, newest first, dated by the day each one shipped.

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October 2026

  1. A cut-short results page no longer counts as a drop

    Google sometimes stops a results page early, and the rank tracker used to record a domain missing from those few pages as out of the top 100. A check that comes back with under half the results it asked for, without your domain, now counts as unanswered: the keyword keeps its last position and is checked again. A search that comes back short three times in a row really has that few results, and only then is the miss recorded.

  2. Your account has its own menu

    Signed in, your profile picture in the top bar now opens your account menu: Dashboard, Settings, API keys, Billing and Log out. A new Settings page lists your connected accounts, API keys and connected apps, and Billing opens the billing portal where you change your card, see invoices or cancel. Where visitors see Free audit, you now see your own update: how many tracked keywords moved this week and your best position, or the latest SEO score from the Chrome extension. The account card at the top of the dashboard is gone, the site menus no longer carry account links, and on a phone the dashboard sections now show as a row you can scroll sideways.

  3. Connect Google Analytics from the dashboard

    The Google Analytics 4 card on the dashboard now shows whether your Google connection includes Analytics access, and its Connect button opens Google's consent screen to grant it. It used to send you to the Clients page to enter a property ID.

  4. The mobile menu fits the screen

    On a phone the menu was taller than the screen and could not scroll, so its last links and the Free audit button were out of reach. It now fits below the top bar and scrolls on its own, groups its links under the same four headings as the desktop menu, and keeps Sign in, the theme switch and Free audit at the bottom where they stay in view.

  5. Agents can verify a domain in Search Console

    A new MCP tool, gsc_verify_domain, verifies a domain in Google Search Console and adds it as a Domain property: it gets Google's verification record, adds it to the domain's DNS in your connected Cloudflare account, has Google verify it with your own Google account as owner, and can submit a sitemap. It reports each step and can be run again safely. It needs the Google site management connection and a Cloudflare connection, both on the Connect page; Google shows a notice that it has not reviewed the site management access yet.

  6. Scheduled rank checks run through the queued API

    The rank tracker's scheduled checks now go through DataForSEO's queued API from a Cloudflare cron, in runs of up to a hundred keywords, instead of a weekly job that checked one keyword at a time and could not finish. Each keyword keeps its cadence. Position history, including the rank_tracker_history MCP tool, now answers only for keywords you track on that domain, and adding a keyword from the public rank check respects your plan's keyword allowance.

  7. Track a domain in a chosen market

    The rank tracker now reads Google as a searcher in a chosen market would: each tracked domain can be tracked in a country, in a place within it found from Google's own list of places, in a language and on a chosen device, and each market keeps its own keyword list, positions and history. Search volume and keyword difficulty follow the market. Agents get a rank_tracker_trackers tool and can read keywords and history for one market.

  8. The Chrome extension comparisons become alternative pages

    The pages comparing the SEO Chrome extension with Detailed SEO Extension, Ahrefs SEO Toolbar and SEO Minion are now alternative pages, at /seo-chrome-extension/detailed-seo-extension-alternative and the like. Keyword Surfer, a keyword research tool that does a different job, keeps a comparison. The old /seo-chrome-extension/vs/ addresses, and their markdown copies, redirect to the new ones.

  9. The Chrome extension’s roadmap, on its page

    The SEO Chrome extension page now has a roadmap: what each release shipped since 1.5.0, the candidates for the next feature release, the smaller fixes queued and what the extension will not do. The markdown copy carries it too.

  10. The Chrome extension comparisons describe the current extension

    The comparisons of the SEO Chrome extension with Detailed SEO Extension, Ahrefs SEO Toolbar, Keyword Surfer and SEO Minion now describe the extension the Chrome Web Store serves, and each other extension was checked again against its own listing and documentation the same day. Each table adds broken links, redirects, hreflang return tags, rendering, user-agent switching, structured data checks and Google results tools, and where the other extension’s own pages neither claim nor rule out a capability, it says “Not stated” instead of “No”.

  11. Search Console date ranges cover exactly the days they name

    The dashboard's Search Console ranges each read one day more than their name, so a 28-day total summed 29 days of clicks and impressions. Each range now covers exactly its number of days, so totals read about a day's worth lower than before, and the client report, the rank tracker's Search Console positions and the query trend comparison use the same exact ranges.

  12. Saved searches reopen with their results

    A search answered from a recent copy of the same search now keeps its own results, so reopening it from History, Saved searches or the dashboard shows the figures you saw instead of blanks.

  13. Client reports show Search Console data without your own Google login

    The client report in your dashboard now reads Search Console through the access our team holds for your site, so clicks, impressions, top queries and top pages show without connecting a Google account of your own. When Search Console is not connected for a site, the report says so instead of showing empty panels.

  14. A video tour of the Chrome extension

    The SEO Chrome extension page now shows the extension at work in a short video: Core Web Vitals, schema markup and broken links on any page, and local citations checked across directories. It has captions, and its transcript is on the page and in the markdown copy.

  15. The Chrome extension page covers link, indexability and hreflang checks

    The SEO Chrome extension page now describes the current extension: broken links grouped by HTTP status, redirects and indexability, hreflang return tags, what JavaScript changed on a page, and structured data checked field by field, beside the score and the on-page checks. Its comparison with three other extensions adds broken links, hreflang return tags and user-agent switching, each checked against that extension’s own store listing.

  16. The Wikipedia jargon study has a new address

    History of SEO Terms and Jargon on Wikipedia now lives at /research/history-of-seo-terms, in the words of its title. Links to the old address, /research/how-spamdexing-became-seo, still arrive at the study.

  17. The SEO company price list moves to the end of its page, for signed-in users

    On SEO companies that publish their prices, the table of agencies, their published prices and the links to their pricing pages now sits at the very end of the page and is shown to signed-in users; a free account is enough. The percentiles, what each price band buys, how the list was made and the questions stay open to everyone, and so does the markdown copy, which now describes the list instead of printing it. The CSV of the rows is shown to signed-in users too.

  18. New research: Google Review Statistics 2026

    Review statistics from one weekly Google Maps sweep across 54 US metros: how reviews split across 1 to 5 stars, how rare a perfect 5.0 is at each review count, how many reviews businesses gain between weekly sweeps, and figures for the largest business categories and every metro. Every figure carries its sample size, and the methods are on the page.

  19. Every free tool on one page

    A new page at /tools lists the free tools with what each one does, and shows how the latitude and longitude lookup, the Place ID finder and the local rank checker pass their results from one to the next. Each tool page now describes itself to search engines as free software. Agents can read the markdown copy at /tools.md.

  20. Business search in the citations form runs when you press Search

    When you add a business or a competitor for citation tracking, the Google business search now runs when you press Search or Enter, not at every pause in typing. A search that cannot run says why instead of showing an empty list.

September 2026

  1. The SEO companies that publish their prices

    A list of the US local SEO agencies that publish a monthly SEO price, in price order, with each price, the page it came from and the day it was read, the percentiles across them, and the same rows as a CSV. Agents can read the markdown copy at /seo-companies.md.

  2. New guide: Search engine basics

    How search engines work, in plain English: what a search engine is, crawling, indexing and ranking, what a results page holds, and what a search engine needs from your site. Every term links to its glossary entry, and every date and figure carries a numbered source. Agents can read the markdown copy at /search-engine-basics.md.

  3. Connect Claude and other MCP clients by signing in

    The MCP server has a sign-in address, mcp.seobandwagon.com/mcp: an MCP client such as Claude signs you in on seobandwagon.com and asks what it may do, with no API key to copy. Connected apps in your dashboard lists every app you allowed, with a Remove button, and API keys keep working.

  4. Corrected analysis pages about the wrong subject

    Two Wikipedia analysis pages covered the wrong article. They now point to the right ones: Danny Sullivan the search journalist, and Conductor the SEO company. Two pages about people Wikipedia has no article on were retired to the index.

  5. New research: When SEO Was Spam

    How Wikipedia's editors framed search engine optimization across 22 years of talk-page debates, with every quote linked to the revision it comes from.

  6. A second edition of the Wikipedia jargon study

    The study of SEO terms on Wikipedia adds a second edition on a wider set of articles, and the glossary dates more of its terms from it. The first edition's published figures are unchanged.

  7. The SEO glossary, linked across the site

    The glossary is in the navigation, and its terms are linked where they come up on the service pages, blog posts and metro pages.

  8. The first glossary term pages

    Two terms now have full pages, each reviewed before it went live: What is llms.txt? and What is a local citation?

  9. Corrected the Core Web Vitals targets

    The technical SEO page gives the thresholds as web.dev defines them: 2.5 s or less for LCP, 0.1 or less for CLS and 200 ms or less for INP. It had said "under" each one.

  10. The SEO glossary, rebuilt

    Every term is defined in plain English and grouped by topic, with an A to Z index, and many terms carry a date measured from Wikipedia's record.

  11. A complete site map

    The site map lists every public page, with a Copy button for each link and links to the markdown copies. The XML sitemap and llms.txt are built from the same list.

  12. A favicon

    The site has a favicon and app icons: our SB monogram, pink on navy.

  13. Files & Photos in the dashboard

    Clients can upload photos, a logo and documents for their project from the dashboard instead of sending them by email. Only the client and our team can see them.

  14. Rank tracker: background checks and keyword controls

    Position checks started from the dashboard run in the background and show their progress. You can pause and resume keywords, set a keyword's target page, and delete keywords in bulk.

  15. Rank tracker: fewer missed positions, and Search Console import

    A position found in partial search results now counts instead of being dropped. You can import keywords from Search Console, and a new column shows each keyword's change over the last 7 days.

  16. Find a page

    A search box in the navigation finds any page on the site by its name.

  17. Real estate SEO, metro by metro

    The real estate SEO hub is rebuilt, with a page for each metro that passes our quality checks, built from that market's own search data.

  18. Suggestions in the search box

    The search box suggests keywords and metros as you type, and choosing a metro takes you straight to its Search Ledger page.

  19. Rank tracker: see what moved

    After a position check, the dashboard lists which keywords moved, and says so when a check fails instead of failing silently.

  20. A rebuilt Chrome extension page

    The extension page shows what it checks, how it works, how it compares with other extensions, and answers to common questions.

  21. Revocable API keys

    Revoke an API key from the dashboard and it stops working at once. The MCP server accepts only keys that carry the mcp scope.

  22. Self-serve API keys

    Create your own API keys, with scopes, in the dashboard, and connect the Chrome extension to your account in one click.

  23. Signing in asks Google for less

    Signing in asks only for your name and email. Search Console and Analytics access are requested when you connect them, and only to read.

August 2026

  1. The Periodic Table of SEO

    An interactive periodic table of SEO ranking factors, each element marked with what our research measured and what it did not, with a code to embed it on your own site.

  2. Search Console and Analytics tools for AI agents

    The MCP server adds Search Console analysis tools, Google Analytics 4 reports, and a tool that joins the two by landing page. The reports flag when Google's data is sampled or incomplete.

  3. An RSS feed for The Search Ledger

    Follow new metro editions in any feed reader.

  4. Social cards and an embeddable stat card for every metro

    Each Search Ledger page shares with its own card showing its figures, and other sites can embed a small card that links back to it.

  5. A contact form

    The contact page has a form, so you no longer need an email client to reach us.

  6. Audit results you can act on

    The free SEO audit shows a health score across the systems it measured and a list of what to fix first, and says plainly which systems it did not measure.

  7. Research pages open to all, and the audit behind a sign-in

    The Wikipedia research pages load for every visitor without an account. The free SEO audit now asks you to sign in with Google first.