The Bing Webmaster Tools API might have a week of data loss, a data gap, if you will. There was some sort of issue where the API was not returning data after March 3rd and then after Glenn Gabe reported it to Microsoft’s Fabrice Canel, Microsoft fixed the issue but there is two weeks or so of data loss between March 3rd and March 17th.

Glenn Gabe posted on Twitter about this issue, first on March 17th about the API no longer returning data after March 3rd and then again after Microsoft said it was resolved, showing that yes, new data is coming in but that there is a data gap of two weeks with no data.

Thanks for reporting Glenn, business travelling back from SMX Munich, I will have the team looking at this ASAP.

— Fabrice Canel (@facan) March 17, 2023

Just checked now and the week of 3/10 is missing. Any way to get that back? Thanks again Fabrice! pic.twitter.com/Q8v2CfsCCV

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 21, 2023

So as you can see, there is this two-week period where there is no data being reported by the API.

The Bing Webmaster Tools web interface seems to have the data, so technically, I guess you can export it and do some work to get it where you need it but you should be aware that the API may be missing this data.

Update: This was a week of data, not necessarily two weeks:

Just to clarify, that’s missing one week of data, not two. The week of 3/10 was missing when I last checked.

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 23, 2023

Also, there may be an issue with the IndexNow WordPress plugin, but I am not sure and I don’t have a way to test this one:

Thanks @vahandev, we will have a look.

— Fabrice Canel (@facan) March 20, 2023

Forum discussion at Twitter.

The other day, John Mueller of Google tweeted something true but sarcastic and it seems some took it the wrong way. He said In case you’re curious, the rel=dofollow works on links. The thing is, it could have been any rel attribute, such as rel=cheese and it would be treated the same as rel=dofollow, Google would ignore the attribute.

The only attributes Google would recognize and do anything with are the supported link attributes, such as rel=nofollow, rel=sponsored, and rel=ugc. But rel=dofollow means nothing to Google, Google will just crawl it like the rel link attribute is not even there. Occasionally I stick funny things in my link attributes just to see if anyone would pick up on it, no one does.

After John tweet this, he had to then come back and clarify, as to not set some SEOs off to add dofollow to their HTML links.

Here are those tweets:

Just in case it wasn’t clear from all the replies here, using an unknown rel-attribute on links doesn’t do anything, and since the default behavior is to use links normally, this just treats links like links. You don’t need to use rel=dofollow. You can, but you don’t need to.

— johnmu is not a bard yet 🖇️🖇️ (@JohnMu) March 22, 2023

If you wanted to, you could go even further and use made-up attributes, like <p cheese=”good”>. This will – unfortunately for the robot – also be ignored. Technically you could now create a page to do something with CSS or JS with that, but I will know.

— johnmu is not a bard yet 🖇️🖇️ (@JohnMu) March 22, 2023

Forum discussion at Twitter.

As we approach the Google Analytics 4 migration deadline, Google Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin reminds advertisers that some “advertisers could see a significant performance impact” in their ad campaigns if they do not migrate.

Ginny wrote this on Twitter, first talking about the Google Analytics 4 deadline, saying “the GA4 deadline is fast approaching. Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new data on July 1.” Ginny added, “that means new data will stop flowing from UA properties into Google Ads which could significantly impact campaign performance.”

The GA4 deadline is fast approaching.
UA properties will stop processing new data on *July 1*.

That means new data will stop flowing from UA properties into Google Ads which could significantly impact campaign performance.

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) March 23, 2023

Later, Scott Redgate asked about that, saying “for advertisers who are currently pulling in conversions from UA, and don’t upgrade, spend in campaigns like PMAX will drastically decrease if target ROAS/CPA is set (as system won’t detect any conversions). That could potentially have huge implications for Google’s revenue?”

Let’s say 20% of advertisers don’t migrate, and half of their spend is on campaigns like PMAX with ROAS set. Google prepared for a 10% haircut to top-line revenue?

— Scott Redgate (@sredg8) March 23, 2023

Ginny responded to this saying, yes, it can. “Advertisers could see significant performance impact if their conversion bidding is still set to UA after July 1. We encourage customers to migrate on their own now to be sure everything is properly transferred to GA4,” she wrote.

Advertisers could see significant performance impact if their conversion bidding is still set to UA after July 1. We encourage customers to migrate on their own now to be sure everything is properly transferred to GA4.

— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) March 23, 2023

So you better migrate to GA4 by July 1, before it impacts your Google Ads performance.

Forum discussion at Twitter.