# May 2022 (v1.86)

Hi everyone! Welcome to the May 2022 release of SEO Studio. This was an emergency patch that included new major data
sources after both **Alexa** and **SEO Profiler** shut down last week. There are some huge improvements and
renovations, here's an overview.

- [✨&nbsp;Revamped backlink tools](#revamped-backlink-tools) – Higher quality data & a fresh new paint
- [🚀&nbsp;Revamped search tools](#revamped-search-tools) – Improved parsing & more fresh paint
- [✅&nbsp;Revamped top search queries](#revamped-top-searches) – Higher quality data & additional paint
- [📊&nbsp;New authority tools](#new-authority-tools) – Check page & domain authority

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## Revamped backlink tools {#revamped-backlink-tools}

I've integrated a new proprietary data source for backlinks. This data is available for free within a reasonable
daily number of requests. This data is much more fresh than before, with index updates twice per week, and includes
page & domain authority scores for each result.

I'm happy to announce that this data source also supports *all domain names*, not just western domain names like the
previous source. I hope you and your users will find this useful.

![Revamped backlinks](/release/revamped-backlinks.jpg)

I've also reworked the other backlink tools with the following new behaviors:

- **Poor Backlinks** – Shows the latest backlinks that are dofollow and have extremely low authority scores.
- **New Backlinks** – Shows backlinks discovered within the last 3 months.
- **Top Referrers** – Shows domain names with the most backlinks to your website.

> **Note:** The backlink tools may be a little slow to start for the first time when they have not been used in a while.
  This is due to the script refreshing authentication tokens, which are cached and reused for one hour.


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## Revamped search tools {#revamped-search-tools}

I've made significant improvements and renovations to the search-based tools in the script. These include:

- **Google SERP** – Improved machine learning parser, a new design, and authority scores.
- **Bing SERP** – Brand new parser, a new design, and authority scores.
- **Indexed Pages** – Fixed broken counts for some users and improved overall reliability.
- **Competition** – A total overhaul with backlink & authority data.

With the new SERP design, I introduced site icons and authority scores. In addition, search results which match your
target website will now be highlighted within all of the search-based tools.

![Revamped search tools](/release/revamped-search.jpg)

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## Revamped top search queries {#revamped-top-searches}

The script retrieved its top search query data from Alexa, but now that Alexa has shut down their operations, I've
moved to a new data source.

We can now see the top five search queries across a small number of popular regions, along with your site's
average rank, the monthly volume and clicks, the estimated broad CPC, the keyword difficulty, and the number of other
results that are homepages.

The current supported regions are United States, Germany, and India. After some time has passed and the tool is
confirmed working, I may enable additional regions.

![Revamped top searches](/release/revamped-top-searches.jpg)

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## New authority tools {#new-authority-tools}

The new backlink data source provides authority scores for pages and domain names. Please note that these scores are
*estimates* and may not be as accurate as equivalent scores from Moz. Indeed, these tools are simple, but they will
hopefully be useful and attractive for your users.

![New authority tools](/release/authority-tools.jpg)

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## Miscellaneous

### Tool changes

- The Alexa Rank tool has been removed because Alexa has shut down
- Added support for a single layer of nested `<sitemap>` directives in sitemaps
- Added support for `rss` sitemap formats

### Security changes

- Added an option to allow local hostnames and IPs for site inputs (disabled by default)

### Other changes

- Added twig as an optional rendering method for tool templates
- Improved the Google SERP algorithm to detect total result counts
- Changed links in tool results to have `noopener` and `nofollow` relationships
- Updated the bundled search network client to the latest version

### Bug fixes

- Fixed unstyled links in the admin sidebar from the subscriptions extension
- Fixed a `pre` layout overflow in the headers tool
- Fixed help tooltips not showing in the admin panel
