SEO title: FRED Update: Federal Reserve Economic Data
Slug: fred-update-guide
Meta description: Want to know more about the recent FRED update? Discover changes to the website and learn about new data and tools offered by the St. Louis Federal Reserve.
FRED Update
If you are an investor or analyst, FED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) is a website that you visit often. The site is operated by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and is extremely popular with investors and financial writers.
New features have been added to the site and the more than 800,000 data series have been organized and documented. The site has improved functionality to provide financial and statistical data to the public.
Users can now better isolate and target data with improvements to FRED’s site search engine. Users can be provided with more specific and relevant results to target questions and data series.
Intuitive Tag Stacks and Variant Grouping
Annual, quarterly, and even daily updates available on FRED?s homepage are one click away. So are seasonal adjustments and the source agency.
Previously, metrics were ordered chronologically, with the latest available revision listed first. If you were unlucky enough to chart an out-of-date metric, you?d only learn of your error during your presentation. Now, ALFRED data has been successfully integrated to provide the latest and greatest revisions.
Enhanced Customization and Easier Sharing
Features that once required multiple clicks are now a click or two away. For example, toggle buttons located on the charting workspace allow you to modify your data series to reflect index levels or percent changes.
Dozens of metrics can now be charted and embedded within your web pages in a space-efficient manner. You?re no longer required to manually resize the iframe to avoid horizontal scrolling.
FRED for Forex
Leverage FRED?s tools to analyze movement in international currencies against the US Dollar and other relevant metrics. You?ll be shocked at the historical data available for international trade balances and flows, as well as developed and emerging market currencies.
Data terminals can cost tens of thousands of dollars a month. For independent analysts and small content teams, the expense is prohibitive. FRED is free. If you know basic R or basic Python, you can access and integrate FRED data into your content. You can even produce your own “Bloomberg-style” terminal at no cost.
For free live FRED Data, consider the following tips.
- Use FRED’s dynamic embed code. Embeds let users view data for other dates by hovering over a bar or line. Users spending more time on your site is always better for SEO.
- Embed code can be copy and pasted from FRED. No screenshots.
- Add context to charts: Search engines recognize pictures and charts and reward descriptions. Add 2-3 sentences to each chart that describe the data and provide your insight about market conditions.
- Incorporate link building: Linking to the FRED series improves site rankings and satisfies external link requirements set by Yoast.
These changes will help optimize your site to efficiently interpret the data and describe market conditions.