Well, it has been an interesting month to say the least. I mean, tons of COVID-19 related changes have been made to Google search and local - tons. Besides for that, Google's search results are incredibly volatile the past month, just look at all the update stories we wrote this month - Google has not confirmed any of them.
Google said it will switch all sites to mobile first indexing by September. Currently the nofollow change was a policy change and nothing was really implemented yet. Google is working with official health organizations to get them more visibility in search.
Google Search Console added new email preferences and the ability to hide the performance report in the search results. Google has stopped displaying right side featured snippets.
It was a weird and busy month and the chatter in the WebmasterWorld forums is still around algorithm updates. To see last month's report, go here.
Here are the more important stories over the past 30 days if you want to catch up quickly:
Google Algorithm Update:
- Google Search Volatility & Fluctuations Super Unusual
- Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility
- Possible Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update This Week
- Possible March 10th Google Search Algorithm Update
- Google Says It Should Continue To Improve The Search Results
- Google To Switch All Sites Mobile-First Indexing By September 2020
- Google: Nofollow Change Was A Policy Change; No Action Was Necessarily Taken By Googlers Yet
- Google Says More Granular Levels Of Speed May Become A Ranking Factor
- Google: No Such Thing As Two Waves Of Indexing Or Crawling
- Google Initiative To Help Health Organizations Become More Visible In Search
- Google Event Schema For Virtual, Postponed & Canceled Events
- Google Structured Data For COVID-19 Announcements
- Google On How To Technically Pause Your Online Business
- Google Releases The Webmaster Conference Product Summit Videos
- Google: Start With Fewer Pages For New Sites
- Google: Heading & Titles Help A Little With Pagination But Links Help Best
- Google: Hreflang Annotations Not Processed Until All Pages In The Set Are Crawled & Indexed
- Google: We Can Look Up Internal PageRank But Toolbar PageRank Is Gone
- Google: Indexing Search Result Pages Is A Watering Down Indexed Pages Issue
- Google People Also Ask Sees Large Reduction
- Google Changelog For Google Search Developer Documentation
- Google 3D & AR Images: More Technical Details & How To Request Inclusion
- Google Search Console New Email Preferences - Screen Shots
- Hide Search Performance For This Query In Google
- Google Search Console Sends Out Notices Of Event Markup Issues
- Google Stops Displaying Almost All Top Right Featured Snippets
- Google Knowledge Panel Displaying A Large Video
- Google Featured Snippets Not In Position One
- Google Featured Snippets Showing YouTube Timestamp Links
- Is Google Bringing Back Magnifying Glass To Searches Related To Section?
- Google In This Video Key Moments Shows Multiple Times?
- Google Now Shows PDF Image Thumbnails In Search
- Google My Business: Car Dealerships Now Can Have Multiple Listings
- Google My Business Management Box For Profiles You Manage In Search Results
- Google My Business Support During Uncertain Times
- Google Posts With Special COVID-19 Updates
- Google Temporary Closed Status Now Doesn't Hurt Your Search Rankings
- Google Posts In Google My Business Now Back After Being Disabled
- Google Tests Dine In, Take Out & Delivery Attributes For Local Results
- Google Search Takeout & Delivery Discover More Places Cards
- Google My Business Offers Tips For Clinics & Medical Offices
- Google My Business Adds Mark As Temporarily Closed Option
- Google My Business Not Functioning Properly During COVID-19 Crisis
- Google Suspends Local Reviews & Q&A During Coronavirus Outbreak
- Google Local Showing Review Mentions By People
- Google My Business Using Duplex To Call Businesses To See Hour Changes Or Closures
- Google My Business: Is The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Affecting Your Business?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
