We had a busy month in terms of Google SEO and webmaster related topics; probably the biggest were the numerous unconfirmed updates - one being nicknamed the Maverick update. Google confirmed launching a featured snippets update targeting freshness back in late February.
Google also posted advice, finally, on how to do better after a core update. Google dropped hints on how it can figure out if your site is good without looking at behavioral signals. Google also recommended that experts write or review your YMYL content. Let's not forget Google made over 3,200 changes last year with almost 700,000 experiments!
Search Console now shows when a site switched to mobile-first indexing and it began notifying webmasters of noindex in robots.txt.
There was a lot going on this past month and the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread is still settling down from all the algorithmic shifts. Here is last month's recap if you missed it.
Here is the summary:
Google Algorithms:
- Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Again: Update Maverick
- The Google Maverick Update Slowing Down
- Signs Of Another Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update
- The Google Unconfirmed July Search Ranking Algorithm Update Is Heated
- Possible Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update July 11 & 12th?
- Google Launched A Freshness Algorithm For Featured Snippets In Late February
- Google Posts Help Advice For Sites Impacted By Core Updates
- Google Core Updates Impact Your Google Discover Feed Rankings
- Google Does Not Confirm Smaller Core Updates
- Google Figures Out What Users Want & Like Based On Comparing Your Content To Others?
- Google: YMYL Sites Should Have An Expert To Write The Content
- Google: Word Count Is Not A Ranking Factor
- Google Algorithms Cannot Judge The Realness Of An Author Name?
- Google: There Is No Such Thing As LSI Keywords
- Google's New Developer Doc On JavaScript SEO Basics
- Google Search Indexing Issues For Some Publishers
- Google Search Ignores Redirect Loops
- Google Treats Links Within Primary Content & Boilerplate Content Differently
- Google #AskGoogleWebmasters: Is Linking Out Is Good Or Bad For SEO?
- Google Featured Snippets Can Use Descriptions From YouTube
- Google Mostly Fixed The Recipe Rich Results Bug
- Google On Mega-Menus: Nothing To Be Concerned About, Yet...
- Google Dropped Bing Discover Pages From Index But Was There Traffic Drop?
- Former Google Engineer: Google Hasn't Used PageRank Since 2006
- Google: We Made Over 3,200 Changes With 654,680 Experiments In Search Last Year
- Google Search Console Your Site Switched To Mobile-First Indexing Notifications Causing Confusion?
- Google Search Console Notices For Removing Noindex Robots.txt
- Google Search Console Adding "AMP On Image Result" To Performance Report
- Video: Voice Search In The Google Search Console Not Recording Google Assistant Results?
- Google Quality Raters Guidelines Goes Missing - 404s
- Google Redirects Some Quality Raters Guidelines To New URL
- The Google Search Console Team Busy With New Features & Migrating Old
- Test: Google Local Pack Carousel With Ad At The Top
- Google: Shortnames Suspension Bug Should Be Fixed In 48 Hours?
- Google Local Knowledge Panel Adds Get A Quote Button
- Google Tests New Tabs For Branded Local Pack & More Carousels
- Google Says It Has Restored Broken Reviews
- Google Maps Has Fixed Q&A Bug & Is Investigating Reviews Bug
- Google Local Result On Mobile With Sticky CTA
- Google May Ask Searchers To Submit Missing Knowledge Panel Data
- Google Test Maps, Top Stories, Video, Images & More Icons In Search Results
- Google Image Search Launched Swipe Up Visit Site
- Google Tests Removing (Or A Bug) Breadcrumb From Mobile Search Results Snippet
- Google Tests Sharable Search Results & New Snippet Buttons
- Google People Also Search For Below Featured Snippets
- Yep, Google News Officially Launches New Desktop Results Design
- Google Showing More Related Search Boxes In Image Search
- Google Autocomplete Lightens & Hides Search Results As You Type
- Google Search Recommends Google Assistant For Jokes
- Google Knowledge Panel With Interesting Finds
- Danny Sullivan Says He Is The Same Danny Sullivan After Joining Google
- Google Search Engineer Ryan Moulton: I Would Resign If Google Altered Results For Political Reasons
- Google's John Mueller: ~2/3rds Of What He Says Is Taken Out Of Context
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
