While last month was filled with algorithm updates this month wasn't too much different. We had the July 2021 core update, a new link spam update and an unconfirmed update. Google told us core updates don't impact local results and Gary Illyes broke down how Google ranks features and spoke a bit about magic ranking signals.
Google updated a ton of its help documents; explaining new things to us and also adding new guidelines and details - you can see a lot of that in the Search Console section below. Google changed how it handles soft 404 detection and had to tweak it due to some issues. Google also had a bug with review snippets doing missing.
Google shows us why it ranks search results, the company dropped the AMP label and did a ton of interface tests in search. Plus there was a lot of stuff in local and maps.
It was a busy month and the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread is actually pretty slow right now.
Here are the more important stories you may want to catch up on:
Google Algorithms & Rankings:
- Google July 2021 Core Update Is Live - What We Are Seeing
- Google July 2021 Core Update Spiked Again Around July 9th
- Google July 2021 Core Update "Effectively Complete" On July 12th
- Google Link Spam Update Is Here
- Quiet Week After The Google Link Spam Update; Maybe It's Being Felt Now
- Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update July 23rd & 24th
- Google Local Ranking Changes With The Google Core Update
- How Google Ranks News, Videos, Images, Featured Snippets & Other Features
- How Google Cuts & Ranks Result Sets With Magic Signals
- Google Removes The Rich Result Type From The Performance Reports
- Google Math Solvers Rich Results Added To Performance Report Search Appearance Filters
- Google Clarifies FAQ Markup Should Be Visible On The Page Even Expandable Sections
- Google Adds New Guidelines To Math Solver Markup Help Documentation
- Google Fact Check Guidelines Now Disallows Multiple ClaimReview Per Page
- Coming Soon: New Google Search Editorial Content Policies For Job Postings
- Google Search Console Now Links AMP Page Experience Issues to AMP Page Experience Guide
- Google Changed How It Handles Soft 404s Detection - Mobile vs Desktop
- Google Removed A Soft 404 Classifier To Fix Some Deindexing Bugs
- Confirmed Bug: Google Review Snippets Missing From Search Results
- Google: Redirects Signals Stick With Destination URL After A Year
- On The Edge Of Google's Quality Threshold - Pages Disappear & Return After Submission
- Google: You Do Not Need To Switch Rel Nofollow To Rel Sponsored
- Google Illustrates Causes For Various Organic Traffic Drops
- Google: Core Updates Can Impact People Also Ask (PAA) Results
- Google: Machine Learning Takes Care Of Most Obvious Spam
- Google Reminder To Highlight Customer Support Methods On Websites
- Google Posts On Search Operators Limitations Including Google's Retrieval Limits
- Google: Generally The Localized Version Of Your Site Gets Its Own Signals
- Google: You May Get Some Ranking Benefit If Someone Steals Your Original Images
- Assume The Google Page Experience Update Replaced The Old Google Speed Update
- Google Provides SEO Best Practices For Deal Pages
- Google Search Key Moments Videos Support SeekToAction Markup
- Google Posts For Knowledge Panels Being Disabled On July 20, 2021
- New Google Direct Apply Option To Job Posting Schema
- Newzdash: 23% Of Google Top Stories URLs Are Not AMP
- Google Tries To Clarify Google News Inclusion But Did It Help?
- Google: We Ignore PDFs For Core Web Vitals & Mobile Friendlessness
- Google Shows Which Ranking Factors Resulted In A Page Ranking
- Google Drops The AMP Label In The Mobile Search Results
- Google Tests Indenting Search Results From Same Domain
- Google Tests Big Carousel For More Specific Searches
- Google Search Tests Rounded Corners Design Again
- Google Question Hub Redesign & Features
- Google Tests Again Removing Full URLs and Breadcrumbs From Snippets
- Google Search Tests Related Queries In Sticky Footer On Mobile
- Google Maps Launches New Detailed Restaurant Reviews
- Google Hotel Listings Add Sustainability & Eco Certifications Attributes
- Google Tests The Local Pack With Map Placed On Right Side
- Google Local Pack Without A Map - Bug Or Test?
- Google Local Business Listing In Search Displays Areas Served
- Google Business Listing With Google Phone Number Alias
- Google My Business Messages Notes When Message Is From Google Posts
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
