Over the past month we had a very volatile Google search ranking landscape. The whole month, the rankings and algorithms seemed to have not kept still at all. It wasn't a massive update in my opinion, but the shuffles have kept the SEO community unnerved.
Outside of that, Google told us they may release the mobile first index in batches and they have no plans to release a sandbox preview of it. Google warned us not to guest blogging for links, again. They also said there is a difference between links from spammy sites and unnatural links.
Google officially dropped support for using DMOZ descriptions in the search results. We also had a ton of user interface tests. It has been a busy month.
The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread is still chattering about the ranking changes in Google.
Here are the important stories over the past month: Google Algorithms & Updates:
- Was There A Google Algorithm Update Starting On Wednesday?
- Google Search Ranking & Algorithm Shifts Still Underway
- Theories On Google Algorithm Update & Changes Last Week
- Google: Our Algorithms Share Data With Other Algorithms
- Google Image Search Adds Quick Filters For GIFs, Latest, Clip Art & Colors
- Google Confirms Jobs For Search Is Rolling Out
- Google Now Helps You Find Events
- Google May Release Mobile First Index Slowly In Batches
- Google: No Plans For Mobile-First Index Test Sandbox Preview
- Google Warns: Don't Do Article Creation For Links
- Google: The Guest Post Link Warning Was Just A General Reminder
- Google: We May Automatically Nofollow Widget Links
- Google: There's A Difference Between Links From Spammy Sites & Unnatural Links
- Google: You Can Get Unnatural Links From Good Sites & Natural Links From Spammy Sites
- Google Stops Support For NOODP Robots Directive & Taking DMOZ Description
- Google Fetch & Render Better Than Cache
- Google: Nofollow Does Not Burn Crawl Budget
- Google Crawls 404s After Other Pages So No Crawl Budget Is Sacrificed
- Google: Dynamic Breadcrumb Trails Isn't Spam
- Google Again: There Was No Sandbox...
- Google: SEO Over Optimization Can Eventually Hurt Your Rankings
- Google: We Do Understand Our Highly Complex Algorithms
- Google's New Workgroup For JavaScript & Search
- Google: Try To Use Anchor Text & Image Alt Text
- Google: Geotargeting Promotes But Hreflang Does Not Promote A Site/Page
- Google: Not Trying 404 Pages Isn't A Sign Of Crawl Issues
- Google: There Is Not Limit To How Many Times A URL Can Show On First Page
- Google: No, Not All Ads Above The Fold Are Bad
- Google Drops Some Top Carousels For "Best" Or "Top" Like Queries
- Google Updated Quality Raters Guidelines Earlier This Month
- Google Search Console Rewords "Other Resources" To "Web Tools"
- Google To Add JavaScript Rendered Code In Fetch & Render Tool
- Google Not Releasing Featured Snippets Search Analytics Filter?
- Google Search Console Search Analytics Not Getting Advanced Filters Soon
- Google: The Search Console API Uses Same Data As Web Portal
- Google Search Console API & Web Total Numbers
- Google Maps Ads Are Popping Up Now?
- Google My Business Adds Photos Notifications
- Google Hotel Search Rolls Out Pricing Trends Graph
- Google Maps Local Panel Tests Highlight Icons
- Google Tests Dropping The Featured Snippet Result From Core Results?
- Google Adds Personal Tab To Search Filters
- Google Tests A More Colorful Black Search Results Design
- Google Black Design Tests Now With Blue Bars
- Google Tests Gray & Green URLs For Snippets On Same Page?
- Google Tests New People Also Search For Carousel Interface
- Google Testing Large Arrows For Search Results Pagination Controls?
- Google Tests "On This Page" Buttons In Search Results Snippets
- Google Tests Clickable Hotel Prices In Map View
- Google AdWords Tests Expand Out Carousel Price Extensions
- Google Tests Removing Pricing From Hotel Listing Results
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
