Here is the monthly Google Webmaster Report where I sum up the more important topics webmasters and SEOs care about when it comes to Google organic search. This past month was super busy with numerous unconfirmed updates, passage ranking rolling out, the upcoming page experience update and mobile-first indexing and so much more.
Below you will find a bulleted list of the unconfirmed Google search ranking updates we covered, there were four of them that we covered. Google did confirm an image search update from last November that reduced duplicate images and it also looks like Google is showing fewer featured snippets these days.
Google launched passage ranking on February 10th, which seems to have had a minimal impact on the results. And we aren't expecting something huge from the upcoming page experience update either.
Google Search Console made a bunch of data changes, I documented them in the bulleted list below. Google launched new manual actions for Google Discover and Google News. Google also launched a penalty for prices not matching from the product page to the cart. The big news on local is that you can do messaging now via desktop which can be a huge time saver for some businesses.
There is a lot more and you can see the bulleted list below. Also, if you missed last month's recap, you can see the February report here. Meanwhile, the ongoing WebmasterWorld is pretty calm at this point.
Google Algorithms:
- Google Search February 26 & 27th Search Algorithm Volatility
- Some Google Search Ranking Algorithm Chatter Past Few Days
- Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update February 17th
- Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update February 8th
- Possible Google Local Ranking Update February 24th & 25th?
- Google Image Search Update Reduces Duplicate Images (November 2020)
- Google Showing Fewer Featured Snippets Since February 19th
- Google Passage Ranking Is Live In The US English Results
- Google Passage Based Ranking Causing Minimal Impact So Far
- Google Passage Ranking & Scroll To Text/Snippet Are Unrelated
- Google: The Page Experience Update Won't Be A Massive Change To Start
- Google Won't Talk About Spam Prevention For Page Experience Update
- Poll On Impact Of Google Page Experience Update & Core Web Vitals On Rankings
- Google Search May Use Core Web Vitals Data From Noindexed Pages
- Google Experience Update Label Requires All Factors To Be Compliant
- Chrome Data Added To Google Search Console Discover Performance Report
- Google Search Console Page Experience Appearance Filter In Performance Report
- Google Search Console Association Controls Updated
- Possible Google Search Console URL Inspection Tool Bug With HTTP/2?
- Google Search Console Changes To Web Story Performance Report
- Google Search Console Core Web Vitals Boundaries Changed On February 17th
- Google Search Console Screenshot Hack
- Google Search Console Adds AMP Error Disallowed !important CSS Qualifier
- New: Google News & Discover Manual Actions In Search Console
- Google: Manual Actions For News or Discover Do Not Impact Search
- Google May Suspend E-Commerce Sites That Change Prices On Checkout Page
- Google May Provide Method To Block Content From Google Discover
- Google Mobile-First Indexing Deadline Is Around March 2021
- Can You Ride The Google Discover Wave?
- Google's John Mueller On Google Search Spam Penalties & Quality Issues
- Google: Title Tags Longer Than What Is Displayed Has SEO Benefit
- Google: Total Number Of Links Is Completely Irrelevant For SEO
- Google: Internal Linking Gives Google A Sense Of Page Level Importance
- Google On The Importance Of GTINs For Products In Search
- Google: Focus Less On Individual Pages & More On Category Pages
- Google Talks About Its Serving Index & Index Shards
- Google SEO Advice On Temporarily Removing Site Functionality In Support Of Action
- Google Video On Image SEO In Detail With 12 Tips
- Google Can Recognize If A Site Has A Good Reputation On A Specific Topic Area
- Google Maps Spam Efforts Lead To Removal Of 55M Reviews & 3M Business Profiles
- Google My Business Messaging Support Added To Desktop Interface
- Google Local Pack Labeling Coworking Office Spaces
- Notice: Google My Business Auto Populating Services
- Google Local Pack Removes Some Business Addresses
- Google Search Scroll To Text On Free Product Results
- Google Chrome To Support Scroll To Text Links With Images & Videos
- Google See Results That Mention Filter On Left Side Panel
- Google Tests Displaying Auto Suggestions On Scroll Up
- Google Tests Playing Videos As Overlays In Search
- Google Testing Keyword Tags Or Labels In Snippets Again
- Google Image Search Tests Explore More Compass Icon
- Google Product Search Swipe Through Results and Style Ideas
- Google Tests Bell Icon To Follow Updates On Medical Knowledge Panels
- Google Search Tests Bubble Header Links Sticking To Top
- Google Search Dark Mode Makes Ads Harder To Distinguish From Organic Listings
- Google Search Tests Dark Mode Theme Controls
- Google Related Searches Stuck To Top Of Mobile Search Results
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
