Here is the big Google webmaster report for March 2023, where I cover all the most important things that happened with Google search over the past month. The highlights include the Google product reviews update and a few unconfirmed updates. Of course, the Google Bard tease, AI content guidelines for Google Search, and much more.
We also heard that the ongoing mobile-first indexing is almost done - really, almost done. Google updated many of its help SEO documentation including link best practices, canonicalization, spam policies, and more. Google Search Console added bulk exporting and new user permissions.
Google also is looking to restore some lost reviews and launched that profile strength widget. Google reported not such great earnings and much more.
The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread is talking about the volatility from the product reviews update. The last report is at the February 2023 Google webmaster report and Here are the top headlines for the past month:
Google Algorithm Updates:
- Google Unwraps February 2023 Product Reviews Update With Language Support
- Google Search Ranking Volatility On March 1st, Is It The Product Reviews Update?
- Google Product Reviews Update: Wild & Wide Volatility & Swings
- Another Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Around February 14th
- February 8th/9th Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update (Unconfirmed)
- Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On February 4th
- Google Search Launches Bard, It's ChatGPT Feature, To Trusted Testers (SEOs Concerned)
- Google's CEO Sundar Pichai Confirms New Chat Based Search Feature Coming Really Soon
- Google Testing Apprentice Bard: Google's Answer To OpenAI's ChatGPT?
- Google On AI Content: Think About The Who, How, and Why For Your Content
- Google Has Its Own Way To Send Traffic To Publishers Through Bard/Chat
- Big Publishers Concerned With AI Powered Search From Google & Bing
- Google's John Mueller On Rewriting Your Content With ChatGPT
- 59% Of Searchers Don't Get The Importance Of AI In Search
- Google Search "People Also Ask" Showing Less Often
- Google: Mobile-First Indexing Transition Might Be Completed In A Couple Months
- New Google SEO Link Best Practices
- Google Does Major Refresh Of The Canonicalization Help Documentation
- Google Simplifies Policy Circumvention Spam Policy
- Google Reorganizes Sitemaps Documentation
- Google Site Move Documentation Updated
- Google: Google Discover Impacted By Many Search Signals, Including Now The Helpful Content Update (Nope, Google Changed Its Mind....)
- Google's Gary Illyes: Authorship, Links & Disavows Less Important Than SEOs Think
- Google's Gary Illyes On Recovering From The Helpful Content Update
- Google's Gary Illyes On Noindex With Redirects
- Google: Favicons No Longer Need To Be Hosted On Same Domain
- Google: Existing Sites Won't Drop In Rankings Just Because Its An Exact Match Domain
- Google: Core Web Vitals Shouldn't Be Top Of The List For Most Small & Local Businesses
- Google: Stop Using 403s or 404s To Reduce Googlebot Crawl Rates
- Google: Not All Googlebots Use Same Rendering Engine & Render JavaScript
- Google: Checking If The Site Connection Is Secure CDN Interstitials Are Not Search Engine Friendly
- GoogleProber - Confirmed Google User Agent
- Google Confirms Podcast Carousels Going Away In Search On February 13
- Google: JSON-LD, Microdata & RDFa Are All Equally Fine For Structured Data
- Google Adds Ongoing Bulk Data Export From Search Console to Google BigQuery
- Google Search Console Updates Users & Permissions Controls
- Google Local Review Filters Removed Many Legit Reviews, Google Restoring Reviews
- Report: Google Business Profiles Services Now Impact Local Rankings
- Google Business Profile Profile Strength Widget Now Live & Many Local SEOs Not Happy
- Google Maps App For Android Adds "Business" Profile Tab
- PSA: Legacy Google My Business Insights API Going Offline Monday, February 20th
- Google Mobile Tests Search Menu On Left Side Bar
- Google People Also Ask "Trending" Label
- Scrollable & Expandable Google Knowledge Panel
- Google Search Feature: Coupons From Stores
- Google Search People Cards Now Visible In US
- Google Tests Gray Boxed Snippets In Search Mobile
- Google Ad Revenues Down 3.6% Year Over Year, Working On Cost Structure
- Survey Says SEO Think Microsoft will Gain Less Than 5% Market Share From Google
- Report: Over 50% Of Google Search Business Flows Through Apple Devices
- Google Tests Blocking News Content For Canadian Users
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
