It is that time of the month again, the monthly Google webmaster report where I summarize the more important Google webmaster/SEO related topics of the past 30 days or so. In short, the biggest items that you should be aware of include the Owl update, which was likely nothing new. We did see a few algorithm updates linked to below and Google did tell us it is possible that the mobile first index won't launch in 2017 but when it does, it will impact the link graph.
Google doubled the manual actions they sent out year over year. Featured snippets are showing more images and many are from different sources which really is upsetting a lot of webmasters. Google local is still up to their testing including filtering traveler types which is cool. Google told us they do thousands of tests and gave us a specific breakdown on the number.
The ongoing WebmasterWorld is the same-old, same -old conversation. If you missed last month, catch it here.
Here is the big summary:
Google Algorithm Updates:
- Google Owl Update Promotes Authoritative Content For Fake News Queries
- Small Google Algorithm Update On April 4th?
- Was There A Google Algorithm Update On Monday & Tuesday? Unsure.
- Was There A Google Algorithm Update On April 17th & 18th?
- Google's John Mueller On Fred: Not Aware Of Any Such Update?
- Google: Why We Don't Disclose Most Google Updates & Algorithm Changes
- Google Mobile-First Index Will Have Some Affect On Link Graph
- The Google Mobile First Index Likely Won't Launch In 2017
- Google More Than Doubles The Manual Actions Penalties In 2016
- Google: There Is No CAPS Search Ranking Penalty
- Buy A Domain With A Google Penalty Manual Action? Give It Up.
- Ashley Madison Now Ranking Again In Google
- Was Ashley Madison Penalized By Google? Not Ranking For It's Own Name.
- Google Featured Snippets Now Sourcing Different Image From Content Source
- Google Featured Snippets Showing More Images Now
- Webmasters Upset Over Google Featured Snippet Sourcing Different Images
- Google: We Update The Featured Snippet Selector Algorithm Often
- Google: No Plans To Boost HTTPS Ranking Factor
- Google: Links From High Search Traffic Pages Aren't More Valuable
- Google Doesn't Forget, They Have Lots Of Storage
- Google Tells Newspapers, Like NY Times, WSJ & Others, To Noindex News Feeds
- Google: Stop Optimizing For RankBrain; It's Irrelevant
- Google: Building A Better Website Indirectly Helps Google Rankings
- Google Request Indexing & Crawl Direct Links Is Not A Replacement For Sitemaps
- Google: Validation Pretty Much Doesn't Matter For Ranking
- Google: We Ignore & Drop Special Characters From Title Tags
- GoogleBot Doesn't Understand The Words In Your Podcast Audio Files
- SEO Agencies Spamming Google? Google Would Take A "Fair Look"
- Reminder: Google Patents & Research Not Always Used In The Ranking Algorithm
- Google: Use Info Command To Find Canonical URL
- Google: Use As Many H1 Tags As You Want
- Google: Internal Nofollow Links Don't Devalue The Page They Are On
- Google: Domain Age Doesn't Matter For Search Rankings
- Google: You Have Better Things To Do Than Update Your Disavow File
- Google Announces Product Schema For Image Search Months Later
- Google: Rankings Drop After Disavowing Links? Remove Some Of Those Less Shady Links.
- Google: Bounce Rate Is Not A Good Ranking Signal
- Google Fact Check Feature Now In Search Results & News Worldwide
- Google: If You Care About Your Page, You Should Link To It
- Submit Any URL To Google For Indexing Within The Search Results Interface
- Google Search Console Working On New AMP Features
- Confirmed: Google Search Console Link Data Bug - No Data Available
- Google: Why We Won't Label Disavowed Links In The Search Console Report
- Google Test Local Reviews By Traveler Type
- Google Adds More Granular Review Filtering In Local Listings
- Google Hotel Booking Interface Testing Carousel Layout
- Google "View Rates" Call To Action Overlay For Hotel Listings Search Results
- Google My Business Adds Bulk Download Insights Analytics
- Google Tests Showing Number Of Reviews Left By Reviewer
- Google: 1,653 Search Launches With 9,800 Live Experiments & 130,336 Search Quality Tests
- Google Mobile Results Tests Dropping AMP Results Completely?
- Google Tests Dropping AMP Logo From Search Results
- Google Black Search Results User Interface Test
- Google Mobile Search Gets Fresh & Viral AMP Carousel
- Google Tries New Design For Tags In Search Snippets
- Google Tests Local Knowledge Panels Without Maps
- Google Testing Jobs Portal In Web Search
- Google Tests Suggested Clip Videos In Search Results
- Google Tests URL At Top Of Search Results Snippets
- Google: Organic & Paid Search Policies Don't Always Match
- Google's Vendor Slashes Quality Raters Hours; Will It Impact Search Quality?
- Google Updates The How Search Works Site
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
