It is that time of the month again where I post the monthly Google webmaster report. This past month was filled with several unconfirmed Google updates - no I am not crazy. Google told us Penguin not only ignores spammy links but also can distrust the whole site. After over a year, Google has updated the search quality raters guidelines with a bunch of new updates.
Google also published revised help documents on titles and descriptions and giving us a new term - the title link. Google Search Console updated its API with more support. Google Search Console actually had a number of updates, all documented below.
Google rolled out continuous scroll, which by the way doesn't directly impact Search Console reporting or Google Ads reporting. A lot of unredacted internal Google documents surfaced and it makes Google look super evil. Plus so much more including a slew of SEO topics below you should review, local changes, user interface changes and much more.
Currently, the Google search results have been pretty calm - is it the calm before the Google core update storm?
If you missed the October 2021 report make sure to catch up there.
Here is what you missed this past month:
Google Algorithm Updates:
- Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On October 26th
- Possible Google Search Algorithm Ranking Update October 15th - October 18th
- Was There A Google Search Update This Week? Mixed Signals Maybe Triggered From UI Changes?
- Yet Another Google Weekend Search Ranking Algorithm Update...
- Possible Google Search Ranking Update On October 6th & 7th
- Google Said The Penguin Algorithm May Not Just Ignore Links, It May Target Whole Site
- Semrush: Google Search Algorithm Updates Are More Extreme This Year
- Google Updates Search Quality Raters Guidelines On October 19th
- New Google Help Docs On Titles & Descriptions With New Title Link
- Google: Trust Is Not A Matter Of Just Links Pointing To A Site
- Google: Using Admin Or Author For Author Name On Articles
- Google: Author Not A Direct Ranking Factor
- New: Google Review Snippets Author Name Must Be Less Than 100 Characters
- Google: We Use Many Signals To Detect Guest Posts, It's Not Just Link Anchor Text
- Google: We Don't Hard Code YMYL Categories Into Our Algorithm
- Google Centerpiece Annotation: Primary Content Of Page & Site
- Google: Different Intent Content On A Page Basis Can Confuse, Not Site Level
- Google: We Don't Classify Sites By Technology Platform Or Infrastructure
- Google: We Don't Care About The Image For Web Search
- Google On How To Reduce Duplication By A Factor Of 10X
- Google: An Often Updated Sitemap Might Be A Good Idea
- Google "Uncovers" Job Postings Structured Data Opportunity
- Google Removes Some HowTo, QAPage & SpecialAnnouncement From Help Documents
- New: Google Merchant Center Allows One Feed For All Countries
- Google Merchant Center Unique Product Identifier Limited Enforcement
- Google Responds To Crawled, Not Indexed Errors Saying It Is Just A Delay
- Google: Maximum Video Exposure By Creating A Dedicated Page For The Video
- Google Search Console API Gains Discover & Google News Data With Regex Support
- Google Performance Report Updated For News & Page Experience Filter - You May See Spike In Data
- Google Rich Results Errors For Job Postings May Increase Due To Evaluation Change
- Google Search Console Tools Start To Match URL Inspection Tool
- Google Continuous Scroll Has No Impact On Search Console Reports
- Google Search Console Core Web Vitals Report Adds Granular Scores
- Google Search Console Rich Results Status Reports Gets More Actionable Errors
- Google Search Console Overcounted Mobile Page Experience Data For Four Months
- Google Rolling Out Continuous Scroll On Mobile Search Results
- Google Lets You Remove Images Of Minors From Search With New Tool & Policy
- Google May Be Rolling Out Things To Consider, Refine This Search & Broaden This Search
- Google Rolling Out New Knowledge Panel Design With Buttons At Top
- Podcasts Google Knowledge Panels Go Live
- New Format For Google Search Snippets Tags / Labels
- Google Tests Larger Font In Mobile Search Bar
- Google Search Tests Expandable Video Previews
- Google Search Results With Rotating Product Images
- Google Tests Vertical Line Sitelinks
- Google Tests Search Refinements In Autocomplete
- Google Search Featured Snippets Full Width Design
- Google Tests Five Results In The Local Pack - A 5 Pack
- Google Local Pack Offer Label Attribute
- Google My Business Attributes Replaced Led With Owned
- New Google My Business Messaging Read Receipts Setting
- Google My Business Crowd Attributes For LGBTQ+ Friendly & Transgender Safespace
- Google Local Tests Purple Heart Label For Women Led Businesses
- Google My Business App Gains Edit Welcome Message & Shows Messages Response Time
- Google Says Non-AMP Page Throttling & Other AG Paxton's Claims Baseless
- Google Survey Asks You If You Want Ad Free Search Results For Paid Subscription
- Peter Norvig Scales Back From Google To Join Stanford's Human-Centered AI Institute
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