October 2015 Google Webmaster Report

September was an interesting month because we had a nice number of ranking fluctuations in Google, all seemed somewhat algorithmic, but none of them were confirmed by Google. We had an update here and an update there. We also had Google confirm that Panda 4.2 is still rolling out and the next Penguin update will be out really soon, and likely be real-time going forward.

Google launched a new ranking boost for App Indexing API and hinted that structured data may one day be used as a ranking factor.

Google made changes to the first click free program, dropped the Google News three-digit rule and told publishers not to remove authorship markup. Finally, Google warned repeat offenders that they take it seriously.

Here is a recap of stories I pulled out that I think are important:

Google Algorithm & Update Topics:

• Google: I Checked, Panda 4.2 Is Still Rolling Out
• Google Panda 4.2 Roll Out Has To Be Still Rolling Out
• The Next Penguin Update Should Be Real Time & Continuous Says Google
• Google: The Real Time Penguin Algorithm May Launch Before Years End
• Google: Get A New Ranking Boost If You Use Our App Indexing APIs
• Google: Structured Markup May Become A Ranking Factor
• Google Update Underway? The Tedster Update?
• Google Web Search Ranking Fluctuations In Mid-September?

• Google First Click Free Program Adapts For Multiple Device World
• Google News No Longer Requires 3 Digits In Your URLs
• Google: Don't Remove Your Authorship Markup; We May Use It In The Future
• Google: If You Repeatedly Spam, You Will See Harder Penalty Actions
• Former Googler: Google's Warning To Repeated Violators Was "Unnecessary"
• Google: We Are Still Experimenting With Mobile Only Index
• Google: We Still Only Have A Desktop Index, No Mobile Index
• Google Search Queries Report Goes Offline Today
• Google: Internal Article Links To Your E-Commerce Products Is Not Over Optimization
• Google's Crawler Only Submit Forms When It Can't Find Your Content
• Google: Keep Your 301 Redirects Active For Over A Year
• Google: I'd Avoid Using NoIndex In Robots.txt File
• Google: Identical Pages vs Equivalent Pages When Using Canonicals
• Google: When Disavowing IP Addresses, It Won't Disavow The Domains On That IP
• Google Removes Facebook Rich Snippets From Search Results
• Google May Have Changed How PageRank Flows With Nofollow Links
• Google Tests Automating The Removal Of Manual Actions For Hacked Sites
• Google: Shy Away From Repeating The Same Words On The Same Page Too Often
• Google: Similar Web Sites In Same Search Console Account Is Okay
• Google Remove URL Language Now Reads "Temporarily Hide"
• Google: There Isn't An SEO Advantage To Linking Externally
• Google: Using A Google Service Doesn't Help You Stay Penalty Free
• Google Image Traffic Shows Significant Drops, Is It A Bug?
• Google: We're Suing An SEO Company For Robocalling & Confusing Businesses

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has calmed down early this month, at least so far. Last months recap can be read over here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

This post was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today.