April 2018 Google Webmaster Report

The past month in the Google webmaster and SEO sphere, relatively, was a slow month in terms of big changes. We had maybe two algorithm shifts this month that are still unconfirmed by Google. Google did make changes to Google News and Google Trends but that is a niche of Google. The video upload feature now fully works on Google Posts.

On the SEO front, Google downplayed how much personalization is used in ranking search results. We caught Google testing asking users to submit questions in the search results. Danny Sullivan spent more time defending the snippet lengths earlier last month. And Google somewhat announced a new dynamic rendering solution for JavaScript sites.

The current WebmasterWorld thread is pretty light, only a little chatter on algorithm shifts – not enough to say there was an update yet. Outside of that, a pretty normal month.

Here is what I pulled out from the past 30 days webmaster and SEO related:

Google Algorithms:

• Is Another Google Update Happening In May?
• Is A Google Search Algorithm Update Brewing?
• Google: Personalized Search Results Is “Very Light”
• Google: Algorithm Updates Impact Sites Quickly, Technical Changes Take A While To Impact A Site

Google User Interface:

• Google Tests Submitting Question Directly In Search Results
• Google Featured Snippet More Button
• Google Featured Snippets Asks Searchers “Is This Helpful”

Google SEO:

• Google’s Danny Sullivan Defends Reducing Length Of Search Snippets
• Google Rich Snippets Not Impacted By Shorter Search Result Snippets
• New: Google Dynamic Rendering To Help With JavaScript In Search
• SEO For Google Now Harder? What Has Changed Over The Past Few Years?
• Fourth Batch Of Google Mobile First Index Notices
• The Google Cache 404s After Move To Mobile-First Indexing
• Google Updates Image Search Guidelines For SEOs & Publishers
• Google Has A Bias Towards Scientific Truth In Search
• 60% Of SEOs Say They Hurt A Web Site In Google With Spammy Links
• Google: AJAX Crawling Scheme Going Away Sooner Rather Than Later
• Google Rich Results Test Now Supports Movies, TV Shows & Events
• Google Recipe Structured Data Updated For Google Assistant & Search
• Google Expands Job Posting Structured Data To Additional Countries
• Upcoming Google Speed Update Will Look More Closely At Page Speed Variations
• Google: Regular Crawling Not Required For Ranking In Google
• Google On GDPR Pop Ups Notices With Search & SEO
• Google: Shared IP Addresses Are Fine For Search
• Google: Crawl Budget Optimization Is Overrated
• Google: M Dot & Responsive Sites At The Same Time Confuses Us
• The Yoast Plugin To Blame For Google Large Scale Ranking Drop? Probably Not.
• Google Search Supports TLS 1.1 & 1.2 With Upcoming PCI Compliance Requirements
• Google: PDFs Are Not Mobile Friendly
• Google Does Not Count Your Typos & Spelling Mistakes
• Google: Shared Robots.txt Across Domains Work Okay
• Google: Duplication In Title Tags With Image Alt Tag Is Not An Issue
• Google: Number Of Slashes In URLs Doesn’t Matter For Search
• Two Google I/O Sessions On Search You Should Watch

Google Search Console:

• Google Search Console Beta May Be Getting Links From Data
• Google Search Console Crawl Stats Stopped Updating On May 23rd
• Google Search Console Job Posting Data Now Pulls From Web Light Search Results
• Google Structured Data Testing Tool Not Working With Google Tag Manager
• New Google Search Console Adds Quick Site Navigator
• JavaScript Sites Now Work With Google’s Mobile Friendly & Rich Results Tools
• Squarespace Google Search Console Verification With One Click

Google Local & Maps:

• Google Maps To Notify Customers When Businesses Respond To Reviews
• Google Sues SEO Company Threatening To Remove Businesses From Google
• Google Local Hotel Pack Showing Search Refinement Option
• Google Shows More Yellow Map Pins In Snippets
• Google Dropping Anonymous Local Reviews?
• Google Asks For Photo Of Business Hours
• Google Maps Highlight Icons Legend

Google Posts:

• Google Posts Video Upload Feature Now Working
• Google Tests New User Interface In Search For Google Posts
• Google Video Answers From Deadpool 2 Stars

Google News:

• Google Trends Updated: SEOs/SEMs Should Check It Out
• New Google News Drops RSS Feed Subscription Buttons
• Google News Drops Editors’ Picks & Standout Meta Tag

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.