January 2021 Google Webmaster Report

Jan 5, 2021 - 7:11 am 0 by

Chalkboard4 WebmasterReport Magnified 1900px

Well, 2020 is over - phew, right? December was a wild wild month in terms of what SEOs and webmasters need to be concerned with around Google Search. We had the December 2020 core update and some unconfirmed updates. We learned more about the page experience update, passage indexing and more. So let me give you a quick recap on what happened in the past 30-days, in case you took the month off.

The December 2020 core update started to roll out on December 3rd but we really did not notice it until December 4th. The second wave of that update was around December 10th. There was debate on if Google should have released an update when it did. But hey, those that got hit with the May core update and recovered, like us, were happy.

We also saw a couple unconfirmed updates on December 17th and Christmas weekend.

Passage indexing and the core updates are unrelated and so are core updates and BERT. But passage indexing was not rolled out before the end of the year, we are expecting it soon. But when it does go live, it won't look different. Google also tested the page experience visual icon in the search results.

Google Search Console got some upgrades including fresh data in the API, a news filter and more, also a news showcase filter. Google launched the question hub in the US, which is awesome. Google fixed the request indexing tool after 69 days and decided not to kill the structured data testing tool.

Google has been busy testing UI changes including practice problems in the search results, dynamic expandable images and expandable descriptions. Google also launched short video carousels and 3D cars and so much more.

If you want to catch up on the prior month, check our the December Google webmaster report.

Here is a break down of the more important stories you may want to catch up on:

Google Algorithm Updates

Google Passage Indexing Google SEO Google Search Console Google Local, Maps & My Business Google User Interface

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 30, 2024

Oct 30, 2024 - 10:00 am
Google Updates

Google: Search Ranking Update Coming Soon But HCU Victims May Not Recover

Oct 30, 2024 - 8:01 am
Google News

Google Ad Revenue Up 10% - With Biggest Ad Revenue Quarter Ever

Oct 30, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

New Google Ads Business Links Asset Type

Oct 30, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Confirmed: Google Ad Rep Made Unauthorized Changes To Ad Account

Oct 30, 2024 - 7:31 am
Bing Ads

Bing Tests Hiding Ads Labels After Domain

Oct 30, 2024 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Person With Mask At Google Hong Kong