It has been a pretty busy month in the Google SEO and webmaster world. We had two possible Google algorithm updates, one on February 20th and one on March 1st - both unconfirmed. Google said the mobile first index will expand within the upcoming several weeks.
Google also began rolling out multifaceted featured snippets, removed the view image button in image search, launched the people also search for box, killed off the blogsearch ping feature and changed their request indexing feature due to spam and abuse.
The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread is still discussing the March 1st update a bit and other ongoing SEO topics.
So as you can see, a lot has happened this past month. You can read the more important stories below and also catch up on last month with the February report.
Google Algorithm Updates:
- Google Algorithm Update Chatter & Signals February 20th
- Google Algorithm Update Brewing? Depends Who You Ask.
- Google Mobile First Index Expanding Within Next Several Weeks
- New Google Multifaceted Featured Snippets Focuses On Multi-Intent Queries
- Google Image Search Removes Features Over Getty Images Legal Spat
- Google To Make Changes To Image Search For Getty Images & Others
- After Months Of Testing, Google Launches People Also Search For Box
- Google Defends False, Offensive & Fake Search Suggestions As People's Real Searches
- Google Caught Buying Links Again
- Google Blogsearch Ping Going Away, Not That Anyone Used It
- Google Now Requires Higher Resolution Images For AMP Top Stories Carousel
- Google Job Schema Adds Markup For Telecommuting
- Will Google Search Ranking Algorithms Use Chrome Ad Blocking Signals
- Google Page Speed Update & Mobile First Index Are Separate
- Google On Reading Level: Write On The Level Of Your Audience
- Google: Meta Refresh Redirects Work Fine But Not Recommended
- Google: There Is Always Risk Of Losing Rankings When Moving A Site
- Google: Again Provide Clear & Consistent SEO Signals
- Google: We Do Not Use GS1 Web Markup
- Google: GoogleBot Can't Crawl CSS Custom Properties
- Google Not Indexing URLs In Your Sitemap? New Sitemaps Won't Help
- Google: Content Order, Position & Placement Matters
- Google To Webmaster: Cut Down On Similar Content Pages
- Google: Even Big Sites Aren't Allowed To Sell Or Buy Links
- Google Adds SEO Audits To The Lighthouse Chrome Extension
- Google: We Changed Request Indexing Limits & Quotas Over Spam & Abuse
- Google Drastically Changes Crawl Limits In Search Console
- Google Confirms: There Are Limits On Request Indexing Feature In Search Console
- The Google Request Indexing Quota Seems To Be Enforced
- Did Google Search Console Remove The Request Indexing Quota?
- New Google Search Console To Make Property Sets Easier
- Google: Some Old Features Won't Be In New Google Search Console
- Google To Port All Old Search Console Features To New Version
- Google Fetch As Google Tool Renders Hash Bang URLs
- Google Posts Note Of Crawl Stats Report Bug
- Google Search Console Message: Fix Long Page Titles
- Bug? Google Search Console Time Spent Downloading A Page Metric Drops.
- Google Search Console Indexed, Low Interest Filter Is Gone
- Google Search Console Notice: Provide A Manifest & High Resolution Favicon
- Google Search Console AMP Reporting Error With Major Content Mismatch
- Google My Business Wants To Know When Did Your Business First Open
- Google Local Panel Adds Mall Directories Search
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.