In the past month, in Google-land, we have spoken a lot about the March 2024 core update, which ended 45 days later on April 19th, a week before Google notified us it was done. This core update was painful for many, especially those who were hit by the September helpful content update.
But more is to come, we have the site reputation abuse penalty coming in the next few days - are you ready? Sites like Forbes are already making changes, and many others are as well.
Meanwhile, Google has been busy responding to mocking and Reddit ranking for everything.
Google renamed the SGE AI Overviews to AI Answers and is using AI to write some knowledge panels. Some rumors suggest Google may charge for SGE features, but I doubt that - and it may launch at Google I/O.
Google's revenue impressed Wall Street, maybe you can credit the man who killed Google Search with that.
There is a lot more, see below, and if you missed my last recap then read the April 2024 Google webmaster report.
Here are the top headlines for the past month related to Google organic search:
Google Core Update:
- Google March 2024 Core Update Finished April 19th (A Week Ago)
- New Google March 2024 Core Update Ranking Volatility
- Weekend Google Core Ranking Volatility Taxing Site Owners
- 29 Days In The Google March 2024 Core Update Is Still Rolling Out
- Deepening Google Core Ranking Volatility Hits Yesterday & Today
- Google March Core Update Still Rolling Out & Heated SEO Chatter Continue
- Most SEOs Did Not Send Feedback To Google On The March 2024 Core Update
- Google: Helpful Content Update Recoveries May Take Much Longer Than Others
- Reminder: Google's Helpful Content Update Is No More - It's A Core Update
- Google: Indexing & Algorithm Updates Are Independent
- Google Responds To Claims Where Search Results Can Be Harmful & Dangerous
- Google Goes On Defensive On Its Search Quality & Forum Results Statements
- Tuta Complains To EU Regulators Over Google March 2024 Core Update Ranking Drop
- Google Will Fight Site Reputation Abuse Spam Both With Manual Actions & Algorithms
- Google Spam Reporting Tool To Gain Site Reputation Abuse
- Forbes Blocks Its Coupon Directory Before Google Enforces The Site Reputation Abuse Policy
- Forbes Completely Removes (410 Server Status) Coupon Directory
- Google Responds To The Verge Mocking Its Search Rankings For Best Printer
- Google Explains Why It Shows Reddit & Forum Threads In Search So Often
- Google Drops Video Carousel Markup
- Google Publisher Center No Longer Allows Adding Publications
- Google Breaks Out Googlebot IP Ranges For User-Triggered Fetchers
- Google: Indexing API May Work For Unsupported Content But...
- Google Favicon Documentation Adds Rel Attribute Value Definitions
- 2024 Google Merchant Center Product Data Specification Updates
- Google: Splitting & Merging Sites Takes Longer Than Normal Site Migrations
- Google: We Won't Change The 301 Redirect Signals For Ranking & SEO
- Google: Our Link Best Practices Doc Are Still Good Guidelines
- Google: We Need Very Few Links To Rank Pages; Links Are Less Important
- Google: Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages
- Google Crawl Budget Is Allocated By Hostname
- Google Structured Data Carousels Beta Docs Clarifies Feature Availability & Markup Location
- Google Search Console Adds Unused Ownership Tokens
- Google Search Console Reporting Bug With AMP Pages & Web Stories In Google Images
- Google SGE AI Overviews Has A New Title - AI Answer
- Google SGE Testing Tabs In AI Overviews
- Google AI Writing Some Search Knowledge Panels
- Report: Google Considers Charging For AI Search Features Like SGE AI Overviews
- Google Maps Releases New Directions, Travel & EV Features
- Google Business Profiles Gains Select Preferred Menu Source
- Google Tests Posts Button In Local Listing Business Profile
- Google Local Panel Results Tests Toggle To Next Result
- Google Related Searches Displaying Local Carousel
- Google Maps No Longer Will Support Draft Reviews
- Google Tests Discussion and Forums Questions With Answers Box
- Google Search Tests Thumbs Up/Down Buttons In Product Grid Results
- Google Tests Horizontal Lines For Sitelinks & People Also Ask
- Google Renames Product Sites To Product Websites
- Google Knowledge Panels - Mentioned People
- Google Tests Placing The Snippet Date Next To URL
- Google Image Search Tests Tablet Like Design Interface
- Google Notes On Search Won't Necessarily Go Away In May
- Google Image Search Gains Pixel Level Object Segmentation Animation
- Google Ad Revenue Up 13% & Bing Ads Revenue Up 12%
- Report: How Prabhakar Raghavan Killed Google Search
- Google Threatens California: Tests Removing Links To Publishers & Pauses Investments
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
