While last month was filled with algorithm updates this month wasn’t too much different. We had the July 2021 core update, a new link spam update and an unconfirmed update. Google told us core updates don’t impact local results and Gary Illyes broke down how Google ranks features and spoke a bit about magic ranking signals.

Google updated a ton of its help documents; explaining new things to us and also adding new guidelines and details – you can see a lot of that in the Search Console section below. Google changed how it handles soft 404 detection and had to tweak it due to some issues. Google also had a bug with review snippets doing missing.

Google shows us why it ranks search results, the company dropped the AMP label and did a ton of interface tests in search. Plus there was a lot of stuff in local and maps.

It was a busy month and the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread is actually pretty slow right now.

Here are the more important stories you may want to catch up on:

Google Algorithms & Rankings:
Google July 2021 Core Update Is Live – What We Are Seeing
Google July 2021 Core Update Spiked Again Around July 9th
Google July 2021 Core Update “Effectively Complete” On July 12th
Google Link Spam Update Is Here
Quiet Week After The Google Link Spam Update; Maybe It’s Being Felt Now
Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update July 23rd & 24th
Google Local Ranking Changes With The Google Core Update
How Google Ranks News, Videos, Images, Featured Snippets & Other Features
How Google Cuts & Ranks Result Sets With Magic Signals

Google Search Console:
Google Removes The Rich Result Type From The Performance Reports
Google Math Solvers Rich Results Added To Performance Report Search Appearance Filters
Google Clarifies FAQ Markup Should Be Visible On The Page Even Expandable Sections
Google Adds New Guidelines To Math Solver Markup Help Documentation
Google Fact Check Guidelines Now Disallows Multiple ClaimReview Per Page
Coming Soon: New Google Search Editorial Content Policies For Job Postings
Google Search Console Now Links AMP Page Experience Issues to AMP Page Experience Guide

Google SEO:
Google Changed How It Handles Soft 404s Detection – Mobile vs Desktop
Google Removed A Soft 404 Classifier To Fix Some Deindexing Bugs
Confirmed Bug: Google Review Snippets Missing From Search Results
Google: Redirects Signals Stick With Destination URL After A Year
On The Edge Of Google’s Quality Threshold – Pages Disappear & Return After Submission
Google: You Do Not Need To Switch Rel Nofollow To Rel Sponsored
Google Illustrates Causes For Various Organic Traffic Drops
Google: Core Updates Can Impact People Also Ask (PAA) Results
Google: Machine Learning Takes Care Of Most Obvious Spam
Google Reminder To Highlight Customer Support Methods On Websites
Google Posts On Search Operators Limitations Including Google’s Retrieval Limits
Google: Generally The Localized Version Of Your Site Gets Its Own Signals
Google: You May Get Some Ranking Benefit If Someone Steals Your Original Images
Assume The Google Page Experience Update Replaced The Old Google Speed Update
Google Provides SEO Best Practices For Deal Pages
Google Search Key Moments Videos Support SeekToAction Markup
Google Posts For Knowledge Panels Being Disabled On July 20, 2021
New Google Direct Apply Option To Job Posting Schema
Newzdash: 23% Of Google Top Stories URLs Are Not AMP
Google Tries To Clarify Google News Inclusion But Did It Help?
Google: We Ignore PDFs For Core Web Vitals & Mobile Friendlessness

Google User Interface:
Google Shows Which Ranking Factors Resulted In A Page Ranking
Google Drops The AMP Label In The Mobile Search Results
Google Tests Indenting Search Results From Same Domain
Google Tests Big Carousel For More Specific Searches
Google Search Tests Rounded Corners Design Again
Google Question Hub Redesign & Features
Google Tests Again Removing Full URLs and Breadcrumbs From Snippets
Google Search Tests Related Queries In Sticky Footer On Mobile

Google Maps & Local:
Google Maps Launches New Detailed Restaurant Reviews
Google Hotel Listings Add Sustainability & Eco Certifications Attributes
Google Tests The Local Pack With Map Placed On Right Side
Google Local Pack Without A Map – Bug Or Test?
Google Local Business Listing In Search Displays Areas Served
Google Business Listing With Google Phone Number Alias
Google My Business Messages Notes When Message Is From Google Posts

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.