August 2022 Google Webmaster Report: Product Reviews Update, Search Console, Local & More

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Here is the large Google webmaster report for August 2022 – catching you all up on what you may have missed in the past month related to Google search and SEO topics. We had a confirmed Google algorithm update, the July 2022 product reviews update that kicked in Friday and the tools just picked up on this morning. We had a large indexing outage, several unconfirmed updates and Google made their own algorithm update landing page.

Google has updated its search quality raters guidelines last week, which is always big news in the SEO world. Google Search Console updated its help documentation around anonymized queries. Google Search Console Insights now works with Google Analytics 4 and you can verify your properties again using DNS CNAME. Also, that new video indexing report is now rolling out, slowly and to some.

We also covered tons of SEO topics and user interface changes such as people also ask disappearing and returning, things to know going away on desktop, the new perspectives and so much more.

Google announced a bunch of Merchant Center changes and on the local side, the Google My Business app stopped working. Plus Google is testing new AR prototypes and they announced earnings.

There is just so much more but the chatter in the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread is super light right now.

Here are the more important stories I pulled out for you all:

Google Algorithm Updates:
July 2022 Google Product Reviews Update Rolling Out – Everything We See So Far
July 2022 Google Product Reviews Update Kicked In Friday Afternoon
Tracking Tools Now Picking Up On The July 2022 Google Product Reviews Update Volatility?
Google Search Algorithm Update On July 16th Or Was It Related To The Indexing Issue
Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On July 10th – Not Confirmed
Google Search Ranking Update Volatility July 5th & July 7th

Other Important Google News:
Google Search Indexing Issue On July 15th – Google Not Indexing New Content
Google Updates Search Quality Raters Guidelines On July 28th
Google Creates A Landing Page With Major Ranking Updates Timeline

Google Search Console:
Google Search Console Anonymizes Tons Of Queries; Updates Help Doc After Ahrefs Study
Google Search Console Insights Finally Supports Google Analytics 4
New Verification Of Google Search Console Via DNS CNAME
Google Search Console Video Index Report Rolling Out Very Slowly
Possible Bug With Google Search Console Performance Report For Videos On Desktop

Google SEO:
Google: Age Verification Requirement May Prevent Site From Surfacing In Google Discover
Google Super Basic Video On SEO
Unique IP Addresses Do Not Give You A Google Ranking Advantage, Google Says Again
Google Signed Exchanges For Desktop, Top Stories and News Now Live
Google: Search Query Pages Are Equivalent To Low Effort Category Pages

Google User Interface:
Google Discover Stories With TikTok, Facebook, YouTube For Destination Queries
Google Now Test Interactive Card Knowledge Panel Box Layout
Google Search Tests Rich Cards Layout With Net Worth, News, Videos & More
Google People Also Ask Back To Normal Levels
Huge Drop In Google People Also Ask
RankRanger: Google Things To Know No Longer Showing In Desktop Search
Google’s Top Ranked SERP Feature Leads To Critic Reviews & Product Review Articles On Mobile
Google’s Interesting Finds SERP Feature Goes Missing From The Search Results – Maybe It Wasn’t Interesting To Users Anymore
Google Perspectives Search Results
Google Highly Rated By Users Search Carousel
Google Tests List View Top Stories With News Taking Over Web Results
Google Tests Explore More Search Refinement For Product Queries
Google Search Displays Return Period In Search Results Snippets
Google Tests Search Bar With Refinements Mixed With Vertical Navigation
Google Hotel Listings New Featured In Section
Google Popular Products Section Gains Videos
Google Product Results Carousel With Highlights
Google Products Carousel Displays Product Reviews Under Appears On These Lists
Google Product Results Tests Customer Favorites, Most Mentions Of & More Labels
Google Search Trending Topics News Box On Mobile
Google Search Updates Suicide Prevention Box With New Options
Google Search Tests Get There, Weather & Map Cards
Google Search Timer & Stopwatch Stop Ticking