Here is the monthly Google Webmaster Report where I sum up the more important topics webmasters and SEOs care about when it comes to Google organic search. This past month was super busy with numerous unconfirmed updates, passage ranking rolling out, the upcoming page experience update and mobile-first indexing and so much more.

Below you will find a bulleted list of the unconfirmed Google search ranking updates we covered, there were four of them that we covered. Google did confirm an image search update from last November that reduced duplicate images and it also looks like Google is showing fewer featured snippets these days.

Google launched passage ranking on February 10th, which seems to have had a minimal impact on the results. And we aren’t expecting something huge from the upcoming page experience update either.

Google Search Console made a bunch of data changes, I documented them in the bulleted list below. Google launched new manual actions for Google Discover and Google News. Google also launched a penalty for prices not matching from the product page to the cart. The big news on local is that you can do messaging now via desktop which can be a huge time saver for some businesses.

There is a lot more and you can see the bulleted list below. Also, if you missed last month’s recap, you can see the February report here. Meanwhile, the ongoing WebmasterWorld is pretty calm at this point.

Google Algorithms:
Google Search February 26 & 27th Search Algorithm Volatility
Some Google Search Ranking Algorithm Chatter Past Few Days
Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update February 17th
Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update February 8th
Possible Google Local Ranking Update February 24th & 25th?
Google Image Search Update Reduces Duplicate Images (November 2020)
Google Showing Fewer Featured Snippets Since February 19th

Google Passage Ranking:
Google Passage Ranking Is Live In The US English Results
Google Passage Based Ranking Causing Minimal Impact So Far
Google Passage Ranking & Scroll To Text/Snippet Are Unrelated

Google Page Experience Update:
Google: The Page Experience Update Won’t Be A Massive Change To Start
Google Won’t Talk About Spam Prevention For Page Experience Update
Poll On Impact Of Google Page Experience Update & Core Web Vitals On Rankings
Google Search May Use Core Web Vitals Data From Noindexed Pages
Google Experience Update Label Requires All Factors To Be Compliant

Google Search Console:
Chrome Data Added To Google Search Console Discover Performance Report
Google Search Console Page Experience Appearance Filter In Performance Report
Google Search Console Association Controls Updated
Possible Google Search Console URL Inspection Tool Bug With HTTP/2?
Google Search Console Changes To Web Story Performance Report
Google Search Console Core Web Vitals Boundaries Changed On February 17th
Google Search Console Screenshot Hack
Google Search Console Adds AMP Error Disallowed !important CSS Qualifier

Google SEO:
New: Google News & Discover Manual Actions In Search Console
Google: Manual Actions For News or Discover Do Not Impact Search
Google May Suspend E-Commerce Sites That Change Prices On Checkout Page
Google May Provide Method To Block Content From Google Discover
Google Mobile-First Indexing Deadline Is Around March 2021
Can You Ride The Google Discover Wave?
Google’s John Mueller On Google Search Spam Penalties & Quality Issues
Google: Title Tags Longer Than What Is Displayed Has SEO Benefit
Google: Total Number Of Links Is Completely Irrelevant For SEO
Google: Internal Linking Gives Google A Sense Of Page Level Importance
Google On The Importance Of GTINs For Products In Search
Google: Focus Less On Individual Pages & More On Category Pages
Google Talks About Its Serving Index & Index Shards
Google SEO Advice On Temporarily Removing Site Functionality In Support Of Action
Google Video On Image SEO In Detail With 12 Tips
Google Can Recognize If A Site Has A Good Reputation On A Specific Topic Area

Google Maps & Local:
Google Maps Spam Efforts Lead To Removal Of 55M Reviews & 3M Business Profiles
Google My Business Messaging Support Added To Desktop Interface
Google Local Pack Labeling Coworking Office Spaces
Notice: Google My Business Auto Populating Services
Google Local Pack Removes Some Business Addresses

User Interface & Features:
Google Search Scroll To Text On Free Product Results
Google Chrome To Support Scroll To Text Links With Images & Videos
Google See Results That Mention Filter On Left Side Panel
Google Tests Displaying Auto Suggestions On Scroll Up
Google Tests Playing Videos As Overlays In Search
Google Testing Keyword Tags Or Labels In Snippets Again
Google Image Search Tests Explore More Compass Icon
Google Product Search Swipe Through Results and Style Ideas
Google Tests Bell Icon To Follow Updates On Medical Knowledge Panels
Google Search Tests Bubble Header Links Sticking To Top
Google Search Dark Mode Makes Ads Harder To Distinguish From Organic Listings
Google Search Tests Dark Mode Theme Controls
Google Related Searches Stuck To Top Of Mobile Search Results

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.