What a crazy month for webmasters! We had the Penguin update, a Panda refresh, a bug that delisted tons of sites from Google, a huge negative SEO release and some rumors of a possible Google update this past weekend that no one covered.
Update: There was indeed an update on the weekend, Friday night, April 27th. Google confirmed with me there was a Panda refresh.
The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread continues to discuss all these topics. One thing I did not point out earlier this week, was that this past weekend, many webmasters noticed shuffling in rankings in Google. Even yesterday and today, some SEOs are noticing tests by Google. Senior member, Billy said:
In any event, here is a listing of the most important stories in the past month related to Google and SEO by category:
Google Penguin:
It’s Live: Google Over Optimization Algorithm (3% Of Searches Affected)
Google’s Over Optimization Update Named Penguin
Poll: Were You Impacted By The Google Penguin Update?
Feeling For Those Hurt By Google’s Penguin Update
Google Penguin Feedback Form
The Google Penguin Petition
Google Panda:
Google Mocks Me For Missing Panda 3.5
Google Parked Domain Bug:
That Google Update Was Just A Bug Says Google
Updated: Google Update April 2012? Over SEO Penalty?
Google Random Updates:
Google Easter April 2012 Search Update?
50 Google Search Quality Updates
Negative SEO:
The Negative SEO Debate Sparks Up Again
Link Topics:
Google Goes After Links In WordPress Themes
Google: Go As Far Back As Possible To Remove Paid Links
Spam Topics:
Google: Phone Number Spam Is Keyword Stuffing & Against Guidelines
Next Title Tag Trick: Emoji For Google Mobile Titles
Google Sends Out 20,000 Weird Redirect Hacked Notifications
Google Webmaster Tools:
Google Webmaster Tools Query Reports Now Up To 90 Days
Google Webmaster Tools Drops Features
Google Fetch As GoogleBot Submission Not Working
Now Really Test Your Google Rich Snippets
Google Author Stats Goes Missing From Webmaster Tools
For last month’s recap, see the April 2012 Google Webmaster Report.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
