It is that time of the month again, the monthly Google webmaster report where I summarize the more important Google webmaster/SEO related topics of the past 30 days or so. In short, the biggest items that you should be aware of include the Owl update, which was likely nothing new. We did see a few algorithm updates linked to below and Google did tell us it is possible that the mobile first index won’t launch in 2017 but when it does, it will impact the link graph.

Google doubled the manual actions they sent out year over year. Featured snippets are showing more images and many are from different sources which really is upsetting a lot of webmasters. Google local is still up to their testing including filtering traveler types which is cool. Google told us they do thousands of tests and gave us a specific breakdown on the number.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld is the same-old, same -old conversation. If you missed last month, catch it here.

Here is the big summary:

Google Algorithm Updates:
Google Owl Update Promotes Authoritative Content For Fake News Queries
Small Google Algorithm Update On April 4th?
Was There A Google Algorithm Update On Monday & Tuesday? Unsure.
Was There A Google Algorithm Update On April 17th & 18th?
Google’s John Mueller On Fred: Not Aware Of Any Such Update?
Google: Why We Don’t Disclose Most Google Updates & Algorithm Changes
Google Mobile-First Index Will Have Some Affect On Link Graph
The Google Mobile First Index Likely Won’t Launch In 2017

Google Penalties:
Google More Than Doubles The Manual Actions Penalties In 2016
Google: There Is No CAPS Search Ranking Penalty
Buy A Domain With A Google Penalty Manual Action? Give It Up.
Ashley Madison Now Ranking Again In Google
Was Ashley Madison Penalized By Google? Not Ranking For It’s Own Name.

Google SEO:
Google Featured Snippets Now Sourcing Different Image From Content Source
Google Featured Snippets Showing More Images Now
Webmasters Upset Over Google Featured Snippet Sourcing Different Images
Google: We Update The Featured Snippet Selector Algorithm Often
Google: No Plans To Boost HTTPS Ranking Factor
Google: Links From High Search Traffic Pages Aren’t More Valuable
Google Doesn’t Forget, They Have Lots Of Storage
Google Tells Newspapers, Like NY Times, WSJ & Others, To Noindex News Feeds
Google: Stop Optimizing For RankBrain; It’s Irrelevant
Google: Building A Better Website Indirectly Helps Google Rankings
Google Request Indexing & Crawl Direct Links Is Not A Replacement For Sitemaps
Google: Validation Pretty Much Doesn’t Matter For Ranking
Google: We Ignore & Drop Special Characters From Title Tags
GoogleBot Doesn’t Understand The Words In Your Podcast Audio Files
SEO Agencies Spamming Google? Google Would Take A “Fair Look”
Reminder: Google Patents & Research Not Always Used In The Ranking Algorithm
Google: Use Info Command To Find Canonical URL
Google: Use As Many H1 Tags As You Want
Google: Internal Nofollow Links Don’t Devalue The Page They Are On
Google: Domain Age Doesn’t Matter For Search Rankings
Google: You Have Better Things To Do Than Update Your Disavow File
Google Announces Product Schema For Image Search Months Later
Google: Rankings Drop After Disavowing Links? Remove Some Of Those Less Shady Links.
Google: Bounce Rate Is Not A Good Ranking Signal
Google Fact Check Feature Now In Search Results & News Worldwide
Google: If You Care About Your Page, You Should Link To It

Google Search Console:
Submit Any URL To Google For Indexing Within The Search Results Interface
Google Search Console Working On New AMP Features
Confirmed: Google Search Console Link Data Bug – No Data Available
Google: Why We Won’t Label Disavowed Links In The Search Console Report

Google Local:
Google Test Local Reviews By Traveler Type
Google Adds More Granular Review Filtering In Local Listings
Google Hotel Booking Interface Testing Carousel Layout
Google “View Rates” Call To Action Overlay For Hotel Listings Search Results
Google My Business Adds Bulk Download Insights Analytics
Google Tests Showing Number Of Reviews Left By Reviewer

Google User Interface:
Google: 1,653 Search Launches With 9,800 Live Experiments & 130,336 Search Quality Tests
Google Mobile Results Tests Dropping AMP Results Completely?
Google Tests Dropping AMP Logo From Search Results
Google Black Search Results User Interface Test
Google Mobile Search Gets Fresh & Viral AMP Carousel
Google Tries New Design For Tags In Search Snippets
Google Tests Local Knowledge Panels Without Maps
Google Testing Jobs Portal In Web Search
Google Tests Suggested Clip Videos In Search Results
Google Tests URL At Top Of Search Results Snippets

Google Misc:
Google: Organic & Paid Search Policies Don’t Always Match
Google’s Vendor Slashes Quality Raters Hours; Will It Impact Search Quality?
Google Updates The How Search Works Site

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.