It is that time of the month again where I post the monthly Google webmaster report. This past month was filled with several unconfirmed Google updates – no I am not crazy. Google told us Penguin not only ignores spammy links but also can distrust the whole site. After over a year, Google has updated the search quality raters guidelines with a bunch of new updates.

Google also published revised help documents on titles and descriptions and giving us a new term – the title link. Google Search Console updated its API with more support. Google Search Console actually had a number of updates, all documented below.

Google rolled out continuous scroll, which by the way doesn’t directly impact Search Console reporting or Google Ads reporting. A lot of unredacted internal Google documents surfaced and it makes Google look super evil. Plus so much more including a slew of SEO topics below you should review, local changes, user interface changes and much more.

Currently, the Google search results have been pretty calm – is it the calm before the Google core update storm?

If you missed the October 2021 report make sure to catch up there.

Here is what you missed this past month:

Google Algorithm Updates:
Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update On October 26th
Possible Google Search Algorithm Ranking Update October 15th – October 18th
Was There A Google Search Update This Week? Mixed Signals Maybe Triggered From UI Changes?
Yet Another Google Weekend Search Ranking Algorithm Update…
Possible Google Search Ranking Update On October 6th & 7th
Google Said The Penguin Algorithm May Not Just Ignore Links, It May Target Whole Site
Semrush: Google Search Algorithm Updates Are More Extreme This Year

Google SEO:
Google Updates Search Quality Raters Guidelines On October 19th
New Google Help Docs On Titles & Descriptions With New Title Link
Google: Trust Is Not A Matter Of Just Links Pointing To A Site
Google: Using Admin Or Author For Author Name On Articles
Google: Author Not A Direct Ranking Factor
New: Google Review Snippets Author Name Must Be Less Than 100 Characters
Google: We Use Many Signals To Detect Guest Posts, It’s Not Just Link Anchor Text
Google: We Don’t Hard Code YMYL Categories Into Our Algorithm
Google Centerpiece Annotation: Primary Content Of Page & Site
Google: Different Intent Content On A Page Basis Can Confuse, Not Site Level
Google: We Don’t Classify Sites By Technology Platform Or Infrastructure
Google: We Don’t Care About The Image For Web Search
Google On How To Reduce Duplication By A Factor Of 10X
Google: An Often Updated Sitemap Might Be A Good Idea
Google “Uncovers” Job Postings Structured Data Opportunity
Google Removes Some HowTo, QAPage & SpecialAnnouncement From Help Documents
New: Google Merchant Center Allows One Feed For All Countries
Google Merchant Center Unique Product Identifier Limited Enforcement
Google Responds To Crawled, Not Indexed Errors Saying It Is Just A Delay
Google: Maximum Video Exposure By Creating A Dedicated Page For The Video

Google Search Console:
Google Search Console API Gains Discover & Google News Data With Regex Support
Google Performance Report Updated For News & Page Experience Filter – You May See Spike In Data
Google Rich Results Errors For Job Postings May Increase Due To Evaluation Change
Google Search Console Tools Start To Match URL Inspection Tool
Google Continuous Scroll Has No Impact On Search Console Reports
Google Search Console Core Web Vitals Report Adds Granular Scores
Google Search Console Rich Results Status Reports Gets More Actionable Errors
Google Search Console Overcounted Mobile Page Experience Data For Four Months

Google User Interface:
Google Rolling Out Continuous Scroll On Mobile Search Results
Google Lets You Remove Images Of Minors From Search With New Tool & Policy
Google May Be Rolling Out Things To Consider, Refine This Search & Broaden This Search
Google Rolling Out New Knowledge Panel Design With Buttons At Top
Podcasts Google Knowledge Panels Go Live
New Format For Google Search Snippets Tags / Labels
Google Tests Larger Font In Mobile Search Bar
Google Search Tests Expandable Video Previews
Google Search Results With Rotating Product Images
Google Tests Vertical Line Sitelinks
Google Tests Search Refinements In Autocomplete
Google Search Featured Snippets Full Width Design

Google Maps & Google My Business:
Google Tests Five Results In The Local Pack – A 5 Pack
Google Local Pack Offer Label Attribute
Google My Business Attributes Replaced Led With Owned
New Google My Business Messaging Read Receipts Setting
Google My Business Crowd Attributes For LGBTQ+ Friendly & Transgender Safespace
Google Local Tests Purple Heart Label For Women Led Businesses
Google My Business App Gains Edit Welcome Message & Shows Messages Response Time

Google Misc:
Google Says Non-AMP Page Throttling & Other AG Paxton’s Claims Baseless
Google Survey Asks You If You Want Ad Free Search Results For Paid Subscription
Peter Norvig Scales Back From Google To Join Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.